Has vaping caused more problems than it has solved?

[Bex071509]

Really random thought, but I would be interested in seeing the statistics in how helpful vaping has been.

i get that when it was first introduced it seemed like a fantastic idea & would help people stop smoking cigarettes- however, being a Mum to teens I really believe it has caused a whole new problem & one which is harder to control than smoking.

so many young people vape. I was recently on a night out & every young person around me, in the venue was vaping. I doubt as many young people would have started smoking cigarettes due to how expensive they are, the health implications are more widely known, & You can’t be as sneaky to smoke inside a venue - so could they be bothered to have to leave a venue to stand outside in the cold?

i also think it’s harder for schools to police due to the lack of smell (yes I know there is a smell, but it’s hardly as awful as a cigarette). So it seems more is going on in school toilets.

it has also opened up the ‘black market’ of disposable vapes being sold on the internet - this has also caused problems with some laced with different substances. Also, until recently, they were not sold behind tills, so I’m sure it caused an increase in shop lifting from young people.

so my question - am I being unreasonable in thinking that vaping has caused more problems than it has solved?

Yes, still trying to give up

But I’m not just saying that, cause I’m struggling

Everyone fucking Vapes. It’s amazing. People who never smoked vape because it doesn’t leave this horrible smell everywhere. You can get Vapes that don’t smell awful.

So huge number of us are getting through the day powered by nicotine

And yeah, for kids, it must be very attractive too

Some people will tell you this was all planned. I know the vape shop people quite well. They have been there for years so long before it all became fashionable. They said that it was always planned for it basically to take the place of cigarettes because government can’t do without the tax on cigarettes so they think eventually it will be taxed

Although I’m now confused whether it’s taxed or not

Literally trying to give up for the nth time this week

The sad thing is, I don’t even know why I’m trying to give up I wouldn’t give up coffee

I no longer feel judged actually because most people do it. It started out that my peers didn’t do it, but now they do it too!

Is there anyone who has never smoked & has gone straight to vaping on here - and can they give us the reason why?
Possibly we are all the wrong generation, as I feel that would be more for our young adults/later teenagers- but I am interested in someone’s views.
thanks

Vaping caused more problems than it solved for me. I was smoking 6 roll ups a day, I had to give up quickly and got support via an app who gave me vape juice and a vape. I became really addicted to it. Way more than I ever was to the cigs. I managed to stop recently after 6 months of use using patches. I realise now how lethargic it made me. I’m slowly feeling better and improving my health, but honestly think that vaping has been so much more damaging than smoking was.

Vapes should have been available to smokers who wanted to quit on prescription. Sadly, they have become part of some sort of sub-culture, like rub off lottery tickets. Exceptionally scummy.

People seem to have forgotten just how harmful smoking is.

Around half of long term smokers die from smoking related diseases, losing on average a decade of life. It accounts for more than 70,000 deaths per year in England - 15% of all deaths of adults aged 35 and over. These are mostly not quick deaths. As well as cancers of organs throughout the body, smoking causes severe respiratory diseases and cardiovascular diseases which disable people who smoke for decades before they die.

The harms of smoking are not restricted to smokers themselves (although they bear by far the highest health burden) - second hand smoke increases the risks of all the same diseases in non-smokers, as well as causing miscarriage, stillbirth, low birth weight and SIDS.

Children with parents who smoke are three times more likely to start smoking themselves, so continuing the cycle of poor health, disability and premature death.

Smoking is still the biggest cause of preventable death and ill health in the UK and this burden is massively disproportionately borne by people who are poor and / or who have serious mental illness. It's the biggest factor by far in causing health inequalities.

https://ash.org.uk/resources/view/smoking-statistics
https://ash.org.uk/resources/view/secondhand-smoke
https://ash.org.uk/resources/view/young-people-and-smoking
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-matters-smoking-and-mental-health/health-matters-smoking-and-mental-health

Over a quarter of all ex-smokers in Great Britain say they used a vape to quit, amounting to 4.8 million people. Among those who quit in the last five years, 58% used a vape which amounts to 2.5 million ex-smokers. It's a phenomenally successful method for stopping smoking.

https://ash.org.uk/resources/view/use-of-e-cigarettes-among-adults-in-great-britain

Even if every single one of those ex-smokers carried on vaping for the rest of their lives, vaping would have to be really fucking terrible to 'cause more problems than it has solved'.

And it's just not. Years ago, PHE estimated a hypothetical risk of vaping as around 5% of the risk of smoking and that still stands. No research since 2015 has put a dent in that estimate. Vaping is not smoking. There is no combustion and none of the smoke inhalation which is responsible for the harms of smoking.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/e-cigarettes-around-95-less-harmful-than-tobacco-estimates-landmark-review

Children try vaping just like they try smoking, drinking, drugs and sex. Most will come through adolescence relatively unscathed by this experimental behaviour. A few will end up addicted to something.

On its own, without the harms of smoke inhalation, nicotine has a very similar harm profile to caffeine. I don't feel I have failed as a parent because my adult children both enjoy a coffee in the morning.

I am far more worried about the 4.8% of young people who currently smoke than the 6% who currently vape.

https://ash.org.uk/resources/view/use-of-e-cigarettes-among-young-people-in-great-britain

Agree with the comments about it being cringeworthy. It’s really pathetic, I can’t believe grown adults do it in public.

This!

Absolutely terrible for the environment. Which young people don't seem to care that much about sadly.

Looks awful, and should be banned except on prescription on environmental basis as well as health.

So there are two products legally on sale, one of which has a 50% chance of killing you, the other of which doesn't, and also has a good chance of weaning you off the product which is likely to kill you.

And you think it's a good idea to restrict sales of the safer product, making it more difficult to buy than the product which will likely kill you?

Australia went down that route. It's not going well.

The UK is also really terrible about enforcing any laws like that and so you would never know that disposable vapes have been banned - they are still everywhere. It’s a joke.

Two words: popcorn lung.

Oh for goodness sake!

Eleven years and counting for this disinformational turd to flush.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5186847-myth-about-vapes?reply=139035269

They are getting taxed like cigarettes from October which should have an impact.

It's awful. In Australia we banned them. Thousands of tobacco stores popped up selling illegal vapes from under the counter like lollies. This meant anyone - including DS's 13 year old friend, could get them easily. At my god daughter's engagement party everyone in their early 20's would disappear every 30 mins or so to vape. It was horrible. I thought we'd moved past smoking as being cool. Openly smoking illegal vapes!

It's taken a couple of years for the law to catch up & raid/shut the shops down. Cue panicked addicts on FB desperately asking where to get their fix. Now they deliver instead, but that makes it difficult for kids to get them & I rarely see then now. The adults have all gone back to illegal ciggies instead....

As a vaper I agree. I vape far more than I smoked.

Wine and alcohol on prescription next, then sugar, then doughnuts, then butter, then upfs, then caffeine, then oh hell, let's ban everything in life that is legal now.

Some people can't help themselves. They must have gone through so many strings of pearls from clutching them at this stage. 😊

A vape shop opened a couple of doors away from where I live. It's open 24/7. I sleep badly so I've been up at 3 and 4 am and there are still people calling into the shop at that time. I suspect they're buying something other than vapes. There's much more litter around as people just rip off and drop the packaging as they come out of the shop.

I have a family member who has never smoked, but is now addicted to vapes. I've asked her several times why she started and she doesn't have an answer.

She often says how lovely the flavours are, and I once said if you only vape for the flavour surely you can buy sweets that taste similar. Her response, why would I do that sweets are bad for you.

6 million vapes and pods thrown away each week in the UK.

It's a massive waste issue.

The nicotine concentration is much, much higher in vapes that in cigarettes - they are very addictive.

My niece has been vaping since she was 12 she is still only 16. No one can convince me she isn’t going to have issues with still growing lungs from this time. She was also buying dodgy vapes from dodgy shops. God knows what’s in them. The flavours and disposables were defo the attractions to kids.

The long term evidence will catch up. Sure maybe a good thing for some for stopping smoking. But so many people only vape and vape constantly ( much more than having a cigarette) and i’m not sure some people realise how much nicotine they are consuming if they use those ones. It’s going to be health issue down the line. Some already are finding out.

It's an end to end disaster.

i get that when it was first introduced it seemed like a fantastic idea

but anyone that believed that would believe anything.

Agreed. The shops are a blight on the high street, the habit is really embarrassing and gross (I don’t want to walk into a cloud of someone else’s bubblegum scented bacteria) and you’re absolutely right, people who never smoked are vaping now instead. Of course it’s better for your health than cigarettes but it still isn’t great.

As a non smoker l’d rather smell tobacco than some of these stinky vapes too. 🤮

YANBU. It’s almost as if the big Tobacco companies founded or bought up the vape companies and then blackmailed or bribed the Government into letting them openly and shamelessly market their shite to young teenagers with all the TikTok videos of kids blowing smoke patterns and funky flavours.

Hang on…

They are fucking cunts the lot of them and we will see the adverse health effects in a few years from this.

The Government should be sued for allowing this to happen. I have no problem with older adult smokers using vapes as an alternative to the fags but I cringe when I see teenagers who’ve never smoked in their lives vaping. I’ve been at events where people have sat with a vape in their hands for 8 hours puffing away and then at 30 min-1 hour intervals have also gone out to have a fag. It’s absolutely ridiculous. I hate to think of the lung, throat and mouth cancer rates in 20 years time.