Free Costin issues a health warning to the ‘vapers’ of Bethnal Green.
Believe it or not, Bethnal Green Road is little different today from how it looked when I was growing up there 15 years ago – give or take a few chicken shops. As ever, the Marquis of Cornwallis is packed with punters talking nineteen to the dozen in voices sharp enough to cut glass. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same blokes have been in there all that time – pint of brown ale in one hand, ‘bird’ in the other, cigarettes dangling from their mouths.
Except it’s not the same old cigarette: the cigs have all gone ‘E’.
It’s been quite a journey, from everybody smoking over the bar, to the smoking ban coming in and people going outside to smoke, to ‘STOPTOBER’ – except that your average Cockney can’t last even a day without ‘roasting for a fag’.
And now we have entered the age of the e-cigarette, which strangely enough means punters coming back inside the pub to imbibe nicotine along with their beer.
Looking around, of the 50-odd people I see at least 30 of them are using e-cigarettes – allegedly the way to enjoy nicotine in a non-cancerous, disease free, eco-friendly fashion. But hold on a minute: if it took 400 years to find out the risks of smoking, are we going to give e-cigarettes another 400 before we discover they are nearly as bad?
One of the Cornwallis regulars tried to reassure me: ‘My missus wanted me to give up ‘cuz of my health. Now my hands are still busy but I’m a healthier bloke’. But he had no idea of what he has been putting into his body. E-cigarettes deliver a cocktail of toxic chemicals including carcinogens into the lungs. I’m sure if that were written on the box, the punters would have second thoughts!
There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that e-cigarettes have caused stomach aches and bleeding gums. People using them are coughing up things that shouldn’t be coughed up! I bet it won’t be long before scientists provide proof of the health risks – and it seems silly to ignore the likelihood until the case is proven.
Public opinion is already shifting. Perhaps not in the Cornwallis, but in other places e-cigarette users are already being sent outside. Now banishment beckons for ‘vapers’ as well as smokers. Here we go again, you might say. But to my mind, it’s not a moment too soon.