I wish people would stop demonizing vaping...

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Sweetleaf
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18 Dec 2021, 2:34 am

Like yeah we get it, vaping is not the most healthy choice but its better than smoking cigarettes all the time. For sure I don't like the idea of people getting into vaping for the hell of it, but for those of us who got addicted to ciggerettes it's a nice alternative that presumably does not cause as much harm. Like yeah yeah, we shouldn't have started smoking in the first place but at least this provides a way to get the nicotine fix without smoking a cigarette.


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babybird
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18 Dec 2021, 5:08 am

I agree. My daughter fluctuates between vaping and cigarettes. I don't like her doing either but it is better to vape I suppose but it still does worry me.

I don't understand when people would go straight to vaping though without even smoking in the first place. This makes no sense to me. But that might be because I'm getting old.


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Sweetleaf
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18 Dec 2021, 5:25 am

babybird wrote:
I agree. My daughter fluctuates between vaping and cigarettes. I don't like her doing either but it is better to vape I suppose but it still does worry me.

I don't understand when people would go straight to vaping though without even smoking in the first place. This makes no sense to me. But that might be because I'm getting old.



well I don't quite understand people that just want to vape without having smoked but idk for that they even have nicotine free liquid. But like idk my boyfriend was smoking like two packs of cigarettes a day and honestly I was kind of worried about his health, plus when I started vaping more than smoking the smell of the cigarettes he smoked was bothering me. Still though that was just a minor inconvenience I was just more concerned at how much he was smoking...then the salt nicotine and pod devices came out and I convinced him to try it and he doesn't smoke cigarettes much anymore on occasion he'll get a pack of cigarettes but for the most part he uses the vape. Sure he didn't get off the nicotine but at least he's not smoking two packs of cancer sticks a day anymore. I was for sure worried with how much cigarettes he smoked so I was quite relieved that he was able to switch to vaping.


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ToughDiamond
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18 Dec 2021, 10:42 am

If it hadn't been for nicotine vaping I'd very likely still be smoking tobacco. The science seems pretty clear that vaping is a lot safer than cigarettes. I used nicotine gum for years before vaping came out, but it never mimicked the sharp nicotine spike of smoking, so it was never quite enough to keep me completely off the baccy.

I suppose the reservations expressed about vaping are a mixture of genuine concern, bigotry and dishonesty. It's a matter of genuine concern that vaping might not be 100% safe and that non-smokers are getting into it. Some people just seem to have a bigoted view of vaping, that it's too much like smoking and that what we should just be wholesome and stop inhaling anything that isn't air. Others (generally those in authority) have ulterior motives for opposing vaping - I guess their main aim is to protect the tobacco industry in which they have a vested interest of some kind.

I do get annoyed at the way vaping went - instead of remaining a simple substitute for cigarettes, the market got flooded out with a plethora of value-added rubbish, millions of weird and wonderful delivery devices and flavours, along with ridiculous price hikes. I can see how making vaping fun might help people move over to it from tobacco, but the whole thing just went raving mad, and was bound to attract a lot of non-smokers with more money than sense. The typical vaping shop barely knows what I'm talking about when I ask for unflavoured e-liquid and a simple, inexpensive vaping pen. I'm not happy that vaping has been turned into a source of unearned income for a load of selfish marketing types. Even the "sensible" vaping kits that can be bought over the counter in UK pharmacies and supermarkets, though touted as a practical smoking-cessation aid and free of a lot of the gimmickry, are in general not fit for purpose. The atomiser coils don't last five minutes, the "pens" are way bulkier than they need to be, they leak, and the e-liquid is too dilute to satisfy a smoker's craving for nicotine. It's a great way for the seller to lock the buyer into giving them a nice big income stream for a product that doesn't even do its job.

I can see some legitimate concerns about the potential dangers of vaping (though when you weigh them against tobacco they pale into insignificance). I'm wary of flavours because they seem to think that as long as they're relatively safe as food additives they'll be equally safe if they're inhaled. I'm suspicious of commercial companies keeping their costs down by not bothering to ensure their e-liquids are free of harmful contaminants. I'm also wary of poor-quality vaping equipment that could be putting all kinds of unhealthy components into the vapour they produce. I don't entirely trust the propellants - glycerine and propylene glycol - though the latter has been used, apparently quite safely, in asthma medication delivery systems for many years. And I don't entirely trust nicotine, because it's long been thought to be bad for the heart, though my own data from experiments with vaping and blood pressure measurements suggest that the received wisdom (that nicotine increases blood pressure) may be flawed.



Fnord
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18 Dec 2021, 11:05 am

Any substance as addictive as nicotine should be avoided altogether.



Misslizard
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18 Dec 2021, 11:13 am

I also switched to vaping.My breathing improved and no more smelly butts in the house or truck.
It’s never effected my blood pressure, it’s always on the low side.


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ToughDiamond
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18 Dec 2021, 12:52 pm

Fnord wrote:
Any substance as addictive as nicotine should be avoided altogether.

In an ideal world, yes. But once you're hooked, it may be another matter. I suspect that for some of us the craving never ends, that even if we can stop forever, life will always feel worse than it used to feel. And if there isn't a downside to continuing to imbibe that's worse than total discontinuation, it might be the path of choice. I think I can come to terms with the fact that I don't have a will of iron in some respects.

Nonetheless, I've been interested for some time in cunning methods of removing the nicotine without removing all the other associated habits that surround taking the drug. One chap suggested a very gradual reduction in the nicotine concentration of the e-liquid, which he reckoned could be so small as to be imperceptible. And I'm still looking for some kind of pepper gum that might replace nicotine gum. But commercially-available chewing gum doesn't cater for people like me, and I don't have much information on how to create my own.



Misslizard
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18 Dec 2021, 1:18 pm

I use Vuse , golden tobacco flavor, 5% nicotine.The pens last forever, flavor is great and they don’t leak.Blu pods always leaked for me so I quit buying them.


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SabbraCadabra
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18 Dec 2021, 9:45 pm

On one hand, I suppose it does get people to stop smoking tobacco, but they've only replaced one vice with another.

And all of the friends/family I know who vape, they modify theirs with hotter coils so they can get a lot more nicotine out of them, and they vape very, very frequently. It seems like that would negate any health benefits.

But it is nice to not have everyones' houses turn yellow and stink of stale old smoke. My brother always smelled terrible, and got the smell on everything he touched, and now he just smells like candy.


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ToughDiamond
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19 Dec 2021, 1:34 am

SabbraCadabra wrote:
On one hand, I suppose it does get people to stop smoking tobacco, but they've only replaced one vice with another.

And all of the friends/family I know who vape, they modify theirs with hotter coils so they can get a lot more nicotine out of them, and they vape very, very frequently. It seems like that would negate any health benefits.

But it is nice to not have everyones' houses turn yellow and stink of stale old smoke. My brother always smelled terrible, and got the smell on everything he touched, and now he just smells like candy.


I think they'd have to try extremely hard to subject themselves to the same risk of death from vaping as they'd get from tobacco smoking. The worst I know of that can happen with vaping is lung damage, which can lead to death but it's happened in relatively few cases. Tobacco on the other hand carries a pretty high risk of lung cancer - one estimate I saw put the risk at 50% for a lifelong smoker. The case mortality rates for lung cancer are pretty high, and the treatments are horrific. And that's only one cause of smoking-related death. Of course it's asking for trouble to use untested modifications to a vaping device, but if somebody does that then the question is about the relative risk of irresponsible vaping versus smoking. The notion of responsible smoking is almost meaningless, but responsible vaping seems a more realistic concept. More research is probably needed to find out exactly how to control any risks. I'd like to see a range of medically certified vaping devices and liquids.



Sweetleaf
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19 Dec 2021, 3:35 am

Fnord wrote:
Any substance as addictive as nicotine should be avoided altogether.


It is true it would have been best to avoid nicotine altogether cannot deny that. But well at the very least vaping does not leave a stink on you like cigarettes, so even if it's not as good as stopping altogether at least with vapers you don't have to suffer that gross cigarette smell on our clothes like smokers have.

I mean while I was smoking I didn't really notice it but as I mentioned I switched to vaping before my boyfriend and at that point I really did notice the smell, so yeah I can feel for non-smokers who have had to suffer that stench. Over all though we'd both also like to quit vaping someday, but for now it is at least better than smoking cigarettes.


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Sweetleaf
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19 Dec 2021, 3:44 am

ToughDiamond wrote:
SabbraCadabra wrote:
On one hand, I suppose it does get people to stop smoking tobacco, but they've only replaced one vice with another.

And all of the friends/family I know who vape, they modify theirs with hotter coils so they can get a lot more nicotine out of them, and they vape very, very frequently. It seems like that would negate any health benefits.

But it is nice to not have everyones' houses turn yellow and stink of stale old smoke. My brother always smelled terrible, and got the smell on everything he touched, and now he just smells like candy.


I think they'd have to try extremely hard to subject themselves to the same risk of death from vaping as they'd get from tobacco smoking. The worst I know of that can happen with vaping is lung damage, which can lead to death but it's happened in relatively few cases. Tobacco on the other hand carries a pretty high risk of lung cancer - one estimate I saw put the risk at 50% for a lifelong smoker. The case mortality rates for lung cancer are pretty high, and the treatments are horrific. And that's only one cause of smoking-related death. Of course it's asking for trouble to use untested modifications to a vaping device, but if somebody does that then the question is about the relative risk of irresponsible vaping versus smoking. The notion of responsible smoking is almost meaningless, but responsible vaping seems a more realistic concept. More research is probably needed to find out exactly how to control any risks. I'd like to see a range of medically certified vaping devices and liquids.


Well that is why I wish there wasn't a smear campaign against vaping, that probably prevent some of the better research that can be done. Also, its the cigarette industry that benefits the most from that, like the anti vaping stuff out isn't about health it's about Marlboro not liking the competition with their product, they want people to keep smoking the cancer sticks.

Most vape shops don't even sell cigarettes, its more common to see pipes or bongs for smoking weed in a vape shop than it is to see cigarettes in one. By now signs that say smoke and vape shop mean things to smoke weed out of and vaping supplies but no cigarettes at least around here.


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SabbraCadabra
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19 Dec 2021, 6:32 am

Sweetleaf wrote:
Also, its the cigarette industry that benefits the most from that, like the anti vaping stuff out isn't about health it's about Marlboro not liking the competition with their product, they want people to keep smoking the cancer sticks.

Exactly.


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ToughDiamond
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19 Dec 2021, 1:05 pm

This is the kind of thing that Public Heath England said about vaping in 2018. One of their main concerns is that people tend to perceive nicotine as just as dangerous as tobacco. I've not seen any changes to policy in the UK since publication, and although I suspect the blatant demonization of vaping is mostly an American thing, I do wonder why the UK government doesn't seem to have acted on their own findings that show an irrational distrust of vaping. We're out of the EU now, so they can't claim their hands are tied by reactionary edicts from Brussels.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... nce-review



ezbzbfcg2
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19 Dec 2021, 1:43 pm

ToughDiamond wrote:
One of their main concerns is that people tend to perceive nicotine as just as dangerous as tobacco.

Although one can vape many different substances, the most common substance to vape is nicotine. So, for nicotine junkies like myself, vaping is much more convenient than smoking. Nothing is burned, there's no lingering smell, you can vape anytime, anywhere, without notice as long as no one sees you. It got me off the habit of lighting up cigarettes...tobacco leaves are burned to inhale the active ingredient nicotine, as well as all sorts of other things in the tobacco, added chemicals, and stuff in the paper, inhaled as smoke.

Perhaps vaping is actually more unhealthy, or perfectly safe, or comparable, or healthier-but-not-by-much. We have centuries of observations on the bad effects of smoking tobacco. Vaping is really still too new to know how bad it may be, or how much better/worse than smoking it is. This is the first generation of guinea pigs. I'm glad to be part of it. Still, I do LOVE the smell of actual cigarette smoke now when I pass by a smoker more than I ever did when I was actually smoking cigarettes.



ezbzbfcg2
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19 Dec 2021, 1:46 pm

Also, what were the complaints about cigarette smoking from non-smokers?:

It smells bad
Second-hand smoke fears
Litter of cigarette butts and ash on the ground
Smokers using "cigarette break" as an excuse to disappear.

None of these are a problem with vaping, so if someone is concerned with their own safety or sanitation or productivity, they should be happier that someone nearby is vaping rather than smoking.