Calls for vaping to be banned inside venues

Vaping in and around Guernsey venues should be restricted, according to islanders with health conditions and local organisations.

Smoking in most indoor places such as restaurants and bars was made illegal in 2005, although this does not extend to vaping, which is at the business's discretion.

Glen Tonks, chair of Cystic Fibrosis Guernsey, said people with the lung condition it helped had to avoid second-hand vapour "like the plague."

Alex Hawkins-Drew, associate director of Public Health: said "The new Combined Substance Use Strategy, due to commence in 2027, includes an action to consider the introduction of a ban on vaping in indoor public places."

"Their lungs are already under strain and attack", Tonks continued about people with cystic fibrosis, saying the disease already meant those with it were at a "higher risk of infection".

Tonks acknowledged "evidence is limited" regarding the effects of second-hand vaping, although added there was "enough that says it has an impact on people with a condition", and "families we speak to avoid it".

He said: "One family I spoke to are getting some work done in their house and the builders are vaping."

Tonks said the family had temporarily moved out "to take away the risk completely".

He added he would welcome legislation on indoor vaping and around venues, emphasising "we're not anti-vaping".

"What we're calling for is that it's treated the same as smoking," he said.

Mark Prevel, suffered from emphysema, a form of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), leading to his needing a bullectomy, a surgical procedure which removed part of the lungs.

He said even when "walking through town, if somebody's vaping then I can't follow them".

Prevel said he was not "keen on legislation" for tighter vaping restrictions, but those using the devices "don't seem to have respect for other people around them".

"If I walk into a bar and see someone vaping, I won't be [staying] in there," he said.

Prevel added he would not go into venues where someone was vaping at the entrance as "nine times out of 10" vapour was getting inside.

He said: "I tend to keep away with the condition of my lungs."

Lucy Cave is the tobacco harm reduction officer at the Health Improvement Commission, which has started a voluntary smoke and vape free initiative for venues.

Cave said the initiative asked participating venues "to voluntarily have their outside dining areas be smoke and vape-free".

She said uptake had been positive and there had been feedback from families that it was a "fantastic idea".

Of restrictions banning vaping indoors, the commission would "always be supportive of that kind of measure".

Cave said surveys of smokers and vapers completed by the commission showed "they were very considerate of people around them".

"Legislation is going to be down to our policymakers and to the States whether they'd want to go in that direction," she said.