theQuestion: Should Vancouver City Council approve a ban on using e-cigarettes in public?*
No level of government impacts a person’s daily life more than municipal government. Local councils have enormous power to regulate how we do business, how we get around, and how we spend our leisure time.
Municipal governments have a lot on their plate, which makes it all the more exasperating to see Vancouver City Council yet again reach beyond its mandate into the sphere of social engineering — trying to influence social behaviour on a large scale.
Council is set to vote this week on whether or not to ban the use of e-cigarettes in public places. Council will consider a new bylaw that would apply the same restrictions for real cigarettes to the electronic devices — which vaporize a mixture of food safe ingredients, including water, vegetable glycerine, flavourings and, in some cases, nicotine. The vapour cloud exhaled is mostly water — nothing is burned.
If council passes the bylaw then vaping would be banned in public — at beaches, parks, patios — and those who vape would be banished to a minimum distance away from doors, windows and air vents.
This is ridiculous. After reviewing a mountain of research for this Duel and one last spring, I found no conclusive evidence that the use of e-cigarettes harms anyone second-hand. Which is the entire point behind banning real smoking in public.
Granted, there is no clear-cut evidence that vaping is 100% safe for the user. But from my review it appears there is consensus that it’s not at all comparable to smoking and many doctors say that given the choice between the two, they would recommend vaping. Simple logic here, nothing is burned, there is no smoke, there is no tobacco — it’s not a cigarette.
So what’s behind this mad rush to ban something that is legal and not proven to be harmful? Let me repeat that, council is considering a ban on something not proven harmful in an effort to satisfy a burning (pardon the pun) desire to manipulate social behaviour.
Coun. Elizabeth Ball said this motion should be taken seriously for the children, as “people don’t want children being seduced into thinking it’s OK to smoke somehow or some way.” If this is the case, will council also ban other legal adult activities, ones that have been proven to be harmful? Is drinking next on council’s hit list?
I implore council members to respect basic rights and freedoms and vote no.