European Union to Ban Public Smoking & Vaping
The EU Commission has called for more smoke- and vapor-free zones outdoors to protect people from passive smoking, according to the German medical journal Ärzteblatt.
The Commission wants areas such as playgrounds, swimming pools and train stations to become smoke-free. The bans should also apply to e-cigarettes. The goal is a “tobacco-free generation” by 2040.
However, there are also critical voices: Dr. Fabian Pitter Steinmetz has described the demands as “ideologically blinded.” According to him:
Cigarettes pollute indoor air with second-hand smoke, particles in the aerosol of e-cigarettes are harmless, unlike the solid particles in combustion smoke, the increased concentrations of propylene glycol and glycerine during inhalation are harmless, the concentration of potentially harmful substances in indoor air should be negligible, & nicotine remains in the body for up to 95% after inhalation.
The conclusion he draws from this is that: the use of e-cigarettes indoors is harmless for third parties present, equating smoking and vaping in the population gives the (objectively false) impression of comparable harmfulness, & banning smoking or vaping outdoors is a factually unfounded interference with personal rights and therefore (in his opinion) unconstitutional.
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