If you were to take the median temperature of institutional attitudes towards vaping and e-cigarettes, you would see things generally heating up in the direction of regulation. However, while we have no objection to a number of the more sensible regulatory measures on the table, one of Britain’s most respected and longest standing institutions is looking at vaping from a different perspective and is set to reap the benefits of the new technology.
In the wake of claims made by the whistle-blowing Weapons Engineer, William McNeilly that submariners’ unauthorised vaping posed safety risks on board the British Trident fleet, Royal Navy medical officers have looked at the issue and decided to allow sailors to puff away in the deep. It is their view that the miniscule fire risk involved, lessened as it is by the use of reputable e-cigarette brands like multiCIG, is negligible enough to be outweighed by the benefits to be gained from allowing stressed out submariners to indulge.
Smoking on board the British submarine fleet used to be allowed in certain dedicated compartments but in the latter part of the last decade the practice became subject to a blanket ban. As a consequence, our brave submariners, or at least those who smoke, were expected to endure weeks of high pressure underwater operations without the simple satisfaction of inhaling nicotine.
Tobacco products, as is well documented, are incredibly harmful and we would never encourage their use but, at the same time, it would seem cruel to deny young men serving their country in such a way. Let’s not forget, these guys go to sea for as long as six months at a time and, as well as living in seriously cramped conditions, face the possibilities of attack, fire and drowning on a daily basis.
But now the Royal Navy is set to enable submariners to alleviate the stresses involved in manning our nuclear deterrent by giving the green light to vaping. While the step won’t turn these giants of the sea into any kind of underwater funhouse, the service of these sailors certainly warrants a little marginal goodwill.
As an MoD spokesman put it, “There is clear evidence e-cigarette use would not have put safety of a boat at risk.” That’s the kind of plain-speaking and forward-thinking we often see as absent in the wider debate about e-cigarettes and vaping.
