Chinese passenger caught vaping in plane gets 5 days in detention

A passenger on a domestic flight in China has been detained for five days for smoking an electronic cigarette in the plane’s bathroom.

The passenger ran afoul of a ban on smoking cigarettes, including electronic ones, on a flight between Hangzhou and Changchun city in China’s northeastern Jilin province on September 29, according to local media reports.

The punishment comes on the heels of an incident this summer when an Air China flight was forced to descend 25,000 feet in 10 minutes after a co-pilot shut off the air-conditioning in the cabin, while trying to prevent his electronic cigarette smoke from filtering into the cabin.

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While domestic airlines have regulations regarding smoking electronic cigarettes, China – the world’s largest producer of electronic cigarettes – has no national laws regarding the regulation of their use or production.

But experts are calling for this to change, saying restrictions on smoking electronic cigarettes, or vaping, should not just be limited to planes, but should also be included in the ban on smoking conventional cigarettes in public places in a growing number of Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.

“There are many reports that electronic cigarette smokers are vaping in restaurants and public walking places, and there’s no regulation for this behaviour,” said Rose Zheng, director of the World Health Organisation’s Collaborating Centre for Tobacco and Economics at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.

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“Now there are experts and appeals from the general public saying that vaping restrictions should be included in the smoke free legislation,” Zheng said.