The Problem Heating Up For Ecigs
How long until more wide-ranging bans are put in place?
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by Dave Cross
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“One person was taken to hospital Monday evening after an e-cigarette malfunctioned, sparking a car fire,” claims the news service. It’s a tale we are growing sadly accustomed to but vehicle manufacturers won’t be able to ban vaping in their products and the UK police force has admitted it is unable to enforce the ban on smoking as it is. Not one fine or summons has been issued in the three months since the government passed the legislation.
Likewise, there seems to be no stopping the likes of Margaret Burns from recharging their products with non-standard equipment. Despite the topic being widely reported, people will not be told: “VIP are trying to blame my iPhone adapter, which I use for everything.” She isn’t the first, and won’t be the last, to claim: “I’m going back to cigarettes because I'm terrified.”
A spokesperson for VIP said: “We’ve spoken to Ms. Burns personally and on this occasion a third-party charger was used. We’ve reiterated that VIP products should always be used in conjunction with approved VIP accessories, including chargers, to ensure safe use.”
It’s annoying and frustrating to people concerned about the image of vaping, but even the most ardent anti-ecig MP would have to admit that this is a problem with wilful ignorance and not a problem endemic or specific to electronic cigarettes.
There could be a different tale to tell for travel by plane. With costs and lives on the line, aviation companies will not tolerate many more incidents like those that happened last week.
The Austin Bergstrom International Airport (Austin, Texas) was evacuated when someone caused two fire alarms to go off. Thinking it was clever to sneak off for a crafty vape in the toilets, the traveller caused delays and inconvenience by ignoring to use the designated area outside.
Then a passenger’s backpack went up in flames on a Delta flight out of St. Louis on Wednesday night, leading to a forty-minute delay in arrival. The plane wasn’t evacuated and the fire had been extinguished before the fire service got there, without damage to the plane.
Legislation was passed in October banning ecigs from checked-in baggage and passengers are prohibited from charging their devices on flights. Delta say: “Battery-powered portable electronic smoking devices (e.g., e-cigarettes, e-cigs, e-cigars, e-pipes, e-hookahs, personal vaporizers, electronic nicotine delivery systems) when carried by passengers or crewmembers for personal use must be carried on one's person or in carry-on baggage only. Recharging of the devices and/or the batteries on board the aircraft is not permitted.”
It can only be a matter of time before a law is proposed or airline companies take it upon themselves to implement a total ban on the carriage of vape products if events like these continue – to the detriment of us all.
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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