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The New York City Council banned the use of electronic cigarettes at public places that includes offices, restaurants, bars and parks. The move might be followed by other U.S cities too.

The decision to ban e-cigarettes were backed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Health Commissioner Thomas Farley.

E-cigarettes are battery operated tubes that stimulate the effect of smoking by producing nicotine vapor. This can also be a gateway to smoking regular cigarettes and hence makes smoking harder to quit. The law will be in effect in next four months.

“The council has worked for well over a decade to curb smoking in New York City and I really believe it’s one of our greatest accomplishments,” council speaker Quinn said before the vote, according to Bloomberg. “E-cigarettes threaten, in my opinion, to undermine enforcement of the Smoke-Free Air Act.”

However proponents said that e-cigarettes didn’t produce the toxic and carcinogenic byproducts that are found in second-hand smoke.

Additionally, the mayor Michael Bloomberg also made a proposal to restaurant chains for posting calorie content of menu items and also have asked them to limit the sales of large sized drinks.

According to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Youth Tobacco Survey released in September, it was found that the e-cigarettes usage rose to 10 per cent in 2012 from 4.7 per cent in 2011. The survey also pointed that about three-quarters of student who used e-cigarettes in the past one month also smoked the conventional cigarettes in the same period.