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Well, it’s happening again. This time, council is about to enact a ban on vaping. And just like the previous ban, some councillors (spurred on by Alberta Health Services executives) have prioritized their disapproval of vaping over restraining themselves within their proper authority. The adopted narrative this time is that vaping is unsafe and a nuisance; it should therefore be banned in all public spaces — including all private property to which the public has access. It’s prohibition all over again.

The narrative concocted to support this ban is a sham, too. Vaping is not a public health crisis. Aside from a handful of deeply flawed studies that have been discredited, the accumulated evidence is becoming clearer and clearer — vaping is orders of magnitude less harmful than smoking is. And it’s hardly more of a nuisance than wearing an excessive amount of perfume.

Enter Chabot. He recently told the Calgary Herald that the proposed vaping ban is “ridiculous,” since “e-cigarettes have helped a lot of people that I know get off of the use of tobacco.” He’s right. It would be ridiculous (irrational, in fact) to ban one of the most successful means of smoking cessation and treat it like a combustible tobacco product.

The e-cigarettes used when vaping contain no tobacco and are not burned like traditional cigarettes. Instead, the vapour they emit contains a small amount of nicotine and some innocuous ingredients that are electronically vaporized and inhaled. Whether inhaled directly or second hand, vaping is not associated with any of the negative health effects of inhaling combusted tobacco products. Importantly, statistics indicate that vaping helps smokers stop smoking.