Keep Vaping in the Valleys

Have you been hearing in the news about the Public Health Bill being put forward by the Welsh Government?

The aim of this bill is to protect the health and wellbeing of people in Wales and, if passed, will prohibit vapers from vaping when in enclosed public spaces.

Essentially, what is most damaging is that the bill will class vaping along with smoking. It goes against and undermines all the good and positive things that vaping is and does. It ignores the mounting research studies that are proving that vaping is by orders of magnitude safer than tobacco and that e-cigarettes have a much lower risk potential that tobacco.

If the Welsh government passes this bill, it seems likely that the other countries who make up the United Kingdom will want to follow suit. To be absolutely honest, this makes me angry and it makes me very, very sad.

Ranting

How come it is OK for people to go out onto our streets every night of the week, all over the country and to drink alcohol in vast quantities, to lose all control and to lay in the street, to vomit on the pavements (and themselves), to urinate against walls, to often act violently toward others, or to behave stupidly and often in ways that are catastrophic?

How often do we see 'fly on the wall' programming which evidences how alcohol use often results in interventions being necessary by the police, the ambulance service and the hospitals. It makes great telly doesn't it, seeing people so out of control of themselves that they cant stand up? We watch as they say and do things that make them fools, that are so entertaining and amusing! Look how well the police and the people who work for our health services cope with this! Don't think about the cost of alcohol misuse to the public purse!

Of course this is just an example of the immediate affects of alcohol intoxication! We mustn't forget that alcohol is a drug. It can and it does affect those who use it. It can and is often of negative affect to the wellbeing of those around them. 

Alcohol is proven to cause ill health long-term. It can cause death be that in the longterm and it can be fatal very quickly and not only to the person who is drunk. 

And yet, alcohol use is somehow considered acceptable No-one is prohibited from drinking alcohol in public. 

Will the Public Health Bill move to prohibit alcohol use in order to protect the publics health and wellbeing? I think not.

It is being overlooked and ignored that vapers are doing themselves and consequently those around them a favour. 

Vaping as a tool to stop/quit/reduce smoking

The majority of those of us who take up vaping do so to completely stop using tobacco products. 

Some people (dual users) drastically reduce the number of cigarettes they consume by vaping some or most of the time.

• They have actively reduced the harm that tobacco can cause to themselves.
• They have improved the environment and the atmosphere for those who are around them.
• They do not create cigarette but litter and ash.

So if all that is good (and it is) what is it about seeing someone Vaping that is so Offensive to people?

My own feeling is that as a nation, we are now so well conditioned to shun smoking and smokers, that we regard vapers with the same eyes and with the same very negatively prejudiced view.

It seems almost inconceivable now that we know what we know that a few decades ago smoking was avant guard and was considered 'the norm'. I can absolutely understand that no-one wants to make that mistake again. But there is a big difference now. We have science and research and these advances surely should offer us protection against that kind of error. 

There is plenty of research and science going on in the world of vaping. However, I think our conditioned response, to what our eyes are seeing has made us prejudiced and blinkered and if I may say so, neglectful of the truth as if we are just not bothered about seeing anything that is further away than the end of our nose.

Nicotine has acquired a bad reputation purely because it is the substance in tobacco that keeps a smoker addicted. Actually, there are other chemicals which are added during the cigarette making process and that are there deliberately to enhance the addictive effect. Ultimately their purpose is to keep the smoker more firmly locked in and buying the product. Conversely it was science that led to this and in this case used unscrupulously for profit.

But, what I am saying here is that although it's addictive and what kept us smoking, nicotine is not the bad guy. As a chemical it is actually quite harmless, its affects (when inhaled) equivalent to having drunk a cup of strong expresso coffee.  And coffee can be drunk in public. 

So, it if isn't nicotine that is the problem, or what is causing offence, what is?

In vaping nicotine is ingested in the same way as it was when smoking. Because it is an activity that very closely reproduces and replicates the behaviours and appearance of smoking and in itself is what appeals to the addicted smoker and makes the change-over so comfortable, I believe it is this that causes the offence. 

It is a shame we are so closed minded..... Think about sugar for a moment. To stop using so much of that, instead we use sweeteners. They replicate and reproduce the sweetness and are acceptable. They are chemically manufactured and reproduced. As a tablet, as a granule. To look and behave like sugar. 

By making this ban, I fear people will be further prejudiced. It will not serve to educate.I believe that people need to understand fully that although it outwardly appears and looks like the same thing as smoking, vaping is not smoking and the vapour produced is not smoke, and that the vapour is not harmful.

Can you back that up with facts

Of the 4000 toxic substances that have been proven to be present in tobacco smoke there are none in the vapour produced when vaping. There have been a number of studies which prove this fact and research and study continues.

Professor Peter Hajek, of The London Queen Mary's School of Medicine, studies tobacco risks. Of a recent study published in Environmental Studies Process & Impacts he said that the findings tallied with other studies conducted so far.  "Regarding the most dangerous chemicals released by tobacco smoke" says Professor Hajek "e-cigarette vapour contains none" adding that he has "no concerns about the levels of heavy metals found in e-cig vapour". 

Commenting on the chemicals that are expelled in vapour Professor Hajek says they are "mostly a small fraction of those from tobacco cigarettes. The metal compounds released are at levels which are unlikely to pose risk. The conclusion should be that e-cig vapour is unlikely to pose any risk to bystanders". 

So this and other studies show that unlike tobacco smoke, inhaled and expelled vapour will not harm us nor anyone nearby. Research finds that the air in an environment surrounding a vaper is equivalent in toxicity to the normal environment.

Therefore I feel that by moving to ban vaping in public, the outcome of the Bill will only have the effect of being misleading and to further the negative and incorrect messages being understood about vaping.

I know this is a little far fetched but as a message and in furthering my use of the examples of alcohol, coffee, smoking and vaping that I have cited above:

People who drink excessive alcohol can act and behave in ways that are uncontrolled, offensive and often dangerous. As a substance it can and does cause ill health and can affect the well-being of those who are around them and in certain circumstances alcohol can be fatal. It is not prohibited in public.

People who drink coffee do not behave or act in ways that are offensive or dangerous. It does not (in moderation) cause them health problems or negatively affect their wellbeing.

People who smoke are proven to be at substantial risk of causing damage to their own health and second hand smoke is known and proven to risk causing ill health and damaging the wellbeing of others. It is dangerous and is considered offensive in public. Smoking tobacco does not cause people to act or behave in a way that is uncontrolled and dangerous. It is prohibited in enclosed pubic spaces.

People who vape are not behaving offensively. The vapour produced does not cause them to behave or act offensively nor does it cause harm to them or those around them. There are no known concerns for ill health nor damage the the wellbeing of the vapour or those around them. 

People should be educated and encouraged in acceptance of vaping and thus to help and support those who do not wish to smoke (see above) and as such( unless proved otherwise through proper research methods to be detrimental to the health of bystanders), vaping should not be prohibited in Wales, nor anywhere else.