Westminster is a tiny town in Massachusetts that is leading a drive against tobacco use, and could become the first locality in the nation to ban the sale of cigarettes, cigars, and other similar products, along with electronic vaporizers.
The Health Board of Westminster passed the regulation, which will be met by public comment on evening of November 12. The interest in the meeting is so intense, the board may move the arena from town hall to a local school cafeteria to accommodate the crowd.
Store owners in the town of 7,700 people are banding together in opposition to the ruling, claiming that customers will simply travel somewhere else to buy tobacco. Already, more than 1,000 residents have signed a petition calling on the town government to overturn the ban.
"People are going to drive five minutes out of town to buy cigarettes, and while they're there, they're going to buy their gas, their groceries and anything else they need. It's going to crush commerce in Westminster," Brian Vincent, owner of Westminster Liquors, told the press.
The new regulation will call for a fine of $300 for any store or other establishment selling tobacco, for the first offense. A second offense within 24 months would result in an additional $300 fine, and repeal of all other Health Board permits for the business, for a period of seven days. Further infractions would be punished with additional fines, and a 30-day repeal of permits.
"[R]ecent data from the National Youth Tobacco Survey shows that youth who had never smoked conventional cigarettes but who used e-cigarettes were almost twice as likely to have intentions to smoke conventional cigarettes as those who had never used e-cigarettes," the Westminster Board of Health wrote in its draft regulation on the prohibition.
Elizabeth Swedberg, the health agent for the tiny town, expressed her hope that residents would spend more money at local businesses, to replace income lost by the ban. She also told the press that the lack of tobacco products for sale in town would assist those people trying to quit, by helping them to avoid temptation.
More than 392,000 Americans die every year from direct effects of tobacco use, along with 50,000 more from second-hand smoke, according to the American Lung Association.
"Launched in 2006, the Smokefree Air Challenge calls on all 50 states and the District of Columbia to pass laws prohibiting smoking in all public places and workplaces, including restaurants and bars. Workers should not have to be exposed to secondhand smoke to earn a paycheck," American Lung Association managers stated on their Web site.
Westminster is the first community to consider banning tobacco. Drug store giant CVS banned sales of such products in all of their stores in September.
