Strictly speaking, the incident was not "caused by an electronic cigarette." It was caused by ignorance and misunderstanding.
Although, as someone who often happily vapes in public, I'm quick to inform anyone near me what I am doing. Since I understand that most people really don't have a clue if your PV isn't one of those "cigarette look-alikes." That guy should have clarified what his "smoking plastic bag" (?) was all about to anyone around him, the conductor, etc. Especially these days when the general public is a bit squirrely about terorism and bombs. Some of the responsibility lies with the vaping dude.
SOME of the responsibility?? Some?
He thought (but didn't say) "I'm not smoking, I'm VAPING, so I can just go right ahead with my bottle of unknown liquid, bag, battery, wires, cartridge, god knows what else at the back of this bus, start producing clouds of smoke and no one is going to turn a hair, frown, wonder why they can't see anymore through the fog.. start to worry about being blown up..that just won't happen because I'm VAPING.."
Come on.. I vape, you vape, we all vape on here and love it. Say the word VAPE to a member of the general ignorance (I mean public) and they'll think you're some East European about to sexually assault them.! (V = R, never mind, silly joke)
Anyway I agree with yours and everyone's comments (just in case you think I am attacking you) but this guy was such an idiot! Unbelievable stupidity!!!
But this is the REAL issue for me:
Even if we assume each member of the public knows about and accepts vaping as NOT smoking, agrees that its essentially harmless certainly to them and almost certainly to us who do it, even if the authorities welcome it as a "health improvement aid" and don't tax it to death or ban it outright, should we really have carte blanche to vape where ever we like?? I think not. Many juices aren't odour free on the exhale especially naturally extracted tobacco flavours, and amongst non vapers/smokers its still a pretty anti-social thing to do. But doing it in a confined space like a bus or a plane I think SHOULD be illegal. I also think it should be illegal to consume fast foods like McD's in confined public places for the same reason..same with loud earphones and small games consoles etc. Why should we be able to subject those around us who have no immediate route of escape to our own anti-social habits?? Why?
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