As e-cigarettes continue to rise in popularity, legislators, health officials, and businesses are all scrambling to figure out how to treat this innovative and new nicotine delivery system. Many municipalities have banned the activity in public places, restaurants, patios, places of business – much to the disappointment of the practitioners of vaping.
While there have yet to be any immersive studies on the long term health impacts of this relatively new technology, many advocates of e-cigarettes claim that they have at least one leg up on conventional cigarettes: the fact that they aren’t cigarettes.
E-cigarettes are electronic devices that contain batteries for powering a heating element which in turn heats the liquid within the chamber, creating vapor. Because there is no combustion, no carcinogens find their way into the user. Thus, these advocates contend that E-cigarettes are much safer than cigarettes for both the user and those around them.
For years, airports and perhaps more specifically airlines, have had very strict regulations concerning smoking – and while there are plenty of documented reasons why smoking should be prohibited in small, poorly ventilated spaces, many feel that perhaps airlines are hastily lumping together the acts of vaping and smoking.
Why Vaping is Prohibited on Flights
Like many airlines, Air Canada has an entire page on their website dedicated to addressing the hot button topic of vaping on their aircraft.
Naturally, at the top of the page, the airliner declares their official policy as follows: “Air Canada does not permit the use of e-cigarettes on board any of its aircraft”. The policy goes on to state that passengers are free to pack their device in their carry-on baggage or even keep it on their person – provided it remains unused for the duration of the flight.
Interestingly, the policy doesn’t cite health concerns for other passengers should the guy sitting in 14F decide to vape on his cross country flight. Nor do they go on to say that the electronic nature of the device would interfere with the aircraft’s sensitive navigational instrumentation.
What the policy does say is that vaping on an airplane would create confusion amongst staff and other passengers. For instance, if one passenger were to witness a vaper’s “smoke” from several rows back, they may assume a passenger is smoking and may take that as a sign that it is okay for them to do so as well.
The policy also goes on to state that some passengers may fear the contents of the vapor, because as far as they are concerned, anything could be contained within – and it doesn’t take a stretch of the imagination to think that this fear or worry could lead to altercations.
To be fair, these last two concerns can be remedied by providing passengers with a little information about what vaping is, but at the end of the day, perhaps it is simply easier to stow the device while flying.
Reasons That Actually Make Sense
Not all of Air Canada’s reasons for prohibiting the use of e-cigarettes are worthy of an annoyed eye roll – some of their justifications actually make sense.
Flight attendants have enough to do on a given flight. The last thing they need is the added task of trying to ascertain whether or not a person is smoking on a flight, or simply vaping. Asking them to distinguish between who is smoking and who is not can certainly affect the completion of their regular duties – especially if a passenger becomes belligerent. Additionally, one must consider the sensitivity of the smoke alarms found in the passenger cabin – imagine the concern you might feel if the fire alarm kept going off throughout the flight.
Perhaps then, airlines are somewhat justified in prohibiting the use of electronic cigarettes on board flights – though they should be certain it is for reasons that make sense.
But Wait…
In 2014, a woman flying from Calgary to Toronto witnessed a man vaping throughout the flight. She claimed that flight attendants didn’t ask the man to stop in accordance with Air Canada’s policy.
Also, it is the common belief among many e-cigarette manufacturers that their products don’t actually set off an airplanes smoke detectors – and in a report with CBC News, spokespeople from WestJet admitted that they simply didn’t know if the vapor would set off the alarms.
At the end of the day, it would seem that in spite of being able to actively dismiss many of the reasons airlines don’t allow vaping on aircraft, it may be better for all involved for vapers to disembark before “lighting up”.
Photo Credits
No Vaping Sign – Wikimedia Creative Commons
Electronic cigarette with USB charger – Wikimedia Public Domain
Guest Author Bio
John Berwick
John Berwick may be a Technical Writer by trade, but he enjoys blogging and voicing his opinion on a wide variety of topics more than anything else in the world. He has written for many different sectors including health care, software development, security, marketing, and e-commerce industries.
Visit John’s Site: John Berwick Freelance
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