Guam – Current law prohibits smoking within 20 feet from entrances and exits. But as it stands there are no laws which address the use of electronic smoking devices in public spaces.
Hoping to change this, Senator Amanda Shelton is now calling for electronic smoking devices to be prohibited wherever smoking cigarettes is currently prohibited.
Shelton introduced Bill 138-35 which would expand the Natasha Protection Act to include electronic smoking devices.
“(It) makes it illegal to smoke any type of electronic device in any place where cigarettes are already illegal to smoke. So for example, it would be the same amount of feet from the door in restaurants and bars – All the things the Natasha Act already covered. It will be expanded to include electronic devices,” Shelton said.
Shelton said, with the advent of new technology, so too must the laws change to reflect our current situation.
The Natasha Protection Act was first introduced by then-Senator Lou Leon Guerrero in 2005. The Public Law is named after Natasha Perez, who was 14-years old at the time and suffered from osteosacroma, a rare form of cancer.
Because of her illness, Perez could not go to places where people smoked as the smoke could affect her health. Perez passed away on June 9, 2006. Senator Shelton and Perez were childhood best friends.
“With the advent of new technology, so too must the laws change to reflect our current situation,” said Shelton. “The use of electronic smoking devices weren’t around when the Natasha Protection Act was first passed in 2005, but the concerns that law addressed remain the same.”
