Why are people so inconsiderate with their vapes?

They've helped an estimated 2.4 million people in the UK quit smoking in the past 5 years.

The only behaviours i find irritating are ones that directly affect me

They are often a choice over less harmful forms of transport

But there is a practical and functional need for cars.

There is no practical need for vapes.

I think it's directly comparable. If people treated car exhaust fumes like they do vapes we wouldn't drive. Car exhaust fumes are proven to be more harmful than vape fumes are. There is a clear element of denial that driving your car has a very negative impact on others. That's before we think about environmental effects.

Is it really any worse than all the other smells that humans emit? Body odour, farts, halitosis, strong perfume/aftershave can all be pretty revolting.

I've never been bothered by a vape cloud, because they seem to disperse pretty quickly. But I've had migraines triggered by some perfumes when I've been stuck on a train with someone who's drenched themselves in it.

I said in an earlier post I rarely see anyone blowing Big Clouds any more because everyone's using little pod systems. I've never seen anyone blowing it in people's faces - That's the sort of extreme antisocial behaviour that would surely cause a punch up so I'm sure I'd have noticed.

But it's not possible to prove a negative so it's for the people claiming this is common behaviour to provide the evidence.

Yeah, you tell 'em!

https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/health/put-cancer-in-e-cigarettes-say-non-smokers-2014021983765

As already discussed, the vast majority of vapers are smokers or ex-smokers.

I'm sure there are some small residual risks from vaping but they are as nothing compared with the risks of smoking. If vaping keeps people off the fags that is a massive public health win.

It's like people have forgotten how terribly harmful smoking is. It kills over half of long term smokers and has a proven, serious adverse effect on the health of everyone around them.

I trust our public health system more than yours and one of the few things I'm proud of about the UK is our very sensible and evidence based policies around vaping.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nicotine-vaping-in-england-2022-evidence-update

Nothing is being 'lit up' - nothing is burnt, there is no combustion or smoke. That is the whole point.

When you eat haribo you are inhaling the flavour - most of our sense of taste is in fact smell.

I got as far as popcorn lung in the first drop-down box and gave up in despair.

That particular turd has now been circling the pan for over a decade and still it won't flush:

https://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2015/12/new-study-finds-that-average-diacetyl.html

The rest of that page is a whole bingo card full of unevidenced and disproven health claims (nicotine is addictive - I'll give them that one). They provide no references though, so it's a waste of time even attempting to address them individually.

I have no idea why Australia has gone down the route it has with quasi-prohibition but it's not evidence based and it's not working.

The trade in illicit cigarettes and vapes in Australia is now worth over $10BN. 50% of cigarettes and 90% of vapes are now black market. Criminal gangs engage in widespread extortion of legal vendors and this has resulted in over 300 firebombings.

Meanwhile total nicotine use has gone up by 40% in eight years -

https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/household-consumption-illicit-tobacco-and-nicotine-products

... and there are early indications that part of this is made up of an increase in smoking rates.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-23/act-easy-access-to-illegal-cigarettes-seeing-high-smoking-rates/105803450

https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/9937-cigarette-smoking-in-australia-press-release

The Australian government have painted themselves into a terrible corner where they are now having to consider whether to reduce the tax duty on legal tobacco.

https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/alarm-bells-pressure-builds-on-deluded-labor-as-shocking-data-shows-billions-of-tobacco-excise-lost-to-black-market/news-story/6823f16f8d07c62d61637faf8491e5de

I note one glimmer of hope - in this recent government briefing on tobacco control, among a whole load more prohibitionary ideas (all of which would merely increase the hold of the black market), there is the tentative suggestion - 'encouraging consumers to move to reduced risk products such as vapes'

https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_departments/Parliamentary_Library/Research/Issues_and_Insights/2026/TobaccoControl

I guess if you’re blowing the smoke out, you’re not actually seeing the cloud it leaves behind you; because you’re walking away from it? So they think it’s not that bad. It is.

Well, I think it is something that a significant number of people do not do, and something that absolutely everyone is aware of, that the government are trying to reduce and that is actually improving.

While you are not wrong exactly, I don't think it's comparable to vaping. It seems almost every vaper on here wants to defend it, and the main defence seems to be denial. Excepting I think two of them, who say they vape with consideration.

One even said she doesn't GAF who tastes or smells it.

To be honest we also don't have the long term effects of meeting many of these chemicals - I think we will look back and regret that as well!

Well what is your definition that makes the posts I have made seem unsensible then?

The main argument on here for people saying that vapers blow big clouds of smoke in people's faces seems to be "no they're don't".

Which raises the question; why are all these people lying?

It wouldn’t be legal if I was in charge!

I’m not a vaper but people used to moan about cigarettes and now they complain about vapers.

Unless your children are unusually tall or the vapers are unusually short, the vapour won’t be going anywhere near them in the open air as the ‘smoke’ rises.

Your life may be less stressful if you can reconcile yourself to tolerating people around you indulging in perfectly legal behaviour even if you don’t like them.

I find most behaviours irritating but as an adult I understand that’s basically tough.

Agree . There is no doubt it will have its health repercussions.

Agree. We don’t know the long term effects of lighting up synthetic ‘food grave flavourings’ and inhaling them upwards of 100 times a day. If you think 20 years of this won’t damage the body, you’re nuts, frankly.

I absolutely hate walking down the road and having these massive, repeated plumes of sickly smelling air engulfing my kids. They toke and toke and toke, they never just take a few puffs and stub out like with a cigarette. It’s absolutely rank and I guarantee every vaper on here is seen this way by the public.

Regardless of the annoyance etc, my main concern is doing it in front of kids which is such a bad influence and normalising it. You've never been able to smoke fags in a school so it shouldn't be allowed, in my opinion. And I'm a chain vaper. If that was me I'd be doing it discreetly.

PG, VG, and flavourings are still chemicals, and food grade does not automatically mean it’s safe to inhale. Safety for eating the substance and safety for repeatedly inhaling into the lungs are two different questions.

NHS to the rescue in 20 years…

But you’re not consuming them, you’re vaporising them in a plastic pen and inhaling them into your lungs.