to hate vaping...

[Idratherbeaunicorn]

I'm aware that I may BU, but I really don't like vaping.
I don't like the big bulky vaping things that look like an old school cassette player, (Personally I think people who vape look like right plonkers!) and I don't like vaping in public!
It winds me right up - a few times I have been in places (waiting rooms, busses etc) where people aren't allowed to smoke, but they're sat there vaping... surely it should be classed as the same thing?
We don't fully understand the risks of vaping, so how do we know its not the same as smoking just yet??

is supposed to be a tool to give up smoking - not used forever.

The nice thing about vaping, which I think is part of its success, is that's it's not a medicinal product produced by a large pharmaceutical company and recommended or prescribed by your doctor. It doesn't have that air of "medically treating an addiction". Until very recently, it wasn't advertised on TV, it spread by word of mouth, and was a user-led and user-developed technology with a community around it. I think psychologically it's a lot easier to try this new thing your mate's been using that looks interesting, can be used inside and has helped them cut down the fags. It's not a "treatment" for a "condition". The fact is there's no central body like the Nicorette company marketing it as a tool to stop smoking. It's whatever you want it to be. I think that's pretty cool and it's got lots of people off cigarettes who would never have gone to the doctor or the stop smoking clinic but are open to trying this new thing that their friends does, that's actually pleasurable and interesting to use, unlike some grim-tasting prescribed chewing gum.

I will vape forever because I enjoy it.

Just like some have their alcohol and caffeine, I have my vape and I don't plan to give it up because I simply don't want to.

I can go without the nicotine. I have some juice with zero nicotine which I can vape for days without any cravings at all. I have some with nicotine because for that particular juice it is needed for the throat hit.

I don't care if I look like a tosser, anyone who looks at someone who has quit smoking and thinks they look like a tosser is a thick prick and shouldn't be taking seriously.

I quit because my children lost their father to cancer. I didn't want them to lose me either and considering how much I smoked I wasn't heading for a long life. I might look like a twat but I've prolonged my life and done something I'm very proud of.

I work in a hospital. When I go vape on my breaks behind the trees many smokers who are attached to oxygen ask me about my vape and I give them advice on the best equipment to get and tell them how easy I found the whole process. I have lost count of the amount of times people have come up to me for advice on vaping when out and about. So this twat might just have helped someone else prolong their life.

is supposed to be a tool to give up smoking - not used forever.

Who says? This is from The National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training (NCSCT) guidance for stop smoking practitioners:

Don’t push people to come off their e-cigarette. Some practitioners feel it is important to get people off nicotine as soon as possible, but in fact longer-term e-cigarette use can be a protective factor against relapse back to smoking.

Don’t be alarmed about recreational nicotine. This is a choice some people make, and it is not the business of stop smoking services to make judgements about this. We are not a ‘stop nicotine service’ and if we think getting people off their e-cigarette is a good use of our time, we are ignoring a far more important opportunity to help people quit and to stay off cigarettes. Be open to their choices, and listen to them, especially when they say that they are doing really well with their e-cigarette.

I started smoking when I was 12. Over the following 3 decades I quit loads of times. Quitting is the easy bit, it's staying off that's hard. It's only now that I vape that I am finally relapse-proof.

It's just nicotine. I enjoy it in the same way I enjoy caffeine which has a similar harm profile. I don't intend to give up either.

Long term vaping fits very well with NICE policy on tobacco harm reduction. There's also a great report from Royal College of Physicians on vaping as part of tobacco harm reduction here. Or if that's too much reading try .

Everything U2 has said. Why is it OK for someone to carrying on enjoying tea and coffee or a glass of wine, yet nicotine is a 'bad habit' or 'life choice' that people need to wean themselves off? It's the hundreds of other chemicals in cigarettes that make them so dangerous, combined with nicotine which makes them addicted. I don't care if people think dh looks like a tosser. I'm very happy I'll likely have him around for much longer, and with a better quality of life, than if he'd continued to smoke. There were times when he stunk and it made me gag to kiss him too. So, so much better now.

YANBU

People do look silly (their prerogative but still).
And gaping is not harmless, even if it has benefits as a short term solution to help someone quit smoking.

www.sciencenews.org/article/vaping-linked-host-new-health-risks

*vaping, not gaping!!

I've been vaping about 3 years. Over that time there have been a few BS 'science' articles every month about the supposed health risks of vaping. None of them have held up to scrutiny.

In your example, JJbum, the article discusses three unpublished abstracts to an AAAS conference. We don't know the details of methodology, the exact results obtained or how significant they are.

We do know that one of the abstracts cites 'anecdotal evidence' and lumps vaping in with hookah use to conclude that 'alternative tobacco products' are 'just as dangerous to your health as cigarettes'. It also relies on studying small changes in mouse brains to make statements about human mental health and behaviour.

We know that another abstract builds on already discredited research around formaldehyde and acrolein levels in ecigs. We have no idea whether the researchers made the same mistake of overheating the coils to a level that no human vaper could withstand, because they used mice. The abstract also talks about the acute cardiovascular effects of nicotine. These are well known, are similar to the effects of caffeine and have little relevence to long term outcomes.

The third abstract is from a study analysing the snot of vapers who use cinnamon flavours. It concludes that there are biomarkers for reduced immune response. That one is interesting because it at least uses human subjects. Whether changes in snot translate to actual changes in people's susceptibility to disease is another matter. I can't find any real-world evidence of vapers falling ill more frequently, in fact the vast majority enjoy much improved health because they have stopped or cut down smoking. If the findings hold up when the study is published and peer reviewed it could lead to industry making changes to eliquid recipes, such as we saw in response to Farsalinos's research on aldehydes. It could also lead to sensible advice like not using cinnamon for your all-day-vape. That's not such a headline grabber though is it?

Whenever junk science like this is published, hyped up in press releases and the media and then shared uncritically, more smokers come to the conclusion they're better off staying on the fags. We know half of them will die early unless they manage to quit.

PHE again:

There has been an overall shift towards the inaccurate perception of EC being as harmful as cigarettes over the last year in contrast to the current expert estimate that using EC is around 95% safer than smoking.

Clear and accurate information on relative harm of nicotine, EC and tobacco cigarettes is needed urgently

I'm confident that vaping isn't harming anyone around me so I vape everywhere, there's lots of socially unpleasant things that people do, maybe just chalk this up as one of them. I do feel like a plonker with my vape, I do think it resembles a crack pipe but I'm a mum and that's the reason I don't smoke cigarettes - unfortunately for me I still need the nicotine and am unfortunately for me am weak willed

Research into this area is ongoing, but it seems that e-cigs release negligible amounts of nicotine into the atmosphere and the limited evidence available suggests that any risk from passive vaping to bystanders is small relative to tobacco cigarettes. from www.nhs.uk/Livewell/smoking/Pages/passive-smoking.aspx

I agree it's safer than smoking, i think it's good if a smoker makes the change, but i also think it's early days and it should be banned from confined public spaces just like smoking. What you do to yourself is fine, but i don't want any part of it. Sure as hell i wouldn't want someone vaping in my house.