U.K. Hospitals Open Doors to Vape Stores

A pair of U.K. hospitals in central London have made the bold decision to allow vape shops to open their businesses on the hospital grounds. The move comes as part of a health initiative started by the hospital to ban smoking entirely around the hospital property. This brilliant plan aims to curb dissatisfaction from the removal of outdoor ashtrays and the imposition of fines by providing smokers a place to purchase vape products. Not to mention it also allows smokers who visit the hospital a chance to try vaping and make the switch off of traditional combustible cigarettes.  

While we here in America might see this move as tactless or perhaps in bad taste by the hospital, let’s not forget that we’ve been misinformed time and time again by the federal government regarding the dangers of products which are made available to the public. 

If you’ll recall, it wasn’t until 1964 that the federal government stepped in and started regulating tobacco in the United States. Most people don’t realize it, but cigarettes were widely recognised by scientists as a potential health risk as far back as the 1940s. For two decades tobacco companies fought against regulations DESPITE the fact that they knew their products were deadly to consumers and the Federal government at the time was perfectly content to allow that. 

Since the 60s we’ve had much more regulations imposed on smoking and tobacco sales, but that hasn’t stopped cigarettes from proliferating through every aspect of society over the years. In fact, from 2017 to 2018, the National Health Service in England attributed close to 500,000 hospital visits to be from smoking related causes. In that same period of time approximately 77,800 people in England had died from smoking related illnesses. Clearly, despite the fact that people know its dangerous, cigarettes and tobacco seem to be here to stay.

That’s why it’s so important, during the fight against big tobacco, to see stories like this coming out. In the U.K. government they’re seeing the very obvious fact that legislators in the U.S. seem to be turning a blind eye to. ANY alternative to combustible cigarettes is better than no alternative at all. Despite the fact that vaping has only been around for a decade or so all of the independent testing and studies consistently show that vaping is a healthier alternative to smoking cigarettes. Period.  

If a hospital in a country with a healthcare system which has been proven to be superior to ours is allowing vape stores on their property, why is the FDA trying to make vaping illegal? It’s seems like the country which is driving worldwide tobacco trends, the US, has a financial interest to perpetuate an industry whose products kill their consumers. It also seems like those financial interests outweighs our government's ability to control the influence of big tobacco.