I am in the vape everywhere, with respect, camp.
I strongly feel that vapers, who were ex-smokers, ought to be aware that SHS being harmful is a myth, and there is research to back this up. As this is partially what we are up against with vaping, it matters to the discussion on a vaping forum. If you honestly believe, and have currently no doubts that SHS is harmful to non-smokers in the vicinity, then you are operating under misguided information.
The fact is, it won't change because that perception of it being dangerous is very well ingrained. Plus, you have a whole bunch of people, includes vapers, who think they are 'stinky' and so it has 2 strikes against it. Strike three comes when you combine these first 2 and realize that SHS does linger, for a pretty long while. Like days, or at very least hours.
Regarding the 'respect' issue, I'm curious when people think that was occurring in public life, here in America? Was it 50 years ago when you could smoke everywhere and anywhere? When was this period that some in this thread are referring to? I'm very curious about that claim.
If it is about what is exhaled, then arguably people ought to not talk in public, as you are exhaling stuff and no one reading this is exhaling 'pure air' so if we follow the logic of 'respect' being tossed around in a very loose manner, then it is plausible to say that people in conversation near you are causing a disturbance based on what they are exhaling, and based on the noise factor. Even a whisper could be a noise that, if feeling particularly sensitive, is annoying.
Which goes to a larger point that I continue to wonder about if vaping were somehow banned from all indoor places; what activities, if any, could persons do in public that wouldn't be deemed a disturbance? I'm very curious what that list looks like to some people. In my current world view, if society were to magically all agree that vaping is such a disturbance, I could see literally everything being on the table in terms of 'behaving in a disrespectful manner' while being out in public. And am curious what would be examples of for sure not being a disturbance. I honestly cannot think of any as I do put vaping, of the respectful kind, on par with two or more people having a conversation while in public.
And back to the original point of this post and what matters to this thread.
Second hand vapor is relatively harmless. The data is around to support this. To argue that 'we don't know' or it is not for sure known, is coming from a position that is ignorant of what is known. And is akin to saying, people ought not to talk in public because when they do, they exhale stuff, and 'we don't know' what they are exhaling, therefore, no more talking in public. Perhaps exceptions could be made if you wear some sort of filtering mask over your mouth.
Second hand vapor manifests a very very faint smell. I speak this from lots of experience of vaping around non-vapers and periodically asking them if they smell it. Very very rarely will they say yes. Most of the time, they let me know they cannot, even a little bit, smell it. And these are people I'm visiting with, in a rather enclosed space, for several hours. I'm also fairly certain given my forum experience, that I'm not only vaper that does this, nor only one who would report that non-vapers usually indicate that they cannot smell exhaled vapor.
Third point is it certainly doesn't linger. Perhaps we need a linger meter, but in my experience of vaping, it dissipates in 3 seconds or less 98% of the time. The other 2% of the time it sometimes will linger for up to a whole 10 seconds, and then completely dissipate.
And with that in mind, unless I were checked at the entrance way of some place where vaping was absolutely forbidden, I would take my chances of vaping in that location. Openly. As I have done in hospitals where I was only person in fairly long hallway, knowing that a) the stuff I'm vaping doesn't smell, b) it doesn't linger and c) it is harmless. Plus d) you / anyone really would have no way of knowing I did just vape unless they caught me in the act, and thus dancing on line of what some would call disrespectful. Just like I could be someone that calls people talking in public, on the borderline of being rude in public. Admittedly, I didn't use to think it was rude, but things done changed when my harmless, odorless, quickly dissipating second hand vapor was deemed rude to exhale in public.