Do you vape?

[fantalimon23]

I know this will attract judgement but I'm not asking for criticism, just discussion.

Never been a smoker but recently took up vaping. Dh does it and so do a few friends. I was curious. We are going through a very stressful time in life - young dc and no help, demanding job, house renovation. I was winding down in the evenings using booze and junk food which wasn't good for me either so I suppose I just wanted to try something that helped relax me. I do enjoy it but I don't think I'm 'addicted' per se, for example I don't take it out with me during the day and don't miss it. I just use it in the evenings.

Anyway bizarrely I have health anxiety which is quite ridiculous when I think of all of the unhealthy habits and coping mechanisms I have. But I do worry about the vape. There is so much conflicting info out there - loads of sources saying it's much better than smoking others saying it's as bad or worse. All the alleged health issues they can cause but no definitive studies as they've not been around long enough.

So I guess I'm wondering if you vape, why? What does it bring you? And do you worry about the health impact?

for someone who says they suffer from health anxiety

you seem pretty chilled and gung-ho about vaping OP!

i don’t think vaping looks “low class” 😆
i don’t think it looks “ridiculous”

i do think it’s odd to just start it up when there’s been SO much coverage about how shit it is for you
and i do think you are being wildly optimistic in thinking that soon to be teens won’t smell it or see it when their parents vape in front of the tv in the evenings

Vaping is a great tool for stopping smoking.

I used to sell them and flat out refused to sell them to non smokers. It's crazy to start when you don't smoke!

out of interest

how did you possibly know whether they were non smokers or not?

It isn't marketed at children. Adults like nice flavours. You don't hit 18 and suddenly only want broccoli and gravel flavour.

OneTC, if vapes had been around when I was giving up smoking I definitely would have used them. I stopped one year before the ban came in. There were only nicotine patches, some sort of spray and lozenges, all horrid tasting/smelling, but they have a function.

I can see the appeal, they don't smell nearly as bad as cigarettes do and that would have been a huge benefit for me.

Nothing in life comes without risk but adding a risk you didn't currently have, doesn't make much sense. OP, there is no way your children won't find out that you're both vaping, they're already surrounded by peer pressure to vape. Yours and your husband's vaping gives them a 'go ahead' message. One that we'd never want to give any child.

That is the argument being used and it's working. It absolves the vape producers nicely as 'adults like nice flavours'. You wouldn't get 'brococoli and gravel' flavour as quite rightly, who would want that? I've said in my post above, what used to be available was functional and I'm sure that it's had its success. Nobody but nobody who never smoked would buy and use these products though.

The argument that vapes are used to stop smoking cigarettes though is being thoroughly debunked as people who've never smoked cigarettes - and children who've never been able to buy them - are buying and using vapes.

I've said, I don't give a toss what adults do but when that crosses over to impact children then I mind. It is down to the government, no argument about that.

Because it was always my first question.

Some people might have lied I guess.

This was about10 years ago, the majority of people interested in it were life long smokers and people struggling to give up. It was a social electronics hobby scene that also helped you stop smoking. Kids hated it and it was the preserve of the desperately uncool.

If people in my shop said they didn't smoke that was the end, they can buy it somewhere else. If people were very light smokers I normally advised them that taking up vaping would probably increase their intake and to think twice about starting.

With the rise in nic salts and the shift in focus from cessation to maintaining a customer base I got out of the industry. That wasn't what it was all about. Now it's dominated by tobacco companies and big business

so every time you sold it you’d ask the customer “are you a smoker?”

genuinely curious!

and if they said “no” you’d say “well im not selling it to you”

was it your shop?!

It's your opinion that they're marketed towards children. I really don't believe that these companies are dumb enough to deliberately market to school children.

No one is going to want something that tastes like crap. Vaping has had the success it has because it isn't purely functional. People enjoy the experience, which is crucial in making the swap from cigarettes to vapes.

The argument that vapes are used to stop smoking cigarettes though is being thoroughly debunked as people who've never smoked cigarettes - and children who've never been able to buy them - are buying and using vapes.

These are just separate arguments. People who have started vaping might conceivably have started smoking.

Tapering off any addictive substance is a proven method of beating addiction.

The advent of 20mg nic salts was an incredibly cynical move but an obviously dead end industry though because then it became about keeping people vaping not about stopping people smoking

I smoked for years. I tried so so hard to give up and when I was finally able to
give up I made sure to never ever smoke again

however after 13 weeks of giving up I became like the devil and got addicted to those nicotine sprays. They were more way way more expensive but after 9 years using them I was able to give those up (much easier than smoking)

because of all of that I wouldn’t ever touch vaping and there’s studies starting to come out now of the damage it does.

If you’re not addicted then just stop

no need for it at all then

That's ok, I can believe that many vape users wouldn't believe that vape manufacturers are dumb enough to deliberately market to school children. It suits the narrative to be dumb but, it's not the manufacturers guilty of that.

Big Tobacco. Heard of that? They are the tobacco companies and they are losing cigarette and pipe smokers in absolute droves. That's due to deaths (old age or illness), government intervention by restricting access - leading to supermarkets tightening up selling practices, advertising and many other actions.

Those are the companies behind vapes. Gotta keep their punters... at any cost.

OneTC probably could answer this better but vapes can be bought and used without nicotine. Ex-smokers would probably want the nicotine liquid but who then is buying the vapes without the nicotine, and why?

Yes, obviously. The culture surrounding it at the time was very much focused on stopping smoking, big tobacco was generally portrayed as the enemy. Now big tobacco owns lots of vape companies

and if they said “no” you’d say “well im not selling it to you”

was it your shop?!

No but it was fine with the owner who felt the same way. They're also no longer in the business either btw

But you weren’t smoking….

so there was nothing needs to replace it.

@YouDidntEvenAskIfSheWasThereMoriarty

there has been SO much coverage about vaping companies actively marketing to the youth market!!

exactly

the nhs does not recommend that we all take up vaping because it’s “better” than not vaping!

I stopped smoking with the Allan Carr book - and a box of sugared almonds. I thought I might eat one of those almonds every time I wanted a cigarette.

The book worked, I never smoked again - and I've never eaten a sugar almond ever again either, can't face them now.

OneTC probably could answer this better but vapes can be bought and used without nicotine. Ex-smokers would probably want the nicotine liquid but who then is buying the vapes without the nicotine, and why?

All bottles above 10ml are zero nicotine by law but then you buy 10ml nicotine to put in them, but I suspect that's not what you're asking.

At the time I sold them nobody really bought the zeros, sometimes people would buy them as a cutter to make the weakest concentration (normally 3mg) weaker but they were by far and away the worst selling things in the shop and they always went out of date.

Very very few customers did the whole taper and then couldn't quit the physical habit so vaped zeros. Most people stopped at 3mg and then if they actually gave up they'd stop there rather than using zeros.

You'd think I'd have seen some of this marketing then.

it’s been discussed in house of commons at length about increasing regulation

article after article about how the marketing and flavours (bubblegum, candy floss etc) are very much pitched at children

do the most cursory of googles and you will get thousands of hits of studies and articles from all over the world

interesting study here

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7455879/

https://www.tobaccoinduceddiseases.org/Exposure-to-e-cigarette-advertising-and-young-people-s-use-of-ne-cigarettes-A-four,172414,0,2.html

i could go on. and on