E-cigarettes are touted as a safer option since they don’t have actual tobacco so there’s no harmful smoke that can cause potentially lethal diseases to people around you. That doesn’t mean that there hasn’t been opposition on this entire e-cigarette movement, not to mention the fact that there are countless stories of e-cigarettes causing grave harm to users. In light of all that, the U.S. Department of Transportation has banned the use of e-cigarettes on planes.
The DOT’s rules apply to all domestic and foreign flights to and from the United States. The ban covers all e-cigarettes, even those that look like pens or cigars. It doesn’t apply to nebulizers which are used for the treatment of asthma and cystic fibrosis.
There hasn’t been an official ruling on this so far from the Federal Aviation Administration so it’s unclear if this ban also applies to vaporizers even though it kind of makes sense that it does. The agency has not yet commented on this.
The House of Representatives is actually considering proper legislation to ban vaping on airplanes. Anthony Foxx, the DOT secretary, has said that this ban is meant to protect fellow passengers from “unwanted exposure to aerosol fumes,” which are a byproduct of e-cigarettes.
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