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Norton Passes Fifth Bill in House, Banning E-Cigarette Smoking on Amtrak Trains

December 17, 2019

Ranked Most Effective House Democrat Last Congress, Norton Continues to Deliver

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced that her Banning Smoking on Amtrak Act of 2019 (H.R. 2726), which would codify Amtrak's internal policy prohibiting smoking, including of electronic cigarettes, on trains passed in the House today. This is Norton's fifth bill to pass the House this year. Norton's bill is modeled after another bill she got enacted in 2018 that clarified that the smoking ban on airplanes includes electronic cigarettes. Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) has introduced a companion bill in the Senate.

"Amtrak deserves our thanks and praise for implementing its own policy banning smoking on trains," Norton said. "However, that policy could be reversed if not codified. My bill would make this ban a matter of federal law, putting the force of law behind protecting passengers and employees from harmful secondhand smoke and its proven detrimental health effects. My bill reminds the Congress and the country of the countless lives lost during the decades that it took states to ban smoking in public areas. We should never make the same mistake again by delaying banning electronic cigarettes in the close quarters typical of trains."

Tobacco smoking bans have been a critical tool in protecting people from the effects of secondhand smoke, known to increase the risk for serious cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, including coronary heart disease, lung cancer and emphysema, among others. The World Health Organization (WHO) considers the tobacco epidemic to be one of the most serious public health threats in the world, killing more than seven million people a year. Importantly, according to the WHO, there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke. It is likely the effects of secondhand exposure to electronic cigarettes is harmful as well.

Norton has passed five bills in the House this year, two of which have been signed into law, and another bill through committee. Norton was ranked the most effective House Democrat in the last Congress by the Center for Effective Lawmaking based on her ‘proven ability to advance a member's agenda items through the legislative process and into law.'"