Despite the fact that many studies keep emerging, suggesting that vaping is significantly safer than smoking, lawmakers in Albany voted to add vaping products to the state Clean Indoor Air Act, hence banning the devices from from bars and restaurants, just like regular cigarettes.
An article published last week on Newsday, pointed out that Sen. Kemp Hannon (R-Garden City), a prime sponsor of the legislation, called it a “long overdue bill. People have a right to a clean workplace and a clean restaurant.” However many health experts would disagree.
Is secondhand vapor exposure really a threat?
Air Samples were obtained from a relatively small and non-ventilated vape shop, where many of the employees and 13 customers were actively vaping while the sampling was taking place, hence what would be considered a situation presenting a high level of exposure to second-hand vapor. However, given all these unfavourable conditions, the results still reported no dangerous levels of exposure to any hazardous chemicals.
The danger in regulating e-cigs as tobacco products
Legislators and government agencies who are in favour of such bans boast about the fact that New York State has some of the harshest vaping regulations within the US. Yet many public health experts agree that regulating vaping products in the same as their combustible counterparts will prove detrimental. Data has shown that such harsh regulations and misinformation about the products may prevent millions of smokers from making the switch to the proven safer alternatives, possibly costing them their lives.
Let’s be real here. Conventional cigarettes without doubt causes sickness, disabilities and premature death and e-cigs – well, we just don’t know enough about them (although see the link below that apparently adds another reason to consider e-cigs a danger to the non-smoking/non-vaping public). Until we have more impartial studies to conclusively determine if e-cigs are safe to the non-smoking/non-vaping public it makes total sense that the New York legislature took the long overdue action to include the use of vaping in the NY Clean Indoor Air Act.
One just has to look at the playbook the tobacco industry followed for conventional cigarettes and see that the marketing and promotion aspects of their playbook from the 1980’s and 1990’s are the same for the vaping industry – oh, and who is gaining control of that industry claiming it is a safer alternative? You can answer that, I’m sure.
http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=40f40991-3b53-4de5-9ea4-610fa6940006
In looking at the above link I recognize that a law firm is looking for business.
I’ll just throw this link out there. I think VapingPost also has an article reiterating the same points. Definitely just a law firm looking for business—first ambulance chasing, now this…
http://www.ecigarette-research.org/research/index.php/whats-new/2017/254-blad