Louisiana Lunacy
Good laws work because they can be enforced, experience of the UK’s car smoking ban says Louisiana’s ban on vaping in vehicles is doomed to fail
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by Dave Cross
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A government hailed the Conservative bill to prevent smoking in cars “a landmark in protecting children.”
According to the police, it was badly thought out, didn’t apply to all vehicles, and created huge confusion when it came to motorhomes, campervans and caravans. Planet of the Vapes predicted confusion and chaos at the time [link].
By the end of the first year, just three police forces from the forty-two in England and Wales had conducted any stops relating to smoking in cars. None of those stops resulted in anything other than a verbal warning – not one single driver had been issued with the statutory £50 fine.
Welcoming Louisiana’s action, a spokesperson for the Lincoln Parish Sheriff’s Office said: “August 1st, 2020 Louisiana signed a law in that says it is unlawful to use a vaping device inside a motor vehicle with children under the age of 13.
“There has been some discussion of this for quite some time now with the increased popularity of the vaping devices. In Louisiana it will be treated as in many other states as you are smoking in the car. The same restrictions, the same guidelines for smoking will now be enforced to include the vaping devices.
“In Lincoln Parish if you are found in violation of the Louisiana revised statute 23:300.4 you will be faced with a fine of $150.”
Legislators argue that vaping exposes bystanders and children to nicotine, heavy metals, formaldehyde, and other vape by-products.
It is shameful that legislators are making laws based on fake research. In 2019, Martín, Peñín-Ibáñez, González Gonzálvez, Santos-Delgado, and González Ureña published a paper titled “On the Passive Exposure to Nicotine from Traditional Cigarettes Versus e-Cigarettes”.
In the study, they concluded: “According to these results, the passive vaper will require to be surrounded by 100 active vapers to reach the same nicotine exposure, as he would receive from only one active smoker.”
It followed a study by Goniewicz et al., which found toxicant levels in e-cigarette vapour was up to 450 times lower than in cigarette smoke.
Keen to combat the misinformation being disseminated by cranks, Professor John Newton is the Chief Knowledge Officer for Public Health England (PHE) explained in March: “Unlike cigarettes, there is no side-stream vapour emitted by an e-cigarette into the atmosphere, just the exhaled aerosol. Our 2018 report found there have been no identified health risks of passive vaping to bystanders and our 2022 report will review the evidence again.”
In the meantime, vapers planning on visiting the Pelican State might want to stock up on patches.
Related:
- “On the Passive Exposure to Nicotine from Traditional Cigarettes Versus e-Cigarettes” by Martín, Peñín-Ibáñez, González Gonzálvez, Santos-Delgado, and González Ureña- [link]
- 8 Things To Know About Vaping, Planet of the Vapes – [link]
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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