Should Smoking Electronic Cigarettes Be Allowed Indoors?

It was about five years ago now that I remember seeing my first e cigarette in Canada. I was out at a bar with my closest friends when I saw some smoke coming from the corner of the room. For a moment I thought someone was smoking indoors. That’s a sight or smell I haven’t experienced since my youth when smoking was allowed indoors.

Speaking of smoking indoors, to this day I am stunned it took so long for governments to ban smoking indoors. I wonder how many people have died from cancer due to second hand smoke they had inhaled over the years? Can you imagine being a frequent business traveller and having to inhale all the second hand smoke from people smoking on airplanes?

It’s crazy to think but back to my story. When I walked closer to this person smoking what seemed to be a blue thing, I thought it was weird because it wasn’t a typical white cigarette. It was black and had a blue light on the end and lite up when smoked. I asked the person smoking what it was. They said it was an electronic cigarette.

My mind was blown! Technology is improving at the speed of light, but a cigarette that was electronic? What’s next, a phone that can talk to me and tell me where to go?

Since that day 5 years ago electronic cigarettes have become extremely popular for many different reasons like the fact that they can save people money. Because they are so popular I’m seeing more and more people smoking them indoors.

Just recently though I have seen more and more businesses and malls put signs up banning smoking electronic cigarettes indoors. Personally I think it’s a bit extreme and ridiculous.

Although we have no scientific proof that the smoke from an electronic cigarette is not harmful, it seems though that the lack of tobacco would make it not very harmful and for people to catch any disease from the second hand smoke of an electronic cigarette.

I’ve been in enough pubs and malls and even on airplanes where people are smoking e-cigs. That it hasn’t affected my enjoyment or experience. I can see how it has for others. But not me or many of the people I talk to feel any different.

But I think this is the world we live in now where people who don’t want to smoke should not and will not be forced to inhale the smoke of any cigarette, electronic or not. I suppose as a society we have become soft. What use to be allowed, like drinking and driving, is being clamped regulated. But should smoking electronic cigarettes indoors? I’m in the camp that it shouldn’t and it’s not a big deal.

However, if you smoke electronic cigarettes, it’s best to remember that everyone has a choice and you should consider going outside to vape even if the establishment you are in allows smoking indoors.