EU Proposes Outdoor Vaping Ban, Advocates Warn of Risks

The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, has called on member states to treat safer nicotine products like cigarettes by banning the use of vapes and heated tobacco products (HTP) in a wide range of outdoor spaces. The proposed revision of the European Council’s 2009 Recommendation on smoke-free environments urges the 27 EU members to prohibit vaping and HTP use in outdoor areas of cafes, restaurants, workplaces, transportation facilities, health care and educational facilities, amusement parks, shopping malls, and more.

Proposal Aims to Protect “Children, Minors, or Vulnerable People”

The proposal, citing the need to protect “children, minors, or vulnerable people,” also suggests that national governments consider including other areas, such as private cars, in vaping bans. It argues that the current Council Recommendation cannot fully achieve its protective purpose due to the lack of coverage of outdoor spaces and highlights the World Health Organization’s (WHO) stance that second-hand emissions from emerging products can expose people to potentially harmful levels of particulate matter and key toxicants.

Research Suggests Minimal Risks from Secondhand Vapor

However, research on “passive vaping” has found that even in indoor spaces, exhaled vapor is so diluted and disperses so quickly that it poses little risk to bystanders. Other studies have indicated that any risks to children are likely minimal and certainly far lower than those of secondhand smoking, which vaping typically replaces.

Dr. Roberto Sussman, a senior researcher at the Institute of Nuclear Sciences, National Autonomous University of Mexico, and a physicist who has studied secondhand vapor, previously told us that droplets of the components which typically make up particles from vapes “readily evaporate and gas disperses in a very short time (under one minute).” He contrasted this with air pollution originating from combustion sources, which have complex and toxic chemical compositions that remain in the environment.

Advocates Warn of Unintended Consequences

Tobacco harm reduction expert Clive Bates of Counterfactual Consulting told us that the justification for banning smoking or vaping is much weaker outdoors than indoors. He added, “The real purpose has always been to make it harder to be a smoker, and now a vaper, by excluding people from social settings.”

Advocates believe that adding vaping to widespread outdoor bans on smoking would be a particularly harmful form of stigmatization. It would reduce the visibility of reduced-risk alternatives and play into the widely believed myth that using these products is as harmful as smoking, potentially reducing the chances of more people switching from deadly cigarettes.

A recent survey in the United Kingdom found that 50 percent of smokers believe that vapes are as harmful as cigarettes or worse—a figure that has risen substantially in recent years. Bates accused the European Commission of being “indifferent” and “unresponsive” to the needs of ordinary people, stating, “They need to recall that a quarter of Europeans still smoke, and the best and fastest way for many to quit will be vaping. So why would they put barriers in their way?”

Member States to Decide on Adoption

European states will not automatically adopt the European Commission’s recommendations; each country will have to decide whether to incorporate them into its own legislation. However, as the proposal forms part of the EU’s Beating Cancer Plan—intended to create a “tobacco-free generation” with under 5 percent of the population using tobacco by 2040—states will be motivated, or pressured, to comply.

Damian Sweeney, a partner of the consumer group European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (ETHRA), told us that when a huge problem already exists in getting the general public to understand the relative risks of vaping and smoking, “to conflate secondhand smoke with secondhand aerosol will only add to the confusion, damage trust in public health, and possibly increase smoking.”

Sweeney added, “I think what we’ve seen here is another case of ideology, and not science, driving public policy. It’s better that decisions on vape policy are left to those best able to take them: the owners and operators of properties to which the vaping policy applies, not European institutions.”

Some European politicians have also expressed dissent, including Dr. Peter Liese, a German European Parliament member and health policy spokesperson for the parliament’s largest coalition, the European People’s Party, who is also a medical doctor. He said, “For heavy smokers who otherwise cannot quit, e-cigarettes are an important tool to reduce harm and risks. I do not think it is effective to equate them with tobacco smoke in the proposal for the Council recommendation. I hope the member states will correct this point.”

With the European Commission itself documenting continuing high rates of smoking among member countries, with 700,000 annual related deaths, its recommendations run counter to extensive evidence of safer nicotine options as highly effective smoking cessation tools.

News Source:
Proposal for a Council Recommendation on smoke and aerosol-free environments
EU Call to Ban Public Vaping Could Increase Smoking, Advocates Say

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Matthew Ma

Marketing at Ecigator

With over a decade of experience in the e-cigarette industry, Matthew Ma is a seasoned expert in both the manufacturing and usage aspects of vaping products. His extensive background has provided him with a deep understanding of the intricacies and evolving dynamics of e-cigarettes.