Is electronic cigarette smoking legal in public places UK?

[SmokeyJoe]

England and Wales

The legislation that prohibits smoking in public places in England and Wales is contained within Chapter 1 of the Health Act 2006.

The act of smoking is defined as:

(a) “smoking” refers to smoking tobacco or anything which contains tobacco, or smoking any other substance, and

(b) smoking includes being in possession of lit tobacco or of anything lit which contains tobacco, or being in possession of any other lit substance in a form in which it could be smoked.

In other words, only substances that are "smoking" are provided against.

Smoking and smoke are not vague terms.

They refer to the emissions of airborne gases and particulates given off when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis (from Wikipedia - and I checked it with a family friend who is a professor of chemistry at a London university - he says it is perfect, better than he could have come up with).

The vaporization that takes place does not combust the material (an exothermic chemical reaction between a fuel and an oxidant), nor does cause pyrolysis (the chemical decomposition of organic materials by heating in the absence of oxygen).

An electronic cigarette cannot be said to contain tobacco, since tobacco is the name given to both the plant and the plant material derived from the fresh leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana.

Nicotine in solution is not provided against in the legislation.

Therefore the electronic cigarette is perfectly legal to use in any public place in England and Wales.


The Scottish Act (Smoking, Health and Social Care (Scotland) Act 2005 ) is a little bit more vague, from Part 1, chapter 4:

In this Part, “smoke” means smoke tobacco, any substance or mixture which includes it or any other substance or mixture; and a person is to be taken as smoking if the person is holding or otherwise in possession or control of lit tobacco, of any lit substance or mixture which includes tobacco or of any other lit substance or mixture which is in a form or in a receptacle in which it can be smoked.

The adjective "lit" clearly refers to the state of combustion, and I don't think anyone could convincingly argue against that.

Therefore the electronic cigarette is perfectly legal in to use in any public place in Scotland.

[brendajorsler]

Thank you for your email of the 19th August about electronic cigarettes and smoking in public places.
The smoke-free legislation requires all enclosed or substantially enclosed work places and public places to be smoke-free. Under the legislation, 'smoking' includes being in possession of anything lit that contains tobacco.
Electronic cigarettes appear to be borderline products when considering compliance with the smoke-free law. They heat nicotine inserts using a microchip charging device, and therefore technically they are not 'lit'. However, most of these products seem to contain traces of tobacco and they emit a vapour that is designed to appear to be smoke. It is the Department's/ our understanding that the vapour is created at a high temperature, similar to that at which some substances burn. The Department has identified at least a dozen different brands of electronic cigarettes. All are different in composition and emissions.
The Department is currently obtaining information on ingredients and emissions of e-cigarettes from manufacturers and importers. Until the Department has an understanding of whether the products are lit and whether the product or the vapour contains tobacco, it is unfortunately not in a position to advise on whether electronic cigarettes comply with the Department's smoke-free legislation. No such products have been approved for sale in the UK. The Department cannot say that such products could be used in areas which are smoke-free under the law.
I hope this email clarifies the Department of Health’s current position on this matter.
Yours sincerely,

Ronald Le Bruin
Department of Health

[clavit]

Hi Brenda, and welcome to the forum.
Is this a response to a question YOU have asked? Can we see the original e-mail please?
It seems to me that Dept of Health would prefer to outlaw e-smoking, but have no reason to do so. They're working frantically to find a way to ban e-cigs, but don't really know how (yet).
Also, it is claimed that "no such products have been approved for sale in the UK". Do these products even require approval? If they haven't been approved, how come we have UK sellers who seem to be selling e-cigs without any problems?

[locha]

Thats good to know, all of that. But even after reading what exactly smoking ban refers to i do believe that e cigs will be banned. There's no amount of fun that couldnt be banned by this goverment (or any goverment rly...). Also, i can see it in my minds eye, anti smoking lobby, how them will get red hot pis*ed when they'll start to notice that.
(now there is a part of my post that i had to cut out because its not allright to make fun of them poor anti smoke people and saying that if they only could get laid they might find something more interesting to do, besides i dont know, maybe its not allowed on this forum and i could get banned, and i dont want that; so no rants here, even tho they rightly deserve it).

[brendajorsler]

Dawn Primarolo

Please could you advise me if the electronic cigarette can be used in public places.

I would appreciate a straight yes/no answer.

As the definition of smoking is:
Part 1 of the Act means to smoke tobacco or any other substance or mixture which can be smoked. This subsection further clarifies that a person is to be taken as smoking if the person holds or is otherwise in possession or control of lit tobacco or any other lit substance or mixture which can be smoked.

As the electronic is designed as a smoking cessation device and is not 'lit' nor contain tobacco, what is the 'LAW' on this device that uses the same principal as an asthma pump and delivers vapour to the user.

Thank you

[clavit]

Thanks!
That was quite a yes/no answer you got in return
It seems clear to me that the official position is "we would like to say no, but we can't".

[TropicalBob]

It seems clear to me that the official position is "we would like to say no, but we can't".

Reading the rest of it, I'm afraid it's more like, "We would like to say no, but we can't at the moment. We're now preparing reasons for the ban we will impose and the exact wording that will outlaw nicotine-vaporizing devices."

[dc2k08]

It is a bit like that bob your right..
smokey, i know you posted this ages ago, but can you remember if there was a seperate ruling for NI at all?

[katink]

In the Netherlands, with a government certainly also looking for ways to either ban e-cigs or to get more then their share of money out of them... they have been forced to admit, the e-cigarettes do not fall under the anti-smoking laws; so they are allowed to be used in all places where smoking is prohibited. Of course, their next sentence hurriedly added is: 'but of course all premise-owners and owners of public places are allowed to forbid their use by making a house-rule to that nature; it is though up to the individual owners to do so or not'.

I would think that the english situation would in essence be the same... so it is legal to use unless house-rules come in otherwise...

[SmokeyJoe]

ooooh, well from memory there is different legislation in NI but I can't for the life of me remember what it is.

However, I think the foundation is the same - e-cigs don't produce smoke and therefore are not covered by any smokefree legislation.

I guess the question in the UK is: Will the government bother to make an amendment to the original act - further, do statutory instruments exist that allow changes to be made by the department of health?

Seems to me that under the existing law it makes no difference even if they could prove that the emissions from e-cigs are substantively similar to cigarette smoke.

The wording of the act is quite clear - we are talking about the product of the process of combustion, a process that does not take place in e-cigs.

I'm fairly sure the wording of the act would have to be changed. A process that will take a while, unless there are statutory instruments that allow it to be changed. If there are, it could happen overnight.

Alternatively, things could get a bit fiddly:

It is the Department's/ our understanding that the vapour is created at a high temperature, similar to that at which some substances burn...

In other words, if it can be shown that any of the compounds contained in e-liquid undergo combustion and there are tobacco-derived compounds present, this will be used to define the user as a smoker.

Stretching the definition, if you ask me, but probably technically correct.

The obvious answer to this is to produce a product that operates at a standardised temperature and liquid that contains only ingredients that do not oxidize at this temperature.

This may prove to be impossible with the current "ceramic-oven" type e-cigs and may require a re-think on the part of the manufacturers.