Why are people so inconsiderate with their vapes?

[MrCollinsandhisboiledpotatoes]

What is it with people and their vapes? They produce these massive clouds of stinky, sweet, gross vapour and they are either blissfully unaware or they don't GAF, I don't know which.

School sports day today so a lot of the parents went to the cafe next to the school between dropping kids off and waiting for sports day to start.

I sat indoors and a few parents were outdoors, door propped open as it was a hot day.

I'm sat there, eating my breakfast and suddenly, a huge cloud of stinky strawberry vapour that's been inside someone's manky lungs descends over me and my food. I could taste it in my mouth 🤮

I looked over and it's a dad sat just outside with his back to the door, his vape clouds going behind him and straight inside the cafe.

I moved seats and no more clouds descended on me but I had made a mental note to either say something or passively-aggressively close the door, not sure which I would have done.

Then later I am standing by the track on the school field ready to cheer my daughter on and right in front of me, a vape cloud desends again, this time from another dad in front of me.
On the school field.
At sports day. In a three-person deep crowd of parents, some with toddlers.
This time I am pissed off so I went and told the headteacher who was stood at the side and he announced over the tannoy that vaping is not allowed on school premises. I mean, who does that??!?

As it may be apparent, this is more of a rant than a AIBU, but I am curious why people this this behaviour is OK?

Unreasonable - They are just gormless and don't realise what they are doing
Not unreasonable - They must know, because it's obvious, but they are so addicted to their stinky plastic puff pens that they don't care.

I guess if you’re blowing the smoke out, you’re not actually seeing the cloud it leaves behind you; because you’re walking away from it? So they think it’s not that bad. It is.

I got as far as popcorn lung in the first drop-down box and gave up in despair.

That particular turd has now been circling the pan for over a decade and still it won't flush:

https://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2015/12/new-study-finds-that-average-diacetyl.html

The rest of that page is a whole bingo card full of unevidenced and disproven health claims (nicotine is addictive - I'll give them that one). They provide no references though, so it's a waste of time even attempting to address them individually.

I have no idea why Australia has gone down the route it has with quasi-prohibition but it's not evidence based and it's not working.

The trade in illicit cigarettes and vapes in Australia is now worth over $10BN. 50% of cigarettes and 90% of vapes are now black market. Criminal gangs engage in widespread extortion of legal vendors and this has resulted in over 300 firebombings.

Meanwhile total nicotine use has gone up by 40% in eight years -

https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/household-consumption-illicit-tobacco-and-nicotine-products

... and there are early indications that part of this is made up of an increase in smoking rates.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-23/act-easy-access-to-illegal-cigarettes-seeing-high-smoking-rates/105803450

https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/9937-cigarette-smoking-in-australia-press-release

The Australian government have painted themselves into a terrible corner where they are now having to consider whether to reduce the tax duty on legal tobacco.

https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/alarm-bells-pressure-builds-on-deluded-labor-as-shocking-data-shows-billions-of-tobacco-excise-lost-to-black-market/news-story/6823f16f8d07c62d61637faf8491e5de

I note one glimmer of hope - in this recent government briefing on tobacco control, among a whole load more prohibitionary ideas (all of which would merely increase the hold of the black market), there is the tentative suggestion - 'encouraging consumers to move to reduced risk products such as vapes'

https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_departments/Parliamentary_Library/Research/Issues_and_Insights/2026/TobaccoControl

Nothing is being 'lit up' - nothing is burnt, there is no combustion or smoke. That is the whole point.

When you eat haribo you are inhaling the flavour - most of our sense of taste is in fact smell.

As already discussed, the vast majority of vapers are smokers or ex-smokers.

I'm sure there are some small residual risks from vaping but they are as nothing compared with the risks of smoking. If vaping keeps people off the fags that is a massive public health win.

It's like people have forgotten how terribly harmful smoking is. It kills over half of long term smokers and has a proven, serious adverse effect on the health of everyone around them.

I trust our public health system more than yours and one of the few things I'm proud of about the UK is our very sensible and evidence based policies around vaping.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nicotine-vaping-in-england-2022-evidence-update

Yeah, you tell 'em!

https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/health/put-cancer-in-e-cigarettes-say-non-smokers-2014021983765

I said in an earlier post I rarely see anyone blowing Big Clouds any more because everyone's using little pod systems. I've never seen anyone blowing it in people's faces - That's the sort of extreme antisocial behaviour that would surely cause a punch up so I'm sure I'd have noticed.

But it's not possible to prove a negative so it's for the people claiming this is common behaviour to provide the evidence.

Is it really any worse than all the other smells that humans emit? Body odour, farts, halitosis, strong perfume/aftershave can all be pretty revolting.

I've never been bothered by a vape cloud, because they seem to disperse pretty quickly. But I've had migraines triggered by some perfumes when I've been stuck on a train with someone who's drenched themselves in it.

I think it's directly comparable. If people treated car exhaust fumes like they do vapes we wouldn't drive. Car exhaust fumes are proven to be more harmful than vape fumes are. There is a clear element of denial that driving your car has a very negative impact on others. That's before we think about environmental effects.

But there is a practical and functional need for cars.

There is no practical need for vapes.

They are often a choice over less harmful forms of transport

The only behaviours i find irritating are ones that directly affect me

They've helped an estimated 2.4 million people in the UK quit smoking in the past 5 years.

But people know the negative effects of driving. We admit them. And that's why we have electric cars and buses, and cycle to work schemes, and vehicle emission tax, and Greta Thunberg.

And that's why car emissions are definitely getting better in terms of exhaust pollutants and overall greenhouse gases. We are doing something about it.

As oppose to vaping, which almost every vapour on here says is just fine and everyone is lying about the effects on others and the big stinky clouds are the imaginings of the mean people trying to infringe on their personal freedoms and then crying "what about car fumes" when they have no other argument.

YANBU.

I saw someone smoking on the escalator at the tube station yesterday. I stated at him with intent.

Smoking has been banned indoors for so long, and yes that includes bloody vapes but they can't seem to comprehend this.

If the effects were really understood/ there wasn't this cognitive dissonance I really don't believe we would be driving.

If they were invented now the vape hyperbolisers on this thread would never want them to be legalised.

I’m sure he didn’t give a shit that you were staring at him 🤣 If it upsets you that much, tell a teacher member of staff.

Yikes. Calm down.
No where did I say that smoking is not terrible. I never mentioned smoking once, so relax on that front.
Good for you that you trust your public health system more than ours. I trust mine more than yours. Go about your day.

This honestly made me laugh

can you clarify what “I stared at him with intent” looks like? @cococolo

I imagine he didn’t notice and if he did, he, along with others on the escalators, would have just assumed you were a sandwich short of a picnic

He probably thought ahe was a pervert

Perhaps he’d have been correct 🤷‍♀️

For anyone old enough to remember the Kings Cross fire this is terrifying! I am appalled that you did no more than give him a hard stare. You should have alerted the nearest member of staff immediately.

Or do you mean he was vaping on the escalator?

Vaping is not banned indoors (although it is banned on TFL and national rail). It's not included in the smoke free legislation because there are not the same health justifications for doing so.

The new Tobacco and Vapes Act makes provision for ministers to designate certain areas vape-free following consultation. From the wording it is clear that this is not intended to be a blanket ban such as we have for smoking.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2026/18/section/145

Some of you need to chill. Maybe grab a vape and join the party

No, you never mentioned smoking.

The thing is you can't understand the risk assessment vapers make unless you understand that they are using vapes so that they don't smoke.

It's like asking a heroin addict why they're not worried about the ingredients in methadone.

You did nothing creepy. I also find it fascinating that people are so okay with their kids vaping because they could be doing worse. I am very happy that my kids are early 20s and they absolutely have no wish to smoke or vape. It’s certainly not the norm where I am. I guess if you have a smoker as a parent, all this stuff is normalised.

My kids are young adults and they find vaping very uncool. Maybe they just got lucky with their friends.