Why Electronic Cigarettes are Not Covered by Smoking Laws

Almost everywhere one goes, there are different smoking laws that the authorities would want to implement strictly. Smoking is usually not allowed in enclosed areas like restaurants, cinemas, malls, and other public venues. There are even laws that prohibit smoking even in open, public areas. Usually, there are designated areas where smokers can light up their cigarettes. However, when one suddenly had the urge to puff a smoke, these areas are often far. In some instances, the smoker doesn’t know how to locate the place. Electronic cigarettes, among their many uses, can help smokers caught in this tight dilemma.

These smoking laws were drafted not so much to stop smokers from smoking and protect their health, but to ensure that other people, especially non-smokers, are not exposed to second-hand tobacco smoke involuntarily. The US Environmental Protection Agency and the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classified secondhand smoke as a cancer-causing agent. This smoke is produced by burning tobacco, like when someone’s smoking a cigarette or pipe. The tobacco smoke that comes out at the lighted end of the cigarette is the same as the smoke that the person inhaled and exhaled from the other end. Electronic cigarettes are not covered by these smoking laws because no tobacco is being burned when a smoker is using this device.

A person is considered violating smoking laws when they are literally burning tobacco. Electronic cigarettes do not contain tobacco although there are tobacco-flavored liquid solutions that when heated up by the device’s atomizer, produces harmless smoke or vapor. What comes out of the device when used does not contain the harmful chemicals found in tobacco smoke. Non-smokers, even babies, are safe from this e-cigarette “smoke” which is why smokers can use this device even in places that prohibit the use of traditional cigarettes.