Vapers Vs. Smokers
Do you know what vaping is? Vaping utilizes propylene glycol or vegetable glycerin liquid and mixes it with small amounts of nicotine and food grade flavoring. It gets vaporized in a small battery powered atomizer. In other words, it’s an electronic cigarette or e-cigarette for short. You inhale, you exhale, just like you do with a real cigarette but unlike a real cigarette, there is no tobacco smell and no real smoke. There’s no odor at all and the vapor it generates vanishes quickly.
Having been a long time smoker, I’ve been “vaping” for over two months now. In the part of the country where I live, the Greater Cincinnati (Ohio), Northern Kentucky area, vaping has caused some confusion when it comes to the no smoking laws. I get mixed signals of approval or disapproval.
In most parts of Downtown Cincinnati, you’re better off if you don’t “vape” inside a bar. A lot of these e-cigarettes look like real cigarettes and the idea of vaping is still new to a lot of bar owners. Even though you’re really not, they still think you’re smoking and you’ll need to take your e-cigarette outside.
Over across the Ohio River from Cincinnati is Covington, Kentucky. The no smoking rules over there have always been a little more relaxed. You may get some funny looks with your strange looking cigarette, but chances are nobody is going to ask you put out your vaporing device.
At the Covington Branch of the Kenton County Public Library, of course there’s a no smoking rule inside, but you can’t smoke outside of the building either. Apparently this also includes vaping. Standing outside the library one afternoon, a confused security officer, not sure exactly what I was doing, thought it was best for me not to do it “until we sort the law out.”
When it comes to vaping, restaurants are a mixed bag. Inside Frisch’s Big Boy, I asked my waitress if it was OK to vape. She knew what I was taking about and said, “Sure.” More upscale restaurants also know what I’m talking about and their answer is usually, “No.”
In other parts of the country, vaping is becoming more recognized and accepted, but that’s slow to happen here in the Midwest. Until we catch up with the rest of the world, vapers, who look just like smokers, are going to have some explaining to do to those who can’t figure us out.
