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?

They should have been prescribed as an aid to giving up smoking. I can’t believe how it’s become the new trend for a whole new generation. Ticking time bomb as far as future lung issues are concerned in my opinion

I agree also the electronic dab pens with weed in. Kids can now sneak them into toilets and be stoned at school. Whereas it wouldn't have happened with a joint. Vapes and dab pens are too easy.
But where there is money to be made. It will be too difficult to put the genie back in the bottle now.

I used to smoke 40 roll ups a day. I was spending a small fortune and about 5yrs ago decided to try vaping to get me off the cigarettes. It worked and I haven't gone back and I feel healthy again. I did have asthma and I had regular chest infections as a smoker, but now I don't even need an asthma inhaler.

However, I am totally addicted to vaping now. I travel to France on the Eurostar quite frequently, and those hours spent not having a puff are incredibly difficult.

I think in years to come we’ll see similar health issues to smoking. Vapes are puffing god knows what into young lungs! They should have been a prescription/ pharmacy item for stopping smoking like nicotine patches!!

Ex smoker turned vaper here. Vaping was a disaster for me as I work from home so could have it in my hand all the time.

The biggest con the world has been led to believe is that it’s impossibly hard to quit nicotine. It really isn’t. It helps the nicotine industry for people to believe it’s so hard, though.

Allen Carr saw through the BS. Worked for me and millions of others.

Yes I believe vaping is worse. I am a teacher and years ago there were many kids smoking in the corner of the playground. That started to die out as the cost became too much. There is far more vaping amongst my pupils now than there ever was smoking. I have had pupils vape in class which never happened with cigarettes. The favours, the comparative inexpense of a vape, and the fancy names and packets make it attractive. I know someone who started vaping to quit smoking but now does both 🙈

Anecdotally, it seems to be a particularly British problem. Every time I travel to another country it's really noticeable that hardly anyone vapes. (Although if you go to California the smell of weed is absolutely everywhere.)

As someone who's never smoked or vaped I much preferred being a passive smoker to being a passive vaper. Why is it that all vapes have to smell so sickly?

Huge proportions of school children are addicted to nicotine and taking in the equivalent of 20 a day. They would never be able to take in that much in cigarette form.

I cant say i ever thought in the first place it was a fantastic idea it had disaster written all over if and I cant belepeople with so little brain cells even go near it

It is a choice and a terrible one and I am sick of everyone else having to pick up the pieces becase people cant think

The long term health effects from vaping are only just coming to light really, and won't be fully apparent for some time. It's naive to think there won't be any though, which is why I can't believe they were allowed to infiltrate the market unregulated in the way they were.

What we know so far about health effects:

post.parliament.uk/health-effects-of-vape-device-components/?utm_source=POST+alerts&utm_campaign=b2e3cff355-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_06_30_09_00&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_bf17dda729-b2e3cff355-449394598&mc_cid=b2e3cff355&mc_eid=256d62b7d0

Had vaping been kept as a weaning alternative to help stop smoking cigarettes, nicotine flavour only, it was potentially helpful. By making all the different 'fun' flavours that are guaranteed to attract children and make it seem less harmful freely available, they have allowed a new addiction to take a hold and this one will be even harder to stop. I know many people who have never smoked a cigarette but have taken up vaping and now are totally addicted and sporting a cracking smokers cough so it's clearly not healthy.

i have plenty of brain cells and I’m not sure what pieces you’re having to pick up. There would have been a lot more issues if I carried on smoking
I listen to doctors, consultants, surgeons, people that I have plenty of contact with due to health issues and their advice is not for me to start smoking again

people may prefer the smell of smoke but the dangers of second hand smoke are well established. Second hand vape doesn’t have issues

Yep it was Allen Carr’s book for women that helped me tremendously. I believe he did one for women giving up smoking and one for men as our brains work differently with addiction.

I work in a vape store.

Not a newsagents, we don't sell anything other than vapes.

Our biggest demographic of customer is middle aged women.

I hardly see anyone under the age of 20 in my shop.

Agree, what an irresponsible idea it was, and seems to be completely unregulated. When I see anyone vaping I judge them to be idiots, walking around like babies sucking on a dummy. It's pathetic, and I can't believe teens choose to do this.

Anything injested into the lungs is not going to end well. Whether it be smoke or chemicals from a vape. They haven’t been around long enough to see the long term effects. Lets not forget smoking was prescribed once over.

People vape far more than they smoke, its a fact. You only have to look around to see people constantly chugging on the vape.

As for young people, i think there are far more who vape but wouldn’t of smoked first, for example the 13 -20 yos today are born in an era where smoking had been banned etc. If vapes had been kept as prescription only they probably wouldn’t of vaped.

A cynic might think the government has allowed vaping to become mainstream so they can tax it and replace the lost tobacco revenue

This is why ASH recently had to say that vaping is far, far better than smoking - all the negative stuff discourages smokers from changing to something massively less damaging.

Teenagers vaping would have been the ones smoking fifteen years ago. That's a parenting thing and a part of being a teenager thing, so trying to stop it being a cheaper, easily accessible, acceptable tasting choice for people who would not have been able to stop smoking is shortsighted, punitive and seeks to shift blame away from something that has zero to do with smokers or vapers.

You don't need a substitute - read Alan Carr's book and then stop. I did it, anyone can.

I can see your point but it smells a lot less offensive than cigarette smoke which I absolutely hate. I can’t stand having to breathe in other peoples disgusting smoke.

Then why hasnt his magical thinking caused the complete elimination of smoking in the years since it was first published?

Because it’s a book that you can choose to buy or ignore. It’s not compulsory. 🤷🏻‍♀️😁

Oh come on, its a book telling you to think 'I dont want to smoke and I'm really clever for doing so'. If it worked, nobody would be smoking now because that is all they'd have to say whilst waving a magic book instead of a wand.

It doesn't work for 'everybody', any more than anorexia is cured by reading a book to say 'I like eating'

DS (24) smoked, then vaped and gave up completely four years ago. DD (22) vapes having never smoked. I don't really know why, think she copied her work colleagues.

It's incorrect to say second hand vape doesn't have issues. It's too soon to tell exactly what the scope and magnitude of the issues with vapes are, second hand or direct, but there's enough evidence to say that there are issues, and that these will vary depending upon the type of vape. It's not a neutral activity.