Is it allowed for non-smokers to buy e-cigarettes?

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young teen with shades in black background smoking an e-cigarette

Approximately 2.8 million adults in Britain currently use e-cigarettes, but an undercover investigation has highlighted that this figure is likely to include more than just ex-smokers.

Almost nine in 10 of Britain’s vape shops are willing to sell e-cigarettes to non-smokers, and although this is not against the law, it is against the voluntary code of conduct, which states that vape shops should not knowingly sell vape products to anyone who does not or has not smoked before.

Investigating 100 of an estimated 1,700 vape shops in the UK, 87% were found to be either knowingly or unwittingly prepared to sell e-cigarettes to people who have never smoked or vaped.

Approximately 50% of vape stores did not ask customers if they had smoked before, and around 75% of those that did still encouraged non-smokers to start vaping.

Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) chief executive Shirley Cramer said e-cigarettes must be seen as “evidence-based quitting aids – rather than lifestyle products” and should be aimed at smokers.

“We applaud the IBVTA (Independent British Vape Trade Association) code of conduct, which is in line with this principle,” she added.

“However, as our investigation shows, the majority of vape shops in the UK are not adhering to these important standards. We are keen to support the sector to strengthen their codes of best practice, and for individual retailers to sign up and ultimately adhere to them.”

Richard Hyslop, chief executive of the Independent British Vape Trade Association, said: “Vape products should not be marketed to non-smokers or those under the age of 18.

Do you believe that retailers should be responsible for confirming they only sell vaping products to actual smokers? Should the practice of selling vaping products to non-smokers be considered illegal? Tell us what you think.  Comment below or tweet us @ILoveEcigs

How Many Companies Have A Policy on E-Cigarettes?

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A new survey published in the April Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine has highlighted that many US employees are unclear about the e-cigarette policy at their place of work and whether that policy is different for vaping and for smoking.

The survey was conducted to better assess the perceptions employees had of their company’s smoking and vaping policies and included responses from 456 employed smokers and vapers.

The main response was that companies had the same policy for smoking and vaping, and if there was a difference, the most restrictive policies were placed upon smoking, as opposed to vaping.

Around 12.5 percent of respondents were unaware if their company had any policy related to vaping. Approximately 20 percent reported that employers offered them smoking cessation resources.

While policies around smoking are still a little unclear, policies around vaping are often non-existent, and there is little information available about how the devices can help smokers quit a habit which research continues to show is extremely harmful to health.

“Organizations should not consider smoking and vaping to be the same when setting policy,” the authors said.

“Employers should ensure organizational vaping policies are present and clear to all employees.”

Does your workplace have an e-cigarette policy? If yes, do you agree with it or believe it requires some changes? We want to hear from you. Comment below or tweet us @ILoveEcigs

‘Smoking kills,’ admit tobacco companies, in push to sell e-cigs

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Tobacco companies are now pushing cigarettes smokers to quit smoking cigarettes and make the switch to e-cigs, according to experts.

British American Tobacco chief scientist, David O’Reilly said in a statement: “If you smoke cigarettes and you smoke cigarettes all your life, then on average half of those cigarette smokers will die prematurely.”

“Maybe ten years prematurely from a variation of diseases, whether that’s lung cancer, heart disease, respiratory disease,” he added.

Studies have proven that vaping is around 95 percent less harmful than smoking cigarettes, which explains why British American Tobacco are keen to crack the e-cig market and have invested a billion dollars into researching the devices.

“We’re very confident that compared to smoking, the harms involved (with using e-cigarettes) are certainly no more than five percent of the risks from smoking,” added Dr. Nick Hopkinson from the Royal College of Physicians.

“So for someone who is a smoker, switching across to vaping is a huge improvement in terms of their health risk,” he said.

This view is also shared by various Australian medical professionals, including Associate Professor of Public Health, Colin Mendelsohn.

“We can say for sure it’s safer than tobacco, which kills two out of three long-term smokers,” he said.

“We’ve had 10 years of vaping so far, there’s been no evidence of any serious harm from vaping.”

We want your opinion on this topic. Comment below or share your thoughts with us on Twitter @ILoveEcigs

E-cigarettes more popular than FDA-approved quitting aids, according to research

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bearded man with e-cigarette outdoors on summer day

New research has found that smokers prefer e-cigarettes to quit smoking.

The brief, which was authored by RTI International, the University of North Carolina and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Office on Smoking and Health, used a nationally representative online survey of 15,943 adult smokers who tried to quit smoking during the past three months, to see which methods they preferred.

The results showed that e-cigs were more popular as a quit aid for partial or complete substitution (2.2 percent), compared with nicotine patches/gum (0.8 percent) or other prescription medicines (0.4 percent).

Telephone quit lines, which the US government have poured millions of dollars into, were rarely used as a quitting aid, making up just 0.02 percent.

After this survey, there is even more pressure on the US government to follow suit behind Britain, where e-cigs have been the leading quit-smoking aid since 2013.

The UK Royal College of Physicians clearly stated their position on the matter, stating: “the hazard to health arising from long-term vapor inhalation from the e-cigarettes available today is unlikely to exceed 5 percent of the harm from smoking tobacco.”

What is your opinion on this new research? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below or tweet us @ILoveEcigs