A couple has been banned from adopting due to e Cigs. The couple, have been stopped from adopting a child even though they had passed several tests, all because the would-be father was seen smoking an e-cigarette.
The decision, made by social workers at Staffordshire County Council, isn’t a first time this decision has been made due to smoking or ecigarettes.
The couple were told that adoption would not be possible if either of them had used an e-cigarette in the past year. Experts agree that ‘vaping’ poses little or no threat to children in the home, and the fact that parents smoke or vape, has no impact on how good they may be as parents.
The couple spoke out to the Mail on Sunday stating: “When there are so many children desperate for a family and a stable home, to put up such trivial barriers is ridiculous.”
According to an investigation, at least 13 councils across the UK ban e-cigarette users from fostering or adopting, which has shocked us here at Vvapour, as many of our users have smoked for years and are great parents. These parents have moved on to eCigarettes to get off smoking, and are actively trying to improve there life and health. Why then stop these people adopting?
‘Abigail’ and ‘Brian’, who do not want to give their real names, approached Staffordshire council in December 2013 after failing other methods of child conception, like In-vitro Fertilisation for example. The couple had already spent £20,000 trying to conceive before considering adoption.
By last September, the couple had undergone medicals, interviews, tests in personality and character, financial background checks, and more. They had past all these tests and were obviously a great fit for a child who needs them. The pair thought they were on track to adopt an have a child of there own. But, when a social worker saw Brian using an e-cig, everything changed immediately.
Brian, 45, said: ‘By then I’d stopped smoking completely and hadn’t had a real cigarette in months. I was using e-cigarettes as a cessation aid, to ease the nicotine cravings.’
The social worker had previously warned the couple the council did not allow smokers to adopt children under 5, although nothing was mentioned about the use of eCigarettes. The social worker later told the couple that if they had even used an eCigarette in the last 12 months, they would not be able to adopt.
Not all councils and communities feel this way however. Other councils do agree that people ‘should not be prevented from fostering or applying because of e-cigarettes use’. As there are plenty of smokers and vapers out there that make great parents, and there are plenty of non-smokers out there that will make horrible parents.
Professor Robert West, director of tobacco studies at University College London, said the policy was ‘badly thought out’ and would cause ‘significant harm’.
“There are so many misconceptions about e-cigarettes that policy makers and the public are getting very confused,” he added.
At least 13 other councils across England state they will not place under-fives with e-cigarette users. They include Bury, Kirklees, North Tyneside, Durham, Warrington, West Sussex, Poole, Cornwall, Camden, Wolverhampton, Sandwell, Walsall and Dudley councils.
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Read more here: Couple Banned From Adopting