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Lawmaker vapes during Capitol Hill hearing

by Jesse Byrnes - 02/11/16 1:25 PM ET

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) on Thursday took a puff from a nicotine vaporizer during a hearing, a protest of a proposed ban of e-cigarettes on airplanes.

“This is called a vaporizer. There’s no combustion. There’s no carcinogens,” Hunter said after exhaling a white cloud. “Smoking has gone down as the use of vaporizers has gone up.

{mosads}”There is no burning. There is nothing noxious about this whatsoever,” Hunter said. “This has helped thousands of people quit smoking. It’s helped me quit smoking.”

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said her amendment treating e-cigarettes the same as their tobacco counterparts was “in keeping with existing policy that there is no smoking on airlines today.”

The amendment to legislation setting Federal Aviation Administration policy was adopted by the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee by a 33-26 vote.

Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), the committee chairman, opposed the measure.

“The next thing we’re going to do is we’re going to ban hot air, we’re going to ban bad breath and we’re going to ban body odor,” Shuster joked. “Do you think we’re really going to go there?”

Hunter has defended vaporizers before. In December, he wrote a letter to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) stating that the devices could “very well save my life” as an alternative to cigarettes.

Tags Bill Shuster Cigarette Duncan Hunter Eleanor Holmes Norton Smoking