California Congressman Vapes at Committee Hearing

— -- Rep. Duncan Hunter really likes his vaporizer.

The California Republican busted out his vaporizer in a House Transportation Committee hearing today while debating an amendment from Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-DC, that would formally ban the use of vaporizers and e-cigarettes on airplanes.

Hunter, in an effort to demonstrate the devices are safe to use, pulled his own vaporizer out and took a drag, blowing out a cloud of vaporized liquid. “This is called a vaporizer,” he explained, as his neighbor, Rep. Candace Miller, R-Michigan, waved the smoke away.

Despite Hunter's demonstration, the committee ended up passing Norton's amendment.

“Members were not impressed enough to defeat my amendment,” Norton said of Hunter's demonstration in a statement. “The Member sitting next to Rep. Hunter even fanned away the smoke emitted from the vaporizer, illustrating my point about secondhand smoke.”

While Hunter said his vaporizer isn’t harmful, and that it has helped him and others quit smoking, according to the Food and Drug Administration the devices have not been fully studied. It is not known how many harmful chemicals are being inhaled, or any benefits of using the devices, according to the FDA.