Professor Gilmore:

Smoke-free legislation had a number of impacts. It was primarily there to protect non-smokers from the effects of second-hand smoke, which we know is harmful, and it was successful in that: we evaluated it and showed reductions in admissions to hospital for heart attacks, asthma and so on. We know far less about second-hand vape, if you like, but smoke-free legislation also de-normalised smoking. I think that having vape-free public places would go towards de-normalising vaping, which is also really important, particularly among younger people.

The other thing, of course, is that the more you vape, the more nicotine you are taking in and the more you are addicted. If you can do it in public places and in workplaces, you can get more and more addicted; some ex-smokers have said to me that they find that a problem, because they can just keep vaping in some places, so they are now using more nicotine than ever before. I suppose it is theoretically possible that if they were not able to vape, they might shift back to smoking, but I do not think they would: we do not have any evidence for that and I do not think that that even really makes sense. Certainly, in terms of de-normalising vaping and reducing addiction, there would be benefits.