Vaping News

Hollywood Vapers Facing Bans

Celebrity vapers fall into the sights of the anti-ecig lobby.

Share on:

“I find myself weirdly conflicted about the issue of smoking in the movies, and the role of the on-screen cig in inspiring new generations of adolescents and young adults to buy a pack and amp up their ‘cool’ quotient, because it's never too early to become an addict,” writes Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune.

Phillips looks back fondly on the days spent in cinemas watching actors lighting up and exhaling clouds of smoke. And he, like most of us probably, wonders about the hypocrisy of an industry that has turned its gaze on vaping as something requiring self-policing. The fear is the normalisation of the act of smoking through seeing people vaping as if this were a thing. The electronic cigarette boom continues coupled with an on-going decline in smoking rates, a single fact that (as if it were required) destroys any normalisation argument. Meanwhile the movie houses continue to churn out flick after flick depicting and glorifying in bloody violence and the rampant use of guns – to which it is probable a far greater correlation could be drawn with murder. This isn’t to say that guns in films have a causal link to drive-by shootings, it simply stands in stark contrast to the over-reaction in banning vaping.

And vaping is to be banned for actors. The Guardian reports: “The (Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences) will ban e-cigarettes at (the Oscars) prize ceremony.” The American Lung Association slated the star of The Reverant after he was spotted using a box mod and tank at the Screen Actors Guild awards last weekend.

It isn’t the first time DiCaprio has vaped in public – and it caused no problem for director Alejandro González Iñárritu, Kate Winslet and her husband who were sharing his table. But it was an issue for those who see it as their duty to police the public. The American Lung Association immediately penned a “strongly worded memo” that called on the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences to take direct action in order to prevent DiCaprio’s “deeply troubling” habit from being shown during the Oscars ceremony. “Without Food and Drug Administration regulation and review, we simply don’t know what is in e-cigarettes,” continued the compilation of stupid.

It might be reasonable not to expect to see a nomination for A Billion Lives.

Dave Cross avatar

Dave Cross

Journalist at POTV
View Articles

Dave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous vape companies to develop content for their websites.

Join the discussion

Product

Parliament Fears Two

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs faced questions from a Conservative MP and, oddly, a member of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Vaping News

Harm Reduction For The Rich

The United Kingdom risks becoming a harm reduction country only for the wealthy, according to Michael Landl of the World Vapers’ Alliance

Vaping News

Sacrificing Health For 2p Cut

Tory Government alienates vaping voters with its mission to cut tax by an unaffordable 2p to attract voters by placing a tax on vape products in the forthcoming budget

Vaping News

Scotland Announces Single-Use Vape Action

A ban on the sale and supply of single-use vapes in Scotland is due to come into effect on 1 April 2025, under proposed legislation published today