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 wonder if the fact it is less objectionable than tobacco smoke is a factor.

Vaping / dog owning are similar in that the proponents find it essential, but to everyone else it’s a huge irritant, and a net negative on society.

Well to be fair walking along the high street you're inevitably exposed to lots of car exhaust fumes which are no doubt just as bad, if not worse, than vape fumes.

Then take yourself away from the cafe?

The car thing isn't really 'quite an assumption'. The % of the population who doesn't regularly travel by car is negligible. Even if you're not driving it you're still responsible for it.

Yeah but they don't taste like a tweenage girls body spray.

I'd be interested in how you measure net negative in this scenario - I suspect it's highly unprovable.

I'm pretty sure tax revenue on cigarettes and vapes exceeds NHS spending on smoke-associated health issues, so it can't be measured as a net negative there.

I'm even more interested in how you've measured dog ownership as a net negative.

This wouldn't bother me personally, and I hugely prefer vapes to cigarette smoke, which is utterly foul.

This may be because we had to get my decades long chain smoking mother off cigarettes when an episode of pneumonia almost killed her. Our only chance of achieving that was to get her onto vapes and nicotine patches.

Once that was achieved then it very quickly became much easier to be around her because the thick cloud of smoke that had constantly followed her around for years was no longer there. Her house too gradually became easier to be in.

So as I said, this wouldn't bother me personally although people obviously shouldn't vape or smoke on school premises or at school events. If addicted to nicotine then they should wear a patch for the duration of the event.

"Live and let live" only really applies in situations where one party isn't affecting the other.
For example, you could tell a homophobic person to "live and let live" because the people they are complaining about are doing nothing to them, and everyone should just be minding their own business.

In this case, I am having a cloud of very heavily strawberry scented vapour blown into my face and all over my breakfast to the point where the taste lingered in my mouth.

Not really a "live and let live" situation.

They don't taste like anything. They smell, quite fleetingly, like strong pick n mix in whatever flavour they are.

I'm curious why car exhausts get a pass on your asthma but body spray and vapes don't? I think car exhausts are probably objectively more potentially harmful.

An excellent point, well made 😆

The bloke vaping was sitting outside. Where you wanted him. Indoor smoking was banned. Now you want to ban vaping outside too? There’s the live and let live. You’re not the boss of him. You could’ve shut the door to the cafe.

Yes, they do. I tasted a strangers lung vapour today. It was grim.

I'm not the boss of the cafe either.

No you’re not but you could still have asked if anyone minded if you closed the door. While we’re here, lots of vape isn’t drawn into the lungs so there goes that theory.

Oh that's fine then. Feel free to blow it all over my eggs

I hate them too. People don’t see it the same as cigarette smoke, so often puff indoors - I’ve seen it at pubs, bowling alleys, restaurants etc etc

You've said it a couple of times now, presumably for effect, but nobody is 'blowing' anything over your food. It's just air floating around near you. The air floating around you is full of pollutants - probably bits of your family's skin, car exhaust, old farts, water vapour etc.

So in that context, your frothing is a bit silly.

I will. Cheers!

I think the been inside another person seems a bit dramatic. Surely most of the air we breathe has been inside somebody at some point. So (probably) has the water you drink, the food you eat. Go back far enough and we are all made of stardust and pretty much every atom in our bodies has existed for billions of years in a variety of forms.

That said I really dislike vaping, it reminds me of those plug in air fresheners. I think Im mildly allergic as get hay fever symptoms

I do think they shouldn’t be sold outside of pharmacies.

I was first at a bus shelter sitting inside with my shopping trolley and walking stick, when a young mum arrived with a small child on a trike and one or two other children. Other passengers were queuing behind me by then so I mentioned this. 'Oh,' she said, I don't queue because I vape'.... The bus duly arrived. Her child fell off the trike by the kerb as the bus drew up but was rescued in time not to be squashed. A dog shot off the bus, heading for the road at right angles to the bus shelter exit, followed by a man with the most cumbersome walking aid I have ever seen.... I was the one who caught the dog and returned it to its owner. The vaper and her entourage got on the bus along with her other
children behind me but in front of the other passengers who were in the queue before her..... I was not impressed.....

Great, my query has been answered!

They weren't brought up to consider others. They're just like anyone else who does things without a single thought for others. People who let their dogs jump up, people who sit in their cars for ages at petrol pumps, people who litter.
They're just badly brought up, overgrown brats, who have probably never been told "no" once in their entire selfish lives.

How did vaping dad respond to the headmaster's announcement?