Richland County, SC (WACH) — A discussion begins tonight in Forest Acres about a new ordinance that would change the locations where vape shops can open.

This would mean that e-cigarette shops would not be allowed to open within 300 metres of a school or church or within 300 metres of another e-cigarette shop.

During today’s Forest Acres City Council meeting, there were preliminary discussions about the ordinance, which aims to limit the number of young people using e-cigarettes.

The city council will discuss this ordinance again in September.

Studies indicate that approximately 1-5 children in South Carolina use vaping products, and 2020 data indicates that approximately 47% of high school students use vaping products. These studies were conducted by the State Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services.

Earlier this year, state lawmakers proposed a plan to make vaping less attractive by removing flavors from e-cigarettes.

Since 2019, these studies show an increase in vaping among young people of over 2000%.

“I think it’s a problem that all parents have to live with that vaping and CBD oil are so prevalent. We just want to make sure that they’re not accessible to our youth, and we also want to make sure that they’re not clustered in businesses. We’re concerned about the negative impact on our children and we just want to get ahead of that instead of waiting until it becomes a problem,” said Tom Andrews, mayor of Forest Acres.