Rep. Duncan Hunter took a long drag on his electronic cigarette during a House hearing this week to persuade lawmakers vaping is safe and should be allowed on airlines.
The startling demonstration during a meeting Thursday of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee didn't work,
Mashable.com reports; lawmakers passed an amendment to ban e-cigarettes on planes with a 33-26 vote.
"This is called a vaporizer," Hunter, a California Republican, said after blowing out a white plume, eliciting some laughs among spectators. "There's no combustion, there's no carcinogens."
Studies disagree about
the safety of e-cigarettes, as does the Federal Drug Administration.
"Analysis of the electronic cigarette samples showed that the product contained detectable levels of known carcinogens and toxic chemicals to which users could potentially be exposed," the FDA states
on its website after one 2014 study.
In
a commentary for The Hill in December, Hunter argues vaping helped him quit smoking.
"The reason I vape is simple: It’s so I don’t smoke cigarettes," he wrote. "I vape knowing that I’m not inhaling tobacco. Most importantly, I vape because I believe it could save my life."
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