APPLETON, WI (WTAQ) – The public smoking ban in Appleton now includes vaping.
The city council voted to 12-2 to ban vaping in places that cigarette smoking is banned.
In a separate vote, the city council voted to allow vaping in vape shops.
Ken Kempen, owner of E-Vapor of Appleton says the news is a small win and vital for business.
“You can sample flavors and I don’t know about you, but I am not going to guess on a $25 dollar purchase. If they were to ban vaping in a vape store, our customer service would drop down. Basically, all we have is the customer service.”
He says being able to vape in vape shops also allows the shops to help troubleshoot any problems that people might have with their device.
Still, Kempen says it defeats the whole purpose of vaping.
Studies show that many people who vape originally started as a smoker and moved to an alternative.
“Vaping is a total 180 from smoking.”
Kempen says the new ordinance links the two together which is never the way it was designed to be. He says that comes down to changing a perception which goes beyond the ordinance.
“Because of the public perception, the City Council had to pass it”, he said. “Because they are inhaling and exhaling something, right away they think it is smoking.”
Because of that, Kempen does give credit to the city council for thinking about the effect on vaping businesses.
“They had common sense and they knew that the average person wasn’t going to come into vape stores other than for vaping.”
He says it can also be counterproductive because those who vape are not wanting to be reintroduced to smoking.
Those who support vaping say the best way to deal with the public vaping issue is to leave it up to the business owner.
“If I am going to a bar and he does not allow vaping, it is my choice to go somewhere else.”
Appleton is now the largest city in Northeast Wisconsin to restrict where vaping can take place.
