To provide for the public health, safety, and welfare by discouraging the use of electronic smoking devices around nonusers, especially children; by protecting the public from exposure to secondhand byproducts of electronic smoking devices where they live, work, and play; by facilitating uniform and consistent enforcement of smoke-free air laws; by reducing the potential for re-normalizing smoking in public places and places of employment; by reducing the potential for children to associate the use of electronic smoking devices with a normative or healthy lifestyle; and by prohibiting the sale or distribution of electronic smoking devices to minors.
(Added by Ord. No. 3480, effective 9-10-15)
This Chapter is not the exclusive regulation of Electronic Smoking Devices. It shall supplement and be in addition to any other regulating statutes, ordinance, resolutions and policies heretofore or hereafter enacted by the State, the County, or any other legal entity or agency having jurisdiction.
(Added by Ord. No. 3480, effective 9-10-15)
It is the intent of the Board of Supervisors of the County of Tulare to supplement applicable state and federal law and not to duplicate or contradict such law and this ordinance shall be construed consistently with that intent. If any section, subsection, subdivision, paragraph, sentence, clause or phrase of this ordinance, or its application to any person or circumstance, is for any reason held to be invalid or unenforceable, such invalidity or unenforceability shall not affect the validity or enforceability of the remaining sections, subsections, subdivisions, paragraphs, sentences, clauses or phrases of this ordinance, or its application to any other person or circumstance. The Board of Supervisors of the County of Tulare hereby declares that it would have adopted each section, subsection, subdivision, paragraph, sentence, clause or phrase hereof independently, irrespective of the fact that any one or more other sections, subsections, subdivisions, paragraphs, sentences, clauses or phrases hereof be declared invalid or unenforceable.
(Added by Ord. No. 3480, effective 9-10-15)
The following words and phrases, whenever used in this Chapter shall have the meanings defined in this section unless the context clearly requires otherwise:
a) 
"Business"
means any sole proprietorship, partnership, joint venture, corporation, association, or other entity formed for purposes that include profit-making.
b) 
"Electronic Smoking Device"
means an electronic and/or battery-operated device, the use of which may resemble smoking, which can be used to deliver an inhaled dose of nicotine or other substances. "Electronic Smoking Device" includes any such device, whether manufactured, distributed, marketed, or sold as an electronic cigarette, an electronic cigar, an electronic cigarillo, an electronic pipe, an electronic hookah, or any other product name or descriptor. "Electronic Smoking Device" does not include any product specifically approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for use in the mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease.
c) 
"Electronic Smoking Device Paraphernalia"
means cartridges, cartomizers, e-liquid, smoke juice, tips, atomizers, Electronic Smoking Device batteries, Electronic Smoking Device chargers, and any other item specifically designed for the preparation, charging, or use of Electronic Smoking Devices.
d) 
"Employee"
means any Person who is employed or retained as an independent contractor by any Employer or Nonprofit Entity in consideration for direct or indirect monetary wages or profit, or any Person who volunteers his or her services for an Employer or Nonprofit Entity.
e) 
"Employer"
means any Business or Nonprofit Entity that retains the service of one or more Employees.
f) 
"Nonprofit Entity"
means any entity that meets the requirements of California Corporations Code section 5003 as well as any corporation, unincorporated association or other entity created for charitable, religious, philanthropic, educational, political, social or similar purposes, the net proceeds of which are committed to the promotion of the objectives or purposes of the entity and not to private gain. A government agency is not a Nonprofit Entity within the meaning of this Chapter.
g) 
"Nominal Cost"
means the cost of any item imposed for the transfer from one person to another for less than the total of: (1) twenty-five percent (25%) of the fair market value of the item exclusive of taxes and government fees; plus (2) all taxes and government fees previously paid and all taxes and government fees still due on the item at the time of transfer.
h) 
"Nonsale Distribution"
means to give, furnish, or cause or allow to be given or furnished, within the jurisdictional limits of the county, an Electronic Smoking Device or Electronic Smoking Device Paraphernalia at no cost or at Nominal Cost to a Person who is not a Retailer.
i) 
"Person"
means any natural person, Business, cooperative association, Employer, Nonprofit Entity, personal representative, receiver, trustee, assignee, or any other legal entity including a government agency.
j) 
"Retailer"
means any Person who sells, offers for sale, or does or offers to exchange for any form of consideration, Electronic Smoking Devices or Electronic Smoking Device Paraphernalia. "Retailing" means the doing of any of these things. This definition is without regard to the quantity of the Electronic Smoking Devices or Electronic Smoking Device Paraphernalia sold, offered for sale, exchanged, or offered for exchange.
k) 
"Self-Service Display"
means the open display or storage of Electronic Smoking Devices or Electronic Smoking Device Paraphernalia in a manner that is physically accessible in any way to the general public without the assistance of a Retailer or Employee of a Retailer and a direct person-to-person transfer between a Retailer or Employee of a Retailer and any other Person. A vending machine is a form of Self-Service Display.
l) 
"Smoking"
means engaging in an act that generates smoke, such as, for example: possessing a lighted pipe, a lighted hookah pipe, a lighted cigar, or a lighted cigarette of any kind; or lighting or igniting a pipe, a hookah pipe, a cigar, or a cigarette of any kind.
(Added by Ord. No. 3480, effective 9-10-15)