Vapers should be free to do so in public places, say MPS

E-CIGARETTE users should be allowed to vape in public places, including offices, buses and trains, a report by MPS has recommended.

The science and technology committee said that forcing vapers into smoking shelters could undermine their efforts to quit and it called for a “liberalisation on restrictions” that would mean “non-vapers having to accommodate vapers”.

MPS also said regulations should be relaxed to allow the licensing, prescribing and advertising of e-cigarettes to promote their health benefits.

Norman Lamb MP, the committee’s chairman, said: “Businesses should stop viewing conventional and e-cigarettes as one and the same.”

However, the report was criticised for taking evidence predominantly from vaping lobbyists and e-cigarette supporters.

Scientists are divided over e-cigarettes. Public Health England urges smokers to switch to vaping, claiming it is 95 per cent safer than tobacco, but the committee was given evidence by other bodies, including the Royal Society of Public Health, and British Lung Foundation that it was too soon to tell the long-term health effects of vaping.

Simon Capewell, professor of public health and policy at the University of Liverpool, said: “Vaping in public spaces like offices, pubs and cafés is a bad thing because bystanders, adults and children are at risk from inhaling the toxins and it undermines the hardwon victory to legislate for smoke-free public space.”