PRINEVILLE, OR -- Crook County is the first in Central Oregon to ban the sale of E-Cigarettes to minors. E-Cigarettes aren't regulated like tobacco, so it's up to communities to impose local rules.

County Commissioner Ken Fahlgren says the ordinance aims to make it more difficult fr kids to get their hands on the vapor cigarettes.  "Our department and the health department have a tobacco division, and they'll go out and work with stores in town, and anyone who sells that product to get it away from in front of the counter, get it behind the counter, to work with it as they would any other tobacco product. And, it's not to be sold to any minors."

Fahlgren tells KBND News the county, along with the city of Prineville have been working on the ordinance for a while, "I always thought it was something to help you quit smoking, or to be instead of a cigarette or tobacco product. But instead, they're finding there are as much of the carcinogens in the E-Cigarettes in the small tabelets, as a vapor. Or, also, there's nicotine in some of those, sometimes ten times the level of nicotine that's in a single cigarette."

Deschutes County is considering a similar policy to ban the sale of E-Cigarettes to minors.