Has vaping caused more problems than it has solved?

Two words: popcorn lung.

The UK is also really terrible about enforcing any laws like that and so you would never know that disposable vapes have been banned - they are still everywhere. It’s a joke.

So there are two products legally on sale, one of which has a 50% chance of killing you, the other of which doesn't, and also has a good chance of weaning you off the product which is likely to kill you.

And you think it's a good idea to restrict sales of the safer product, making it more difficult to buy than the product which will likely kill you?

Australia went down that route. It's not going well.

Absolutely terrible for the environment. Which young people don't seem to care that much about sadly.

Looks awful, and should be banned except on prescription on environmental basis as well as health.

This!

Agree with the comments about it being cringeworthy. It’s really pathetic, I can’t believe grown adults do it in public.

People seem to have forgotten just how harmful smoking is.

Around half of long term smokers die from smoking related diseases, losing on average a decade of life. It accounts for more than 70,000 deaths per year in England - 15% of all deaths of adults aged 35 and over. These are mostly not quick deaths. As well as cancers of organs throughout the body, smoking causes severe respiratory diseases and cardiovascular diseases which disable people who smoke for decades before they die.

The harms of smoking are not restricted to smokers themselves (although they bear by far the highest health burden) - second hand smoke increases the risks of all the same diseases in non-smokers, as well as causing miscarriage, stillbirth, low birth weight and SIDS.

Children with parents who smoke are three times more likely to start smoking themselves, so continuing the cycle of poor health, disability and premature death.

Smoking is still the biggest cause of preventable death and ill health in the UK and this burden is massively disproportionately borne by people who are poor and / or who have serious mental illness. It's the biggest factor by far in causing health inequalities.

https://ash.org.uk/resources/view/smoking-statistics
https://ash.org.uk/resources/view/secondhand-smoke
https://ash.org.uk/resources/view/young-people-and-smoking
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-matters-smoking-and-mental-health/health-matters-smoking-and-mental-health

Over a quarter of all ex-smokers in Great Britain say they used a vape to quit, amounting to 4.8 million people. Among those who quit in the last five years, 58% used a vape which amounts to 2.5 million ex-smokers. It's a phenomenally successful method for stopping smoking.

https://ash.org.uk/resources/view/use-of-e-cigarettes-among-adults-in-great-britain

Even if every single one of those ex-smokers carried on vaping for the rest of their lives, vaping would have to be really fucking terrible to 'cause more problems than it has solved'.

And it's just not. Years ago, PHE estimated a hypothetical risk of vaping as around 5% of the risk of smoking and that still stands. No research since 2015 has put a dent in that estimate. Vaping is not smoking. There is no combustion and none of the smoke inhalation which is responsible for the harms of smoking.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/e-cigarettes-around-95-less-harmful-than-tobacco-estimates-landmark-review

Children try vaping just like they try smoking, drinking, drugs and sex. Most will come through adolescence relatively unscathed by this experimental behaviour. A few will end up addicted to something.

On its own, without the harms of smoke inhalation, nicotine has a very similar harm profile to caffeine. I don't feel I have failed as a parent because my adult children both enjoy a coffee in the morning.

I am far more worried about the 4.8% of young people who currently smoke than the 6% who currently vape.

https://ash.org.uk/resources/view/use-of-e-cigarettes-among-young-people-in-great-britain

Vapes should have been available to smokers who wanted to quit on prescription. Sadly, they have become part of some sort of sub-culture, like rub off lottery tickets. Exceptionally scummy.

Vaping caused more problems than it solved for me. I was smoking 6 roll ups a day, I had to give up quickly and got support via an app who gave me vape juice and a vape. I became really addicted to it. Way more than I ever was to the cigs. I managed to stop recently after 6 months of use using patches. I realise now how lethargic it made me. I’m slowly feeling better and improving my health, but honestly think that vaping has been so much more damaging than smoking was.

Yes, still trying to give up

But I’m not just saying that, cause I’m struggling

Everyone fucking Vapes. It’s amazing. People who never smoked vape because it doesn’t leave this horrible smell everywhere. You can get Vapes that don’t smell awful.

So huge number of us are getting through the day powered by nicotine

And yeah, for kids, it must be very attractive too

Some people will tell you this was all planned. I know the vape shop people quite well. They have been there for years so long before it all became fashionable. They said that it was always planned for it basically to take the place of cigarettes because government can’t do without the tax on cigarettes so they think eventually it will be taxed

Although I’m now confused whether it’s taxed or not

Literally trying to give up for the nth time this week

The sad thing is, I don’t even know why I’m trying to give up I wouldn’t give up coffee

I no longer feel judged actually because most people do it. It started out that my peers didn’t do it, but now they do it too!

Agree with PPs that a major problem with vaping is that there's no fixed end to it like there is a with a cigarette so some people just keep continually puffing away. A proportion of vapers don't understand or don't care that not everyone wants to breathe in their second hand vapours whereas smokers know they need to go outside away from children etc and tend to show more consideration.

I was literally thinking about this yesterday - was talking to my 13 year old who is so completely anti cigarettes as thinks they are disgusting. He also said he’ll never try a vape as god knows what long term side effects are but he has friends who have tried them . Feel like the ridiculous blueberry etc flavours are are absolutely marketed towards teens. It’s so sad.

It’s up to the individual premises as to whether you can vape indoors. Like pubs, some allow it, some don’t.

Best practice is to have separate vaping and smoking areas as it needs to be defined that they are different and people using a vape shouldn’t be forced to be with smokers in a smoking area

of course they would. My parents never smoked, I knew the health risks, I knew it didn’t smell nice and I still picked one up age 12 and tried one
my mum had a nose like a bloodhound and the amount of screaming over me smoking over the years…

ecigs are the only thing that have stopped me smoking. Ever

Let’s also not ignore the blight on the high street of vape shops as money laundering fronts. The environmental impact is huge and the long term health implications unknown. The brazen scruffs who vape in public indoor spaces need fines handing to them too.

The disposable vape market certainly increased the amount of litter in the streets around me.

It's a pathetic thing to see so many people, especially young people going round puffing on their chemical harmonicas. Every single person who does this has learned to do it in the full knowledge that even if it's not harming them in some way it's doing them absolutely no good whatsover. Humans are stupid.

As a stop smoking temporary replacement they’re acceptable. Now that children are openly addicted to them it presents a very strong case to ban them completely OR make them the same price as cigarettes.

I hate them personally and it is vile how society has sleep walked into a young teen vape epidemic, addressing this head on needs to happen and fast.

They definitely should have been prescription only. They're only beneficial for people who were already smokers as a stepping stone to quitting. Letting vaping become a thing in it's own right was a bad move.

Thank you. That makes a lot of sense.

As someone who was thrilled to see the back of smoking and saw it dying out.

I’ve been horrified to see the grip this addiction now has on (seemingly) an entire generation.

It’s a different hit of nicotine
cigarettes are like trying to to get drunk off vodka, it needs a shot and your blood alcohol is higher
vaping is like lager, you need more to get the same level of nicotine
that’s why vapers want a drag or two more often but smokers go longer between cigarettes

They massively addictive.

I didn’t realise that they were worse in that regard, until I worked with both vapers and smokers. The smokers can wait for their breaks but the vapers are all nipping back to their lockers for a nicotine hit.

They’re Targeted at kids. Sold at the prime counter space where sweets used to be prominently displayed.

Sold in pretty colours..

sold with teenage smelling/flavours

pretty lights

unicorn pictures etc etc

Now every teen to thirty year old I know is hooked.

Who benefits? Not them.

I smoked. Gave up 25 years ago but have frequently fallen off the wagon. The thing about smoking is that it is truly disgusting (seems obvious but easily ignored if you’re in full nicotine addiction mode) - it’s burns the inside of your mouth, stains your fingers, kills your taste buds and I could on. But vaping has none of those downsides which means there’s less incentive to give up. It’s why I’ve never vaped rather than smoked - I know it find it even harder to quit.