Whether to vape inside becomes a cloudy issue

Everywhere you go, you see signs on doors telling you not to smoke inside.

It makes sense, given the dangers of second-hand cigarette smoking.

But clouds you see inside shops like J Vapes, which sells e-cigarettes, aren’t smoke, but vapor.

“It’s the same feeling, being able to exhale something. It worked better for me than using a nicotine patch,” said Jessica Halliburton with J Vapes.

That sensation is legal inside her shop and several others across Colorado Springs. As a whole, it’s legal in Colorado Springs.

When the city passed its smoking ordinance in 2006, e-cigarettes weren’t on the market. No law was ever passed regulating them inside. For a rule of practice, it’s all up to the place you visit.

“We’ve had a handful of customers do it. We don’t encourage it, we don’t discourage it,” said Nanci Sanders, a waitress at Sheldon’s Lunchery. “And when they do it, we’ve never had one complaint about it. If I didn’t see it, I wouldn’t have noticed it. It doesn’t leave a scent, a smell behind. It’s not like a cigarette.”

But others establishments have instituted rules. Chain restaurants including Old Chicago and Buffalo Wild Wings have policies asking customers not to vape inside.

But what about vapes on a plane? American Airlines, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines all ban it.

“Maybe it’s the confusion between cigarettes and electronic cigarettes. If a smoker sees you use it they make it’s okay to smoke there,” Halliburton said.

The medical community is split on the issue. Most say there’s no federal regulation on the devices so there’s no way to know what’s actually inside of them.

But the American Heart Association came out to support the devices last September, as long as it’s a tool in smoking cessation.

But where you try to quit is ultimately up to the establishment.

“I try to respect people and don’t do it because it concerns other people. One of their customers sees it and it scares them,” Halliburton said.

And this debate will only grow bigger.

Fortune magazine predicts e-cigarette sales will grow by 25 percent each year through 2018.

Sales of tobacco cigarettes are actually starting to decline.