To tell those who lecture me on vaping to Fuck Off

[Dogsitterwoes]

AIBU. No, let them lecture you
YANBU - Yes, be rude to them

I'm in my 50s and was a long term smoker. I switched to vaping in January. I am considerate and only vape outdoors and move away from other people or into a smoking area. People sometimes
comment, there's a brief convo around my giving up smoking, and 9 out of 10 respond nicely in a 'well done you' kind of way.

The 1 out of 10 though start lecturing me on the evils of vaping. These can be complete strangers, or acquaintances. They go on and on.
Usual themes:

1. Just as bad for you or worse for you than smoking.
2. Children are vaping.
3. Environmental impact of disposables.

I respond politely. I acknowledge there is a concern around all of this, and
1 - I know they aren't exactly good for me but I think they are not as bad as cigarettes, and it's my intension to also stop vaping this year
2 - I agree the manufacturer's should stop targeting non-smokers with the sweet flavours
3 - I agree, I use a rechargeable, but there's probably a lot more all of us could be doing for the environment.

But they do not let it drop. I've literally been lectured at on and on.

YANBU to stop being polite after my initial response and tell them that if I stopped vaping today, I'd be back on the fags tomorrow so mind their own fucking business?

Yes because tampons have only been around for five years just like vapes. Plenty of studies and decades of real life experience

Vapes have been around longer than 5 years

YABU vaping smells horrible and is bad for you

I think tested brands should be available on prescription in set amounts to help quit smoking and the rest banned.

Thus rendering them as shite as NRT. There is a reason no manufacturer has pursued a medicinal licence despite being invited to do so by MHRA since the mid 2010s.

Vaping works because it's a consumer product that can be bought from a shop, just like cigarettes. It works because it's customisable and not hyper-standardised like medicines. It works because it's attractive to smokers who actually do not want to be sad patients collecting prescriptions for their 'set amounts'. It doesn't matter how perfectly safe and standardised your regime - if smokers don't want it then it is useless.

All brands legally available in the UK have already been tested. All untested brands are already banned.

Can you explain your reasoning for making vaping products prescription only and thus far less accessible than cigarettes, or even NRT?

When you say 'set amounts', what amounts did you have in mind? How did you reach this conclusion? Where are the restrictions on how many cigarettes you can buy, or how much NRT?

By the way, NRT has been prescribed indefinitely, and not in 'set amounts', for smokers who would relapse without it for a very long time, way before vaping made an appearance.

I'm aware that 'some countries' do things differently. 'Some countries' ban vaping altogether and have sky high smoking rates. I imagine though that you are talking about somewhere like Australia. Can you explain why you think their regime is better than the UK (preferably with some sort of evidence of outcome)?

There is a reason no manufacturer has pursued a medicinal licence despite being invited to do so by MHRA since the mid 2010s.

Although it's worth noting that one manufacturer was granted a medicinal licence for a theoretical vape product but they never pursued it to market. That manufacturer is called British American Tobacco. I half wish they had pursued this project just for the entertainment of watching people's heads explode.

This is totally incorrect.

A smoker is a person who is addicted to nicotine, and most vapers consume more nicotine then when they consumed cigarettes or tobacco and become more addicted as a result. This is unlike nicicotine replacement therapies which give a lower prescribed amount and is why they don't work nearly as well in preventing withdrawal, because you are withdrawing (though not completely) unlike vaping when you are not.

Also nicotine itself is not harmless and is a contributing factor in many conditions

Also vapers doing so "little and often" is part of what makes them more addicted, the overall consumption goes up but also the frequency.

Absolutely this! Disgusting things!

Yeah - should be banned!

I totally agree with prescription only and the rest banned! People use vaping as an excuse to quit smoking and then just carry on vaping with no intention of stopping even though they know it is bad for them - so in that respect even worse than smoking! And yes vaping affects my asthma outside too (regardless of what vaping morons say!)

it is all shite not just NRT’s

you can no longer buy the type of tampons I used to use as the ultra absorbent ones were discovered to be a major risk factor for TSS.

The population are just a huge testing pool. Yes the chemicals in the early vapes that were causing popcorn lung etc have been banned (from reputable brands at least) but it’s probably only a matter of time before more insidious damage to lungs comes to light. The type of damage that takes years to manifest. The chemicals in food flavouring were never intended to be inhaled directly into the lungs and it is unbelievably naive to just assume this is safe over the long term.

I agree that the sale should be banned and the devices prescription only for smokers wanting to quit. The sale of these things to children is a disgrace.

You know, I was actually started to think this had turned in to an actual debate with worthy discussion points from both sides until @Mybusyday showed up again with her hysterics.

Excellent post

I dont smoke and i dont VAPE. If you accept non smokers shouldnt VAPE then why should i put up with having to breath in the plumes of shite you are puffing out? As with smokers, vapers should be treated as antisocial.

I'm glad you've now done a bit of research. Do you think you might owe your poor father an apology? Not at all. I have put up with him smoking in my vacinity for decades. He now thinks its ok for him to vape in my vacinity. Its not and it never ever will be. They may not have found any real links to the harm these things cause but its still relatively new tech. They once said smoking was healthy.......

@crazyaboutcats I'm not incorrect
Vaping is NOT smoking
Go ask a doctor, dentist, hospital consultant, NHS, cancer research if they class someone who uses an E cigarette only as a smoker
There is no smoke, it isn't smoking
NRT doesn't mean someone is a smoker, they've given up smoking

Like @PencilsInSpace said, info like this is why it's such an uphill battle to get smokers to swap because they're being told they're still smoking

Not only are they being told they’re still
smoking, but they are being told that they are vile, disgusting and smelly! It’s counterproductive

There has never been a case of popcorn lung outside of the popcorn industry, unsurprisingly

Vaping isn't smoking.

I am beginning to think @Mybusyday isn't as busy as they make out to be........

No, you are totally incorrect.

A person who puts a cigarette, cigar or pipe containing tobacco into their mouth and sets fire to it so that it provides a smoke which they then inhale is a "smoker".

Nicotine is not the defining feature of smoking, tobacco is.

Absolutely this! It is not the same!

I don't really agree with your final statement.

Most of the study of nicotine and most of what we know about it (up until the last few years) comes from tobacco studies. The two things are inherently linked. There's not a whole lot of smoking that goes on anywhere that doesn't involve either nicotine or getting stoned or some other psychoactive effect.

I do agree with PP that particularly with disposables and 20mg nic salts that people are becoming more addicted than ever. I vaped in the cloud days and everyone was on 3mg and going hours without a vape (long haul flight) was nothing like going for hours without a cigarette because nicotine (in its non salt state) has a fairly weak addictive potential at those concentrations.

There's lots of evidence now that one of the things we never understood about nicotine until fairly recently is that when it is smoked with tobacco it is significantly more addictive than when it's taken in isolation. Which is why the patches, gums, sprays etc are less effective. Minor nic maintenance plus the addition of hand to mouth fidget was the golden ticket that appeals to the lover of the biggest gimmick ever, the smoker.

I never intended to vape. I loved ciggies so much. Then one day I thought I'd give vaping a go because someone gave me one for free. and I didn't smoke another cigarette for about 8 years. That was going from a 40+ a day habit that I had no inclination or motivation to quit.

I relapsed in the fags owing to life factors though. I had stopped smoking and vaping for quite a while when I started again. I'm going to quit by vaping again

By that logic if a person chews nicotine gum, they are smoking.

I don't think so no.

Because they're not smoking it. They're chewing it.

The whole point in smoking tobacco for about 99% of people that do it, and for everyone that does it regularly is that it contains nicotine. Therefore nicotine is inherent to the discussion about smoking