Should Vaping Be Allowed In Restaurants?

Eater critic Ryan Sutton gives his take on why vaping shouldn't be demonized like smoking a regular cigarette in restaurants.

He argues that vaping should not be grouped into the same category as traditional cigarettes, which to be fair is a valid statement because even though the two seem similar they operate very differently.

With no tobacco and no combustion, e cigarettes are much more health friendly to the user and to those in close proximity due to there being no second hand smoke which you find with normal cigarettes.

As with all debates there are two arguments, one for being allowed to vape in restaurants (at the moment it is not a law that you can't, it is down to the discretion of the owner of each respected establishment)  and the others against restaurant vaping.

For Restaurant Vaping

A study at the Fraunhofer Wilhelm-Klauditz-Institute’s Department of Material Analysis and Indoor Chemistry in Germany found the vapour from an electronic cigarette did not contain any detectable amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). They tested both a normal cigarette and a e-cig which provided very interesting results. While the tobacco smoke of the normal cigarette scored high for the 20 VOCs that were tested for, the electronic cigarette vapour scored zero for 75% of the VOCs and only registered a very minuscule mounts in the remaining ones.

Sorry if the above seemed a little off topic but I included it as it backs up the claims made by vapers, that the vapour produced by them vaping is not harmful to those around them unlike tobacco smoke so why should they be banned?

Against Restaurant Vaping

Those against vaping in restaurants usually hit back with 2 main arguments:

Argument 'A': More Testing Needs To Be Done

Even though some studies and research such as the above show that vaping isnt harmful, more research needs to be conducted before the vapour produced from electronic cigarettes can be classed as 'safe'.

Argument 'B': It Is Not Appropriate

Lets just for arguments sake say that the vapour is found to be 100% safe - there is still the issue of people blowing this vapour from their mouths around the restaurant which is serving food, obviously. For hygienic reasons and just generally out of respect for fellow dinners this should not be allowed.

What are your thoughts? Do you think vaping should be allowed in restaurants or do you think they should be banned from any eating establishment?