Vaping restrictions have led to a fair bit of drama in the Welsh Government lately. According to news reports, the Welsh Lib Dems have called the proposed restrictions by the Government a “vanity project”.
Originally, the Public Health Bill, spearheaded by health minister Mark Drakeford, was due to ban vaping completely from all enclosed spaces – whether they were at work or in public. However, the Welsh Lib Dems and the Welsh Tories fought back against the moves. This stirred up so much controversy that it looked as though the bill would not be passed at all.
A watered-down version
However, it now looks as though only a specific number of locations would be subject to the ban. Schools would be among the areas where vaping would be banned, along with train stations, public transport and pubs where food is served.
So why the accusations of the Government pursuing a vanity project, you may ask? Well, the NHS is in dire straits, as many will be aware. The leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Kirsty Williams, has said that tinkering around with the e-cig ban amounts to a vanity project when there are other far more important issues to be dealt with. One health board in Wales – the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board – is in special measures, and according to Ms Williams, this should be top of the list of concerns, not a proposed ban on e-cigarettes.
Predictably, Welsh Labour have fought back against her comments. The deputy health minister, Vaughan Gething, pointed out it was important to relieve the pressure on the NHS, as well as focusing on issues relating to public health. The question of vaping was related to this latter issue, which is why the Government has been focusing on many areas.
Should vaping be banned in public?
It almost seems like an age-old problem, doesn’t it? Vapers will want to vape wherever they are able to, and yet at present it seems as though the list of permitted places is getting ever smaller. There also seems to be a head-to-head going on concerning the idea of whether vaping is safe or not. Passive smoking has long been an issue with regard to smoking, but should we really be equally concerned that the same issues apply with regard to vapers as well?
Mark Drakeford has said in the past that vaping has the power to re-normalise smoking – that is, to make it acceptable to do again. He says vaping can cause harm, although since it is used to help people quit smoking above all else, we do question his judgment on this. We’ve said before that people who vape are people who used to smoke. Giving up without any help at all is very difficult. Surely swapping from smoking to vaping is a good thing, without making it more difficult for people to do it?
Since few people will ever vape when they’ve never smoked, we wonder whether the new ban will be a good thing at all.
