On the proposed vaping ban

Dave Achondo
 
I DEFINITELY disagree with the views of Dr. Jocelyn Torrecampo of the health department on vapes or e-cigarettes.

She was quoted as saying that vapes are more harmful than cigarettes that are now being sold at P3 to P5 a piece. The question is, how are vapes more harmful?

The chairperson of the city council’s health committee pointed out that vapes do not contain nor combust tobacco. That is a good thing. It has a lithium-ion rechargeable battery, vaporizer with a microchip heating element which helps to vaporize the liquid. It’s like a miniature nebulizer.

If you Google “cigarettes contain”, your first result would be this: cigarette smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, including 43 known cancer-causing (carcinogenic) compounds and 400 other toxins. These cigarette ingredients include nicotine, tar, and carbon monoxide, as well as formaldehyde, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, arsenic, and DDT. Nicotine is highly addictive.

Meanwhile, the e-juice in vapes generally consists of propylene glycol, glycerin, water, nicotine, and flavorings. While the ingredients vary, the liquid typically contains 95 percent propylene glycol and glycerin. It’s up to the user whether or not to purchase an e-juice that contains nicotine but even then, there is no combustion.

Even if e-juices contain a thousand chemicals (which they don’t), wouldn’t that be better than 4,000 per cigarette stick? You do the math.

If there is a scientific research that the city council and the Department of Health (DOH) could present to the public that cigarette smoking is safer than vaping, I would think twice about the latter. There is no study to support the claim that vaping is harmful. In other words, there can be no conclusion without sufficient data. But if they could present a credible study, then I would stop vaping right there and then.

The funny thing is that our officials are making scientific assertions against vaping without showing scientific evidence. They merely cited a statement attributed to the World Health Organization (WHO) that that there is no scientific evidence to confirm the safety and efficacy of e-cigarettes. But that also means that there is no evidence to prove that it is harmful.

Councilor Maria Lourdes Gaane, the health committee chairperson, plans to include vapes in the city’s Smoke-Free Ordinance, a city law that isn’t even felt or even enforced in the city. Pardon my ignorance but I really had no idea that we have such an ordinance.

I think it would be wrong to include vaping in that ordinance because vaping is not smoking. While vapes allow people to mimic smokers, vaping isn’t smoking.  Cigarettes produce smoke as a result of combustion; vapes produce vapors or clouds of mist.

When one smokes cigarettes, there is a visible suspension of carbon and other particles in air, typically one emitted from a burning substance. Meanwhile, a vapor is a gaseous state of a substance that is normally liquid or solid at room temperature, such as water that has evaporated into the air. There is a big difference.

I agree with Councilor Jay Pascual that while it can’t be banned, it can be regulated.

There are cheap mods that can be purchased from sidewalk vendors near public market that cost around P200 and are powered by batteries that are used in watches and are recharged afterwards. That should raise some red flags. However, many vapers understand that using these cheap vapes is dangerous.

The city council may want to pass an ordinance that targets the sale of substandard vapes or e-cigarettes in the market to prevent accidents from happening.