BRITISH MPs have come up with a new idea concerning e-cigarettes: Allow vaping on public transport and other public places. The theory is that since about 470,000 smokers in Britain are using e-cigarettes as an aid to help them give up the habit and that tens of thousands are successfully quitting each year, vaping would be a useful tool to help tobacco smokers quit.

The idea has generated much debate, starting with how safe e-cigarettes really are. The definitive answer is that nobody knows for sure. As e-cigarettes have only been on the market for about a decade, there is no authoritative research yet available. It may take several more years for such research to emerge which can show beyond doubt that vaping does not affect users’ lungs or other aspects of their health.

But a report by the parliamentarians states that whatever the effects of vaping are, e-cigarettes simply cannot be more dangerous than regular cigarettes because they contain no tar or carbon monoxide and, as such, rules around e-cigarettes should be relaxed so they can be more widely used and accepted in society. That would include asking the government to consider their use on buses and trains. The message from MPs: Stop viewing conventional and e-cigarettes as one and the same.

Most enclosed spaces — restaurants, offices, cinemas, theaters, and airports — ban both. But e-cigarettes are not covered by smoking legislation which bans the use of cigarettes in all indoor public and work places not only in the UK but most other countries. What the MPs want is for e-cigarettes not be treated the same as regular cigarettes when it comes to devising smoking policies. In fact, the argument is e-cigarettes could be a key weapon in the country’s stop-smoking campaign and which could see a tobacco-free generation within 10 years.

On the other hand, some of those who don’t smoke or vape take exception to the idea of being in close proximity to an e-cigarette user. Lungs are for breathing in as clean air as possible, not clouds of other people’s vape in an enclosed space. There’s enough pollution in the air without this being added. When fully operational, e-cigarettes make people look as if they have spontaneously combusted; a person is enveloped in a cloud of vapor. If people want to inhale carcinogenic and suck in what may turn out to be toxic vapor, that’s their choice. But by the same token, those who do not wish to be subjected to such an experience should be protected. To allow more chemicals to be released in a confined space is surely not the greatest of ideas.

Anything other than air (as polluted as that is) inhaled directly into the lungs can only be harmful. Even if there is general agreement among public health experts, doctors and scientists that e-cigarettes are significantly less harmful than normal cigarettes containing tobacco, more research is needed to better understand the long-term effects. For decades no one knew smoking was bad for the health, so being told that vaping is safe is not all that comforting.

Yet, the Commons’ Science and Technology Committee is strongly in favor of vaping as a vehicle to help smokers quit. MPs believe transport and other public places should be more sympathetic to vaping. That means not bracketing e-cig users with smokers and exiling them to the street.

However, in their proposal, the MPs have not taken into consideration what it would be like if lots of people on a bus were all vaping at the same time, which is likely if this takes off. It’s not sensible to annoy the majority for the benefit of a few. Cigarette smoke and vape smoke are not acceptable to people who don’t smoke. If people can’t smoke on buses and trains, why should they vape on them?