The Boston Globe reports that the Board of Health of Cohasset MA. is considering banning the use of Electronic cigarettes in areas where traditional cigarettes are prohibited. The reason given for considering this ban?..not because electronic cigarettes are dangerous to others..in fact there is NO EVIDENCE that the vapor produced by an E-cigarette is dangerous to anyone.

NO, the reason offered by Dr. Robert Lawrence (dentist and local board member):

From my perspective, using [them] models a child to a smoking behavior that can be easily turned into the real deal,” he said. “I may be out on the fringe, but my responsibility is to look out for the health of the citizens in the town where I live.

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Out on the fringe for sure if you ask me! First off, smoking was never banned in public in an effort to decrease the number of people starting to smoke, it was banned in public in an effort to eliminate the affect smoking has on people around them, primarily the negative health impact of second hand smoke.

It is AMAZING to me that some individuals think they can push their own personal agenda on the public in general simply because they don’t agree with the behavior or in an effort to “save us from ourselves!”   Sure everyone knows smoking isn’t healthy but it is still legal to smoke and as Americans we have the right to make that choice – but we do have to abide by the laws restricting where you can smoke.  But in this case it would be Government attempting to ban Vaping in public – which is perfectly legal – not for health reasons but because they don’t like how it appears to children.  Really??!  What’s next..NO Drinking in public because it might entice children to drink alcohol, or no kissing in public because, heaven forbid, it could turn into wanting to have SEX! Give me a break.

Thank goodness there are some people that have a more common sense approach.

The article goes on to quote Dr. Michael Siegel, a tobacco control specialist at Boston University School of Public Health, about his concerns…

Siegel also had concerns about lumping electronic cigarettes with other tobacco products when regulating public smoking because “there’s no scientific evidence that the exhaled vapor poses any health hazard to bystanders.

Dr. Siegel himself posts his own views in an article titled “The Rest of the Story” which can be found HERE.

In his post he adds this:

It appears that the Cohasset Board of Health wants to outlaw vaping in public places because they don’t want children to see people using electronic cigarettes. In other words, they don’t want children to see people trying to quit smoking.

Apparently, the Board of Health seems to misunderstand the most basic fact about electronic cigarettes: these products are being used primarily by smokers who want to quit smoking or cut down substantially in order to protect their health. Why would this be something that we wouldn’t want children to see?

In fact, it might be that if children were to see how many smokers want to quit, it would actually decrease their perceptions of the glamor of smoking.

While opponents of vaping in public argue that it may lead children to start smoking, I think the opposite may be true. Such a view is, I believe, very short-sighted. While it may be true that if a child sees, for the first time, someone use an electronic cigarette, the child may be confused and think it is a real cigarette. But surely, over time, children will come to recognize electronic cigarettes and to understand that they are being used by smokers who are trying to quit because they are concerned about the health effects of smoking. This will help to de-glamorize smoking by teaching children that many smokers are unhappy that they started smoking and now want to quit. This could actually serve as an anti-smoking, rather than a pro-smoking phenomenon.

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The second major argument against banning vaping in public places is that there is no evidence that exhaled electronic cigarette vapor is hazardous to bystanders. I believe that it undermines the justification for banning smoking in public places if health boards and city councils ban a behavior for which there is no evidence of harm. The reason why I believe workplace smoking bans are justified is that there is solid scientific evidence that secondhand smoke exposure is a significant health hazard for nonsmoking employees. If health boards start to ban behaviors without evidence of health hazards, then it undermines the seriousness of their responsibility to regulate behaviors for which there is evidence of health harm to others.”

I couldn’t agree more with the good Doctor!  The people that are using the electronic cigarette have changed their own behavior to a healthier alternative to themselves and the others around them.

THE VAST majority of people who are vaping are people who were or are already smoking so if those people weren’t vaping where a child could see them, they would be smoking where a child could see them.

 KEEP VAPING MY FRIENDS!  Thank GOD I live in the great Republic of Texas where liberals such as these are kept relatively in check!

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