Dear Vapers,

Vaping does not allow people to get around smoking bans for the simple reason that it is not smoking. It is not a loophole. It is an alternative to smoking and a real threat to the tobacco industry. It is bizarre to suggest that a product that has been so successful in getting smokers to switch is undoing decades of tobacco control.  The anti-smoking movement had its origins in trying to get people to stop smoking; thanks to e-cigarettes people are quitting smoking at a greater degree than ever before.

Though some e-cigarettes may look like cigarettes, they don’t smell like them and they are about 95% less harmful.  They are such an obviously better alternative that they make cigarettes look even worse than they are. Why would anyone prefer cigarettes when they could instead use a product that doesn’t smell up their clothes and hair, tastes so much better, and is so much safer?

Electronic cigarettes actually do the opposite of renormalizing smoking. Aside from electronic cigarettes being a proven and successful method with helping people quit smoking, the fact that they do not contain thousands of the harmful chemical found in cigarettes and there is no smoke produced is enough evidence that they are a cleaner alternative. Now if there is a better and safer alternative on the market and you choose to continue to smoke its just plain stupidity.

Regulating e-cigarettes as, or like, a tobacco product, undermines its appeal and effectiveness as an alternative to smoking.  It undermines public health to discourage smokers from trying e-cigarettes. E-cigarettes are making real inroads on replacing smoking but legislating them like tobacco products would end up supporting the tobacco industry and worse, keep curious and smokers who want to quit from trying them.

And let’s not lose sight of the big picture - if vaping can replace smoking we would see an almost unimaginable decline in the 37,000 Canadian deaths due to tobacco related illness.

Ultimately this is a product designed and marketed exclusively to smokers.  A recent study in the British Journal of General Practice found that just .2% of vapers (that’s 2 out of 1000) were people who had not been daily smokers.

Happy Vaping from EsmokerCanada Inc.