United Kingdom June 18 2015

The government has confirmed e-cigarette use will not be banned in English pubs.

The Welsh Assembly government recently announced its intention to make vaping in enclosed public spaces illegal within two years – much to the chagrin of many pub industry officials.

However, the Department of Health has told the Publican’s Morning Advertiser this week it has no intention of implementing a similar ban in England.

A number of pub operators including JD Wetherspoon and Fuller’s have already banned the use of e-cigarettes on their premises.

This voluntary approach is largely favored by the pub industry, rather than a blanket rule for all licensed premises.

Kate Nicholls, chief executive of the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers, argued there is no logic behind a regulated ban since there is no evidence that vaping is harmful to a person’s health.

She warned that a blanket ban on e-cigarettes in public places would be unnecessary and will “only increase the legislative burden already being placed on pubs and bars”.

Ms Nicholls said vaping in licensed premises “should boil down to a matter of practice for the operator”.

The move in Wales has also been criticized by a number of academics and anti-smoking campaigners, some of whom argue that e-cigarettes help people who are trying to quit smoking completely kick the habit.

Christopher Snowdon, director of lifestyle economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs, told the Telegraph that smoking among people who started out on e-cigarettes is “virtually non-existent”.

Indeed, he said there is “no doubt that e-cigarettes have helped many people give up smoking and it is likely that the relative handful of young people who vape would be smoking if e-cigarettes did not exist”.

Professor Robert West of University College London added in an interview with BBC News that the Welsh government has been misled by the “barrage of anti e-cigarette propaganda coming from public health activists with little knowledge or understanding of the evidence”.

Source