About vaping?

[LadyOfTheCanyon]

First off, let me just say I have no problem with people smoking/vaping. I don't myself but people are welcome to.
The other day as I was walking along, the two people in front of me exhaled massive clouds of vapour which I walked straight into.
It only then occurred to me that I was breathing in warm damp vapour almost directly from someone else's lungs.
AIBU to think that this is potentially a very easy way to spread infection?

I hope I don't sound precious - I'm more curious as to the 'science' behind it.

Vape smoke can be strong smelling but I much prefer it to deodorant, especially Lynx and the like, which set off my asthma. I'm all in favour of Vaping.

E-cigarette use, known as vaping, is not covered by smokefree legislation. E-cigarettes do not burn tobacco and do not create smoke. While debate continues about their absolute level of safety, the consensus across England’s public health community is that e-cigarettes are significantly safer for users than smoked tobacco. An independent review of the latest evidenceii published by Public Health England (PHE) in 2015 found that, based on the international peer-reviewed evidence, vaping is around 95% safer for users than smoking. It also confirmed the findings of PHE’s 2014 independent evidence review,iii that there is no evidence of harm to bystanders from exposure to e-cigarette vapour and the risks to their health are likely to be extremely low.

From here.

I'm sure it is much, much healthier than cigarettes. I do wonder how many young people have started vaping when they would never have started smoking though, given the 'cool' packaging and lower risk associated with vaping.

Very few. Regular vaping, even among youth, is almost entirely confined to past or current smokers:

Regular use of EC among youth is rare with around 2% using at least monthly and 0.5% weekly. A minority of British youth report having tried EC (national estimates suggest around 12%). Whilst there was some experimentation with EC among never smokers, nearly all those using EC regularly were cigarette smokers.

From here.

This is why they are now changing the packaging, I think from march so that it is plain and not so attractive

Plain packaging for cigarettes came in on 20 May 2016. There is a grace period until 20 May 2017 for old stock to be sold.

We're not getting plain packaging for ecigs. What we are getting is stupidly small bottles for eliquid, stupidly small tanks to put it in, a reduction of permitted nicotine strength and a notification regime so onerous it will put a lot of SMEs out of business. All for no health gain at all. No plain packaging though

7SunshineSeven7 - do they have a specific vaping policy where you work? Vaping is not covered by smoke-free legislation (obviously, since it's not smoking) and workplaces and venues are free to make their own rules. Public Health England have produced a very good guide to help employers and venue owners make sensible, evidence-based policies, rather than stupid knee-jerk ones that treat vaping the same as smoking.

I fucking hate it. My DP does it and I absolutely HATE it. especially when I have to walk through it or when baby DD is around.

I don't give a shit that he thinks it's totally safe and it's just water vapour (apparently there's 2 types of e-cig, so he says?!). They used to say smoking was totally safe.

I agree it's better than smoking, and if he had still been a smoker when we met, we wouldn't be together now. But I still hate it, and he's been at it for over 5 years now, with no sign of giving up the bastard sickly smelling bastard.

Prawn of course I understand that I'm constantly breathing air that everyone else does. I'm not completely stupid!

My point, which perhaps wasn't clear enough, was whether the vapour itself could possibly be responsible for spreading germs, given that it (can) come out in a huge billow that seems to me travelling further than just normal exhaled breath and be immediately inhaled by someone else.

Whether the nature of the vapour, being steam, and warm was more conducive to harbouring germs for longer.

PencilsInSpace I was told in my local vape shop that they are stopping all funky bottles and they will all be the plain 10ml ones.

I vape and I think it's stupid to make the bottles tiny etc but I do think some are aimed at teens more than adults and I don't think that is right. Keep the size, loose the colour!

No, plain packaging is not a requirement. There are a lot of extra requirements for info that needs to be included, either on the bottle/box or an accompanying leaflet. They might have decided to go for plain bottles so they can fit it all on and not have to do a leaflet.

PencilsInSpace Yeah we do - its a food establishment. We've put signs up etc and managers have gone through the proper routes to make sure they're not allowed.

Fair enough, 7Sunshine

I was confused because you told the customer they weren't allowed to use it 'inside' (as opposed to 'in here') and you referred to it as smoking. Many people do assume it's the same as smoking and is covered by smoke free legislation.

People I see vaping tend to look shifty about doing it. They almost look embarrassed and guilty.

I just snapped at the person tbh - completely forgot I was in work because I was angry having the vapour in my mouth (grim.).

No, he thought because it wasn't a cigarette it was fine. I meant inside as in ''Inside of here''.

You need better signs, 7Sunshine!

Troy - People I see vaping tend to look shifty about doing it. They almost look embarrassed and guilty.

That's because people tend to give vapers an even shitter time than smokers. I knew people disapproved of me when I was a smoker but never had the comments to my face that I've had since I switched to vaping.

I know! Probably couldn't them see through his stupid vape cloud.

Are people seriously saying vape is worse to smell than cigarettes? Even though passive vaping isn't harmful, unlike passive smoking? I vape and don't blow my vape in people's faces, I treat it like smoke. My device is very discreet, but I also feel like people dissaprove more than when i smoked, it's weird!

I was in hospital hacking treatment last week and was very unhappy when a bloke in the chair opposite. Got his e-cig out. Told him that the trust policy was that it could be used outside but not inside. I hate the way people think they can use them where they like. It's not as bad as cigarette smoke but I still don't want it inflicted on me.

Yeah some people need to learn to stealth it

I agree there. DH vapes huge clouds. I've had words with him to the effect that 'not everyone wants to smell it', even if it's not smoking! He's more conscientious now!