The New York City Council voted 43-8 to ban the use of e-cigarettes in restaurants, bars, city parks and any other places where regular smoking is already not allowed, NBC News reported.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to sign the measure as one of his last actions in office. The ban is expected to take effect in about four months, should the mayor sign it, according to news reports.
Council President Christine Quinn said that the banning of e-cigarettes will make it easier to enforce the city's ban on real smoking.
"Scientists generally agree that e-cigarettes are less dangerous than real cigarettes, and researchers reported in September... that they work about as well as nicotine patches in helping smokers quit," NBC News also reported.
Most major U.S. cities have already banned smoking in indoors public places.
"Only a few places - among them New Jersey, Arkansas, Utah and North Dakota, according to The Associated Press - have included e-cigarettes in their bans," NBC News reported.
New York City lawmakers "paved the way... for an eventual ban on plastic foam containers," Fox News reported.
Bloomberg, who leaves office December 31, is also expected to to sign the polystyrene foam bill.
"Foam pollutes the waste stream, making it harder to recycle food waste as well as metal glass and plastic, Once the ban takes effect, it will be much easier and more economical to collect and separate recyclables," said Mayor Bloomberg.
New Yorkers "toss out about 23,000 tons of plastic foam per year, accounting for a fraction of the 3 million tons of trash the city spends $310 million annually to bury, but city officials say the foam also muddies efforts to compost food waste," according to Fox News.
