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?

I gave up smoking last year. No way was I going to start vaping. For one I didn't want to replace one addiction for another. Secondly, most of the places you can't smoke, you can't vape either. One of the reasons I wanted to stop smoking was to not be agitated when taking a long flight for example. Or having to leave a restaurant between courses. So being addicted to vaping wouldn't have solved that issue.

The Allen Carr book didn't work for me. Read it several times and nothing!

What worked for me was varenacline (formerly known as champix). I went through the NHS stop smoking service and they were really good.

As for young people. I think a % of those who vape would have tried smoking but certainly not all of them. I do think it should have been prescription only.

Vaping was/is a game changer for getting people off tobacco. The government has failed spectacularly by not regulating and making proper quality control a requirement. There are one or two suppliers in the UK who regulate themselves, responsible vapers will use those suppliers.

It's quite incredible how misinformed the general public are on the benefits around vaping. There'll always be gullible idiots who soak up tabloid media click bait, and who'll believe what any old dunce puts out on social media. It's a shame though, because vaping is by far the most effective nicotine replacement.

Our shitty government is introducing the vape tax later this year - making no effort to regulate the industry, but happy to take a cut of the profits!

@killerqueen2026

of course teenagers will try vapes, like they did with cigarettes or alcohol or weed.

Lots of kids didn't try cigarettes (or weed) - I didn't, DH didn't and our DS didn't! It was always a minority once they stopped the advertising, banned it in enclosed public places and hiked the prices . But it seems that there's now a majority of teens on vapes.

Only 25% of older teens were regular smokers at the turn of the century. A whopping three quarters weren't!

I think it has in that the whole 'big tobacco' industry acknowledged a long time ago they were selling nicotine as that was what people were addicted to.

So now that vapes are cheap enough and provide a satisfying nicotine hit akin to smoking or in fact even more, they got an even wider demographic hooked on their product.

It can't be an accident that millions of children vape when they would have never considered smoking.

The worst thing about vaping is you can do it constantly. Even in your sleep. Chain smoking fags 24/7 would make someone feel sick. And they'd set fire to their beds. But people can just vape literally every two seconds.

In my friendship group there were 4 smoke when we drink smokers (idiots!) myself being one of them. We all vowed to quit last summer. 2 of us did it without vapes and 2 did with vapes. The two who did it with vapes are now vaping all day every day. It’s so addictive, and so easy to hide.

I was really excited when they said they were going to ban disposable vapes. Was then gutted to learn that they just added a charger to the bottom that allowed people to get maybe an extra 100 hits and then still had to chuck them after. So many fires caused by people putting them in their normal waste. The government should just ban them. We were finally reaching a place where people under a certain age would never legally be able to buy cigs. Vaping just feels like a replacement.

How do people vape in their sleep?

Believe me they do! They just semi wake enough to reach for the vape. Or they're asleep holding it. People can get horrifically addicted to it.

I'm a retired secondary school teacher. My impression (based on what I saw at work) is that there are more children inhaling vapes compared to the number of children who used to smoke.

Part of the problem is that children are attracted to the different flavours.

You clearly don’t have plenty of brain cells or you would see the highly addictive nature of nicotine, the drug that has convinced your addicted brain that vaping is so much better for you than smoking, when in reality inhaling that crap down into your lungs almost certainly guarantees that you will end up with some quite significant chronic lung issues as you get older. There is no escaping it. Quitting nicotine is the only answer and I speak as an ex smoker.

Nicotine is addictive, however it doesn't cause lung damage - it's the tar/toxic combustion chemicals in tobacco that damage lung tissue.

Vaping IS less harmful than smoking tobacco. There is no evidence that vaping induces any chronic lung issue never mind 'significant chronic lung issues'. There is no evidence gathered thus far by valid public health bodies of ANY harm to lungs. So either you have an entirely unique gift for foretelling the future, or you're a scare mongering pish talker. Which is it?

The awful vape shops which often are a front fir criminal activity too.

So many children vape. Imagine the damage long term of inhaling chemicals, fragrance, taste, the smell from most vapes is a sickly stink. Let alone the nicotine addiction

Oh rubbish! I know nicotine doesn’t cause lung cancer but seriously, to believe that inhaling chemicals deep down into your lungs doesn’t cause any long term health issues is ridiculous and wishful bloody thinking! I remember temporarily using e cigarettes whilst trying to quit, and coughing more on them than on cigarettes. You are just kidding yourself.

You will cough, the same as if you quit smoking and don’t vape because of the tiny hairs repairing themselves
I choose to believe cancer research and the NHS and public health England that vaping IS safer than smoking, much safer

people never get this animated about people drinking nightly or sunbathing which is much more likely to cause issues

Pretty sure the advice is that vaping is preferable to smoking, but people who have never smoked should not start vaping. And that is the issue and why i agree that vapes should've been prescription only.

I don't think they needed to be prescription only. There should be more robust action on the illicit trade though.

Children are addicted to nicotine because of vapes. Many who wouldn’t have smoked cigarettes, they now vape and don’t think it’s harmful at all. It’s way too enticing to children and young adults.
I have vaped for many years but I smoked cigarettes for over 20 years and I used it to get off the cigarettes which worked. It was only supposed to be a stop smoking tool, when I came off the cigarettes and started the vape no one except ex smokers vaped, it it certainly wasn’t popular like it is now, and there were no disposable vapes you bought a pen or a mod.

Smoking just doesn't have the cool edge that it once did anymore

I disagree. I was out with a bunch of 20 somethings recently and loads of them were smoking roll ups. Virtually chain smoking.

This isn’t the fault of the councils. When the government started moving towards a smokeless environment and society was finding smoking increasingly unacceptable, the big tobacco companies needed to continue to make money and actively developed the substitute products. Councils have to deal with the fall out.
I agree with the OP that it’s actually worse.

I'm not saying it's great that kids are vaping or denying the environmental impact of disposable vapes, but it's a fact that if everyone who might have started smoking starts vaping instead, many fewer people will die prematurely. So anything that is done to try and minimise harm from vaping needs to be clear that smoking is a lot, lot, worse.
This is what the NHS says:

Is vaping less harmful than smoking cigarettes?
Yes, nicotine vaping is not risk-free, but it is less harmful than smoking.
In 2022, leading tobacco experts reviewed evidence about the harms of vaping. They found that "in the short and medium-term, vaping poses a small fraction of the risks of smoking".
Cigarettes release thousands of different chemicals when they burn, many are poisonous and up to 70 can cause cancer. Most of the harmful chemicals in cigarette smoke, including tar and carbon monoxide, are not contained in vape aerosol.

https://www.nhs.uk/better-health/quit-smoking/ready-to-quit-smoking/vaping-to-quit-smoking/vaping-myths-and-the-facts/

Tobacco companies are behind many of the vaping brands.
I also can't believe that vapes have been allowed to get as prolific as they are. But no doubt there was pressure from the tobacco companies on government. I'm sure it's no coincidence that as measures around cigarettes and tobacco got stricter - for example, not being allowed on display - vapes suddenly took off. Openly sold in supermarkets.
The impact has been massive:
Popular with teens
Plastic use and disposable rubbish
Crappy shops in the high street, etc.

But as ever, follow the money.

Those who vape seem to do so in a way which is a sort of ‘dare you to say something ‘ way. Puffed out over people with no care. I wish it would stay in a fog over their head. But it doesn’t.
Lo and behold they now realise it is not healthy. There is a surprise.

I used to smoke and remember how those that did never understood what people meant when they said it was anti-social. I did once I gave up.

I see it as little different to smoking. And just as anti-social. I hope it goes out of date quickly.

Ahh, no vape can equal the deliciousness of a cigarette.

You are wrong that there is no evidence of harm with vapes. Obviously more time is needed to understand the harms better, and those harms do seem likely to be less than with tobacco products, but it is naive to keep peddling this line.

There are links to the evidence in this short summary:

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

What are you talking about. It’s simply a book that when a smoker has set their mind to trying to quit it helps the person understand the journey they are going to go through when withdrawing from nicotine and he explains why it’s so addictive. If you don’t want to quit or can’t be bothered to put the effort in then the book will be no help at all. It’s not a magic book.