To be sick of vapes everywhere

[MaloneMeadow]

I can’t seem to go anywhere these days without a white cloud of disgusting candy flavoured vapour being blown in my face. It’s gotten to a point where I truly believe that it’s worse than smoking - at least most smokers are well aware that it’s an anti-social behaviour and do it away from other people, and outdoors! With vapers there seem to be absolutely no boundaries or thought that not everyone wants to be covered in their chemical smoke.

Absolutely horrible habit that’s catching on to far too many young children. A ban can’t come soon enough - even my 19 year old DD is sick of her friends being addicted to them. They’re like dummies in some cases, never out of their mouths!

That doesn’t sound good. I habe never ever had a vape directly in my face or all over me, as is happening to you on the regular. Very unfortunate indeed.

the government is in absolute denial about this

Hardly. They've just completed a consultation which you can read about here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/calls-for-evidence/youth-vaping-call-for-evidence/outcome/youth-vaping-call-for-evidence-analysis

So far there has been a consultation and a new bill yet to be introduced that may or may not take meaningful action. Meantime a generation is hooked.

Makes me laugh actually that government says anyone born after 2009 will never smoke. Too late.

They are disgusting things. I hate being enveloped in a cloud of foul smelling vapour when someone walks past me.

I actually boycott a local shop because they actively promote and target sales to children.

This is from America, different regulations there

This is from NICE, explaining that their recommendations for the use of NRT in pregnant smokers is based in part on a 2020 Cochrane systematic review which found that:

The use of NRT in pregnancy was not found to increase the risk of adverse pregnancy or fetal outcomes including miscarriage, stillbirth, premature birth, birthweight, low birthweight, admissions to neonatal intensive care, caesarean section, congenital abnormalities, or neonatal death. One randomised placebo-controlled study found a higher rate of infant survival without developmental impairment at two years of age among the infants of those randomised to receive NRT.

https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/smoking-cessation/management/pregnant-or-breastfeeding/

(you'll find this in the first 'Basis for Recommendation' drop down box on the page).

There are indeed plenty of publications on the risks of nicotine to the foetus and sperm and they are generally extremely poor quality. For some reason US tobacco control has decided that nicotine is the enemy rather than lit tobacco and is engaged in widespread policy-based evidence making.

Looking at the Mayo Clinic article you posted:

Most electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) contain nicotine, which permanently damages a baby's developing brain and many other organs.

That's a remarkable claim for which they present no evidence. Giventhe widespread use of NRT in pregnancy before vapes were even invented, it's astonishing that there is not solid epidemiological data by now to back up their assertion. Unless it's simply not true, as the Cochrane review indicates.

But research suggests that pregnant women who vape believe that using e-cigarettes is less harmful than smoking cigarettes.

Yes, they correctly believe this!

Some also might use e-cigarettes during pregnancy because of the perception that the devices can help them quit or reduce cigarette smoking.

Again, this is true! The women are correct in their belief.

Absolutely we don't need a whole new generation addicted to nicotine who would never have considered smoking but the way to achieve that is not to post alarming misinformation that causes unnecessary worry to pregnant women who are trying to quit.

Apparently the only people who’ve ended up in hospital are those who have tampered with the vapes to customise them.

You so are a strange one

That's what I thought 😂

This definitely hasn't happened. Multiple hospital admissions because of standard vapes?

Pull another one..

Personally I'd like to walk down the street without the stench of marijuana. Don't care about vapes unless it's blown right in my face.

I vape, and I don’t do it around others. I used to smoke and I consider it no different in public.

I don’t understand the logic in people vaping in indoor establishments. that’s disrespectful for sure.

Vaping has helped me stopped smoking and cut costs, and it makes me sad that young people have ended up getting into them easier than cigs.

We do talk on about flavours and packaging, but alcohol is often dressed up similarly but no ones up in arms about that. My unicorn pink glitter gin isn’t being argued. Stick shit flavouring in vapes and it won’t be as easy to get off the smokes either.
the issue lies with grown adults and retailers . Just keep them out of view. And stop supplying children offhand.

The uptick in youth vaping has only happened since 2021. The consultation outcome lists quite a few unintended consequences of various proposals. I'm sure you will agree these need thinking about carefully before any changes in the law.

Of course what could be done right now is to increase funding for trading standards so we have some hope of enforcing the laws we already have. We need to stop illegal vapes from entering the UK. We need to stop illegal underage sales. These things are already illegal. But that would take £££ not just kneejerk bans.

OK, I disagree with that lobbyist messaging @PencilsInSpace . There is a simple answer- put vape behind the counter at the pharmacy for smokers giving up. Illegal vapes are a red herring. And shopkeepers simply aren't enforcing age restrictions and clearly don't fear any consequences.

I exhale the same amount whether that exhale contains vapour or not (yes, vapour, not smoke).

If you stand too close to me, you're inhaling what I exhale, regardless of what is in it or whether you can see it.

So much duff information and dramatic wilful misinformation in this thread - bottom line, you don't like the smell, and you can see it so its an easy target to have a moan about.

Kids should not be vaping - thats a parental issue, kids do things they shouldn't all the time and it is for their parents to deal with. Report shops, report sources of illegal (ie black market, non-tested) vapes.

Kids who already have asthma absolutely should not be vaping - I do think the fact that the two girls you mention (two is really stretching 'multiple' btw) have asthma prior to vaping and developing pneumonia should have been in your original comment and not drip fed in later!

Loads of adults (the majority!) vape the sweet fruit, dessert, fizzy drink flavours, they're by far the most popular. My 'every day' vape is grape and strawberry, my alternate is watermelon cherry (tastes like the Nerds sweets) and my occasional is currently Bread and Butter pudding (sometimes Lemon Tart)... I haven't even considered cigarettes since finding sweet flavoured vapes. Friends who work in vape shops (they don't sell disposables at all!) report the same trend.

Illegal vapes are not a red herring. From the Chartered Trading Standards Institute:

Vaping has been a key area of focus for CTSI this year, trying to navigate the challenges presented to Trading Standards teams nationally with non-compliant vapes flooding the UK market and the surge of underage sales. We have had some success in our efforts to bring some necessary attention to the issues surrounding vaping and have continued to call for more resources for Trading Standards and tougher regulations.

CTSI fully recognises that Trading Standards teams across the UK have been working tirelessly to combat the tidal wave of non-compliant vapes being sold by retailers and responding to the growing issue of underage sales.

https://www.tradingstandards.uk/news-policy-campaigns/vaping-resource-hub/

Why would you make vapes only available in pharmacies when you can buy actual deadly cigarettes in any corner shop? Why make the safer alternative more difficult to buy than tobacco?

And shopkeepers simply aren't enforcing age restrictions and clearly don't fear any consequences.

Which is exactly why there needs to be a focus on trading standards. That's who does the raids and imposes the fines (which are not high enough). I agree they should be behind the counter though and we could easily lose the big colourful displays.

Yeah they're really not. We've had a lot of comms from school about illegal vapes.

Why should we believe that the studies showing NRT is safe in pregnancy are not similarly funded by the NRT industry if you are saying it is the tobacco industry is pumping dubious articles about nicotine into circulation. The same could be true for the links in the nice webpage. If you are pregnant and smoke I am not denying it is considerably safer to vape and you should switch. I am talking about a new generation of people hooked on nicotine as they believe vaping to be risk free when it is not the case and they would be better off not smoking or vaping. Asides from all that it is an addiction and addictions are generally not good for us.

If you don't trust a Cochrane systematic review then I can't help you. They're widely considered the gold standard of health related evidence.

https://www.cochrane.org/about-us

You can follow the links from NICE to the Cochrane review and then look at the individual studies that Cochrane included if you like. Come back and let us know if you find any that are funded by Big Gum.

I didn't say the tobacco industry is pumping out dubious research (I mean they are, but we are wise to it and the UK is signed up to WHO's FCTC which basically means we ignore anything they say). I said the US tobacco control industry is pumping out dodgy research.

We have our own tobacco control industry in the UK made up of government departments as well as orgs such as ASH. I am saying that in the UK our tobacco control orgs and policies are much better grounded in solid evidence than their US counterparts.

Not true.

a family friend’s daughter just buried her husband (aged 30) and heart attack brought on by vaping was the cause of death.

honestly I’d not thank you for a vape over a cigarette.

No - and I vape.

They're way more addictive, the disposable ones are an environmental disaster and need to be banned right frickin now and they shold definitely be banned for children and anyone selling them to kids should be fined extremely heavily.

I am addicted to mine and to be honest yeah they are a pain in the ass.

I am talking about a new generation of people hooked on nicotine as they believe vaping to be risk free

You don't need to worry about that because it's not happening. In fact ASH has found:

Since 2013 there has been a gradual fall in the number of young people who correctly identify vaping as being relatively less harmful than tobacco smoking. In 2013, 73% of young people correctly said that e-cigarettes were less harmful than smoking, falling to only a third (33%) in 2022. The proportion of young people incorrectly saying that e-cigarettes are more or equally harmful as tobacco cigarettes has grown from 13% in 2013 to more than half (54%) in 2023 (Figure 11). This includes nearly half (46%) of those who have tried vaping, so believing vaping is at least as harmful as smoking does not appear to be putting children off trying vaping.

https://ash.org.uk/uploads/Use-of-vapes-among-young-people-GB-2023-v2.pdf?v=1697209531

Yanbu, they’re absolutely rank.

Not sure why people who would never have smoked indoors, seem to think that vaping is somehow fine.

I can't stand it either. All the younger people I work with are permantly outside with one shoved in their mouths ; agree with a pp who said they are treated like dummies!! I hate the smell! And they are all constantly ill with chest infections, bad throats etc. vile things

SUCH an arsehole comment!

YANBU OP. They are revolting and a single use plastic disaster. When we are all being encouraged to reduce our single plastic, when small businesses are doing their best to help, when volunteers spend their weekends on beaches clearing the fucking things up, it's outrageous that plastic vapes are legal.