Updated: Cedar Park City Council considers new e-cigarette regulations

Another ordinance revision would make it an offense within Cedar Park to sell or enable the sale of an electronic vaping device to a minor. Violators would be subject to city fines of up to $500, and business employees who violate the law would be subject to prosecution. Buyers of vaping devices would need to prove with photo identifications that they are age 18 or older.

"There's currently no federal or state regulation on e-cigarettes," Lopez said.

Lopez said the changes would follow several Central Texas cities that have already restricted e-cigarette use and sales to minors, such as the city of Kyle on June 4. Williamson County Commissioners on Feb. 4 added e-cigarettes to the county's ban on tobacco products within county-owned or –leased buildings.

Underage residents are banned from buying or possessing e-cigarettes in Flower Mound, Georgetown, Mansfield and North Richland Hills, Lopez said.

Place 2 Councilman Corbin Van Arsdale said the city's ordinances should not only restrict e-cigarettes but also the substances used in a vaping device.

"We don't even know what they are putting in there," he said. "You can't smell the fragrance."

Van Arsdale said a minor could buy a vaping device on the internet and purchase ingredients locally, including potentially harmful substances that are sold as popcorn or bubblegum flavors.

Cedar Park Police Chief Mannix said people make illicit substances for vaping devices. Some people use butane to filter oils from marijuana plants, and byproduct gases have caused several apartment fires in the Austin area, Mannix said.

Mayor Matt Powell said he generally opposes regulation of local businesses, but the e-cigarette issue is different. Anecdotal evidence points toward an underground market of vaping devices and supplies among minors, which Powell said he finds troubling.

"That's a health and safety issue and something that isn't captured by other regulation," Powell said June 25. "I want to reserve judgment and remain open-minded. I don't know a ton about the issue, so I need to get educated."

Place 4 Councilman Lowell Moore said the city should ban not only device sales to minors but possession by minors. Trey Hensley, a member of the city's Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee who has asked council to restrict e-cigarettes among minors, said he agrees.

"It's not just about being able to purchase them; it's about being able to possess them," Hensley said. "I'll be honest: I'm a smoker, and I don't want my kids to pick up my bad habit."

Hensley showed council members a standard cigarette and a small vaping device. He said his son was recently able to purchase a vaping device at a convenience store, and his daughter has heard about a fifth-grade classmate who uses a vaping device.

"It's so easily bought, and they just share them everywhere," Hensley said. "They're the same size as the cigarette. [Students] can go into the bathroom. They can [hide] them."

City Council will hold a second public hearing for the proposed changes and could pass both ordinances into law in July.