To think that ALL smoking (cigarettes and e-cigs) should be banned in public places?!

[babybearsmummy]

I've been sat in my GP waiting room with my little girl waiting for my appt and in walks a lady puffing away on an e-cig. She hasn't put it away and is just sat smoking it.

AIBU to think this is rude and that, just because it's not an actual cigarette, the same rules should apply, mainly because it's stinking the whole waiting room out!?!

[KatieScarlett2833]

vape up your sleeve, hold your breath for 10 seconds and breathe out, no smoke at all

[oakmouse]

YABU about e-cigs, this woman's must have been an exception. (Or else she had been chainsmoking the real thing and whipped out the other to get her through the wait at the surgery...)

MIL used to not be able to get down the road without lighting up and when she picked ds up he smelt of smoke afterwards. Now she has completely switched to ecigs and hardly even smokes those. We are so proud of her.

A major part of making the transition was the convenience of being able to sit in the warm and light up anywhere. It made up for that "deprived" feeling she had at first. We have never been bothered by her smoking ecigs in the house. Maybe some brands are more noxious than others?

[JohnCusacksWife]

I think YABU to suggest that e-cigs should be banned from ALL public spaces. I can't think of a reason to ban them from social spaces like clubs, bars etc.

But I do think there are some places where I would think it odd behaviour - like a school, hospital, office etc - although I have to admit that that's not an entirely logical position. It just wouldn't seem appropriate.

[PlentyOfPubeGardens]

BorcestshireBlue

What it does do is normalise addiction.
A bit like coffee then?

And the sweet flavouring are marked towards young people.
No they're not, they've been developed by the vaping community who realised they do better if they change flavours fairly frequently. I find the idea that adults don't like sweet things a bit bizarre.

This will never be a good a thing.
It's already a good thing. It looks like it's already the most successful way of getting people off smoking, especially long term, heavily addicted smokers.

E-cigs are not regulated
yes they are

and there is no evidence, as yet, to say they are safe.
There is mounting evidence that they are around 1000 times safer than smoking. 'We don't know everything about them' is not the same as 'we don't know anything about them'. It's true we don't yet have proper longitudinal studies (I'd be more than happy to be a guinea pig) but the constituent ingredients have all been around for a very long time, without causing problems. For many many people, as Cigarettes has pointed out, vaping is their best bet for staying off the fags. It's not vaping vs. nothing, it's vaping vs. smoking we need to look at. Given that smokers will in all likelihood die from smoking related diseases, this is worth thinking hard about.

Two good round-ups of current research here (create a free account if you want to access the full paper) and here.

The fact that people are walking round with them glued to their mouths like dummies suggests that they are probably more dependent on nicotine than they were before.
No it suggests that nicotine is absorbed in a very different way, you don't get the sharp nicotine hit you get from a fag, it's a lot more gradual. This has been suggested as a reason why lots of people find them easier to give up than fags - i.e. they're less addicted. I certainly find it easier to go without if I have to, than I did with the fags. It also possibly suggests that vapers are really fucking enjoying themselves

[MildDrPepperAddiction]

Yanbu. They should be treated the same. If you want to smoke an ecig then go to a designated smoking area. They do smell and people are so fucking cheeky about where they smoke them.

[PlentyOfPubeGardens]

Cigarettes, maybe I misinterpreted this post ...

And vapour oil disappeared everybody would be back on 'real' fags b the end of the week.

Makes me piss when people claim they no longer smoke while puffing on a vapour cig ha ha

If you wouldn't find it funny if vaping was banned and everyone went back to fags then I'm glad.

[magimedi]

I smoked for nearly 40 years.

I have given up for nearly 18 months

I have now reduced my nicotine level from 18 to 6 & am en route to going down to zero.

I can now swim 1K without any issue & feel so much better than when I smoked.

I would bore you all forever if I listed all my other failed attempts to quit smoking (none of which lasted for more than 6 months - at best).

Long livwe vaping & anyone who is against it is a non smoker (usually) who is being VV Unreasonable.

[magimedi]

live obv.

And anyone who is not a nicotine addict - which I am - and argues that vaping should be stopped knows nothing about the horrors of addiction should have a bit more sympathy.

I'd like to hear your reaction if I said I was a heroin addict .

[PlentyOfPubeGardens]

Well done magi that's excellent!

Addiction gets lots of sympathy as long as you're miserable. You're supposed to be a saaaad nicotine addict, shuffling to the GP for a prescription for crappy, sad, medicalised NRT which won't work (but it'll be your fault when it doesn't)

[BackOnlyBriefly]

The original argument was that people shouldn't smoke indoors as it harmed other people. Not that this was likely unless you were in a phone booth with 8 smokers, but ok it was a reason of sorts.

Then they said "oh it's not fair that you are smoking outside as we have to walk outside sometimes"

So now we're seeing that "but we didn't want you to be able to enjoy smoking full stop".

I think it's rather sad.

PlentyOfPubeGardens I loved the link

[Cigarettesandsmirnoff]

plenty crossed wires.

I certainly wouldn't find it funny at all. I gave up smoking while pregnant with dd but started soon after and just could not stop.

I just find it amusing that people claim to be non smokers (now vapours) yet if vapour fags were with drawn people would be legging it to the shops for there old fashioned fags. But that's just my take on it - as a vaper lover myself.

[ginmakesitallok]

Magi, if you were a heroin addict you'd be completely ostracised, stigmatised, probably lose your job and certainly wouldn't be welcome to take your methadone openly in a public place.

But I agree that there seems to be a general feeling that stopping smoking should be a miserable experience and that there is a certain amount of suffering you need to go through as penance for your smoking sins.

[ThisSummerBetterBeDarnGood]

yes - or ban it within a certain radius of other people. I dread summer as i cant open my windows due to neighbours smoke.

[ginmakesitallok]

Cigarettes, I haven't had a cigarette in over 9 months. I am currently not a smoker. In the future I may become a smoker again, as may any non smoker. What might happen in the future does not negate my current status.

[BorcestshireBlue]

Plentyof - I stopped reading when you likened nicotine addiction to coffee - utter rubbish.

[ginmakesitallok]

Borcester, why utter rubbish?

[Cigarettesandsmirnoff]

Right ok gin what ver floats your boat.

[Allergictoironing]

I am an EX smoker, I now vape. I can truthfully say I no longer smoke because I don't inhale combustion products which are commonly called "smoke". I do inhale a substance containing nicotine - same stuff, same safe quality as that used in traditional NRTs. The other ingredients are those used in many foods, and the carrier used for inhalers like nicotine inhalers. All the ingredients bar the flavourings are pharmaceutical grade, and the flavourings are food grade.

My GP was very encouraging when I saw him recently; ideally he wants me to try to slowly cut down the nicotine content but he was very happy that I was vaping instead of smoking, and agrees that e-cigarettes seem to be the best method to date to at least reduce or control an addiction that he understands is one of the hardest to quit (MUCH harder than alcohol in his opinion).

I suppose my vape stick could be described as looking like a cigarette, assuming that cigarettes were about twice the length they actually are, much thicker, weigh about 3-4 times what they actually do, have a purple (or yellow, or green) clear plastic end, and are shiny anodised rainbow in colour. Oh, and don't glow on the end at all. But it IS roughly cylindrical in shape and is held in my hand, so that makes it the same I suppose.

My sister is very strongly opposed to smoking, won't have it near her & the smell makes her ill. But she's happy for me to vape in her house, including the tobacco flavour I sometimes use. She says she can't smell that one, but sometimes she gets a faint whiff of fruit from some of the others.

There hasn't been a cigarette in the house for 3 weeks now but when I walked into my spare bedroom the other day, which I have never smoked in, I could smell the old smoke on the curtains. So I'd assume that the person in the waiting room was someone who still smokes as well as vapes, and the OP was smelling the smoke on her clothing & in her hair.

[Cigarettesandsmirnoff]

I don't know why some vapours are obsessed with trying to convince themselves people they are no longer smokers.

You inhale nicotine , you blow out steam/oil ,you hold it in between your fingers , your tricking your mind your smoking, but oh no! I don't smoke, no sireeee!

I feel sad for you

[Cigarettesandsmirnoff]

All the ingredients bar the flavourings are pharmaceutical grade, and the flavourings are food grade

What utter bullshit! You know that for a fact do you ?

[PlentyOfPubeGardens]

Why is it rubbish, Borcestshire?

Cigarettes, yes crossed wires

[Allergictoironing]

Borcest , gin was referring to a more socially acceptable addiction i.e. coffee. I have known people who cannot function without coffee, and they get physical withdrawal symptoms if they have to go without it. So yes she was likening 2 similar things, both physical addictions (caffeine and nicotine).

Cigarettes I am not addicted to smoking, I am addicted to nicotine and have a hand to mouth habit. If vaping were banned then yes I'd probably end up smoking again and hate every second of it because of the combined nicotine addiction tied in with the habit, not because I am addicted to the thousands of other dangerous substances that I would be stuck with when feeding the nicotine addiction.

[ginmakesitallok]

Cigarettes, no need to feel sorry for me. I don't stink any more, I have lots more money in my pocket, and my chances of dying from a smoking related disease is much reduced.

If you still smoke you smell bad, pay more for your habit than I do and have a 50% chance of dying from a smoking related disease. Whatever floats your boat.

[Allergictoironing]

Oh and I don't hold my vape stick between my fingers, it's too bulky & heavy for that.

"You know that for a fact do you ?". Apart from me knowing people who are in the business of manufacturing e-liquids, who have independent testers of all their ingredients into the factory and the liquids they produce? But you may as well say the same thing about ANYTHING you buy that's supposed to be safe or of a particular standard.