LOCAL and national governments have a lot on their plate, especially with an election in May 2016 but legislators will have to tackle the issue of using e-cigarettes and vaping in public places and enclosed areas frequented by the public.
Some vapers argue that what they exhale is vapor and, therefore, harmless. Even if the “juice” they put into their battery-operated vaporizers contain zero nicotine, how would second-hand vapers (as opposed to second-hand smokers) know that is the case? Must people trust in the assumption that those who use vaporizers in enclosed public areas or near people are responsible enough to use zero-nicotine juice?
“It’s like trusting a stranger with your life,” a Bzzzzz source said.
Vapes have become the in-thing in Cebu. They are used in smoking and non-smoking areas in coffee shops and restaurants, in bars, even inside malls.
A customer at a department store in a mall blew a cloud of vapor while paying for his purchases. He did not seem to mind that the vapor or smoke made the eyes of the cashier and the bagger water. An observer said the man’s “mind has been clouded beyond reason.”
The mall where this guy was vaping has a no-smoking policy in enclosed sections. Smoking is permitted in designated areas, usually in coffee shops and bars with al fresco setting.
Two ends to a cigarette or vape
THERE are arguments on both sides about e-cigarrette and vaping that, to some, is a means to ease them away from smoking.
An article on Gizmodo by Mike Floorwalker, who works in the vape industry in the US, said that his company, among others, manufacture juice for vaporizers that contain low to zero nicotine. He cited several studies that say a main ingredient in e-juice is the same one found in asthma inhalers.
A paper published on Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology on the short-term effects of e-cigarettes, on the other hand, noted that smoking the real thing and using an electronic cigarette without nicotine have “a similar effect on human airways whatever the cigarette smoked/vaped, the nicotine content, and the particle dose received.”
A paper titled, “Carbonyl compounds in electronic cigarette vapors-Effects of Nicotine Solvent and Battery Output Voltage,” by Kosmider L. et. al., published in Oxford Journals in 2014, states: Glycerin (VG) and propylene glycol (PG) are the most common nicotine solvents used in e-cigarettes (ECs). It has been shown that at high temperatures both VG and PG undergo decomposition to low molecular carbonyl compounds, including the carcinogens: formaldehyde and acetaldehyde.”