Cigarette smoking is a horrible, smelly and unhealthy habit. I am glad to note that this vile pastime has declined markedly since I was a lad. However, what were the British government and its agencies thinking of between 2007 and 2009 when they more or less gave a big thumbs up to the vaping industry? Naively, they seemed to think that vaping would be a useful aid to wean people off cigarette smoking.
It is as if they never imagined what might happen. Vulture-like businesses and entrepreneurs spotted a way of making money through manufacturing and selling vaping products. Now there are vape shops all over the country and thousands of young people and schoolchildren are hooked on their favourite vapes. In 2021, the vaping industry in Great Britain was said to be worth £1.3 billion. Worldwide in 2023 it is estimated to be worth $28.7 billion or £22.8 billion.
Those who gave vaping the green light did not set up proper controls to monitor the safety of vape products. Though our pubs are now free from cigarette smoke, occasionally one might have to suffer the sickly smell of vape smoke when a user exhales at the bar. I have no idea what is in that vapour and I guess the user is largely ignorant too. All I know is that I do want any of it in my lungs thank you very much
Vape comes in plenty of different flavours from bubble gum to watermelon and from American red tobacco to absinthe. I very much doubt that the vape profiteers give a damn about what might be happening to young people's lungs with excessive use.
Another thing that riles me about vaping is all the plastic and the batteries etcetera that are part and parcel of this parasitic and opportunist industry. Aren't we meant to be saving this planet?
We should be encouraging young people to enjoy inhaling fresh air and not wasting their money on vaping which seems to be just as hard to break away from as cigarette smoking has always been. Mind you, we should not blame the users too much because it is the so-called "authorities" who opened the door to vaping - foolishly seeing it as an easy way of leaving tobacco behind. What idiots they were.
What are your thoughts on vaping?
Vaping may be just as dangerous as smoking; I'm also not sure about the effects of its second hand smoke. I don't want it in my lungs either!
ReplyDeleteDo you witness vaping in your part of Washington state Margaret?
DeleteI see some vaping but we're not up there among the heaviest vapers; those are mostly red states. We have about 14 states below us so we're in the bottom for vaping and probably smoking too since many of us are outdoorsy people who value our health. (as I sit here drinking an amber ale...)
DeleteThe same as yours, my friend. As medicos worldwide will tell you, anything that people inhale into their body (other than fresh air) will harm you. It will cause problems in your lungs. As a mega-smoker of cigarettes in my younger years (nothing since 1991), I can affirm that damage exists long after one has quit abusing themselves. I weep for the young ones (my grandchildren among them) who think vaping is safe and they have avoided the diseases of their elders.
ReplyDeleteYou did so well to stop smoking in 1991 Bruce. Well done! If you hadn't stopped you would probably be the late Bruce Taylor now.
DeleteVaping is a pet peeve of Gregg's, and I don't like it either. Goodness knows what it's doing to people's lungs. And talk about a waste of money!
ReplyDeleteIf only users realised how very uncool they look when they are puffing away like steam trains.
DeleteIt's cigarettes 2.0. Keep it away from me and quit pretending it's healthy.
ReplyDeleteKIds should have been protected from this addiction. What are governments for?
DeleteVaping is disgusting! It smells worse than many cigarettes ever did, though they were bad enough, and do people realise how silly they look strolling the streets with clouds of steam billowing like old Puffing Billy?
ReplyDeleteThe damned things do seem to produce a lot of smoke don't they? Puffing Billies! I like that.
DeleteI've seen close-up the effects of smoking. Both my Dad and our late friend R were smokers, and although R stopped when his COPD became worse, the damage was done. In my opinion, vaping is not much different, and I do NOT want to inhale anyone else's smoke or vape just as I do not like being exposed to what comes out of the endless number of car exhausts - but people still drive along residential streets, seemingly uncaring about what their cars emit (and what, ultimately, they themselves inhale when they get out of their cars).
ReplyDeleteIt is incredible that vape ingredients do not have to pass strict safety checks.
DeleteMy views are much the same as yours. Perhaps the only difference is that at least here, I've never gone to a bar or restaurant and had to breath it in like I did cigarette smoke. Our state was one of the first states to ban cigarette smoking inside public places, well before vaping came about, and thus I wasn't exposed too much to vaping like I was cigarettes. I'm still not though I occasionally will see someone using one of those things while walking down a sidewalk or from inside their car as I follow them through traffic.
ReplyDeleteI hear that amongst the MAGA crowd, their favourite vape flavour is Trump's ass.
DeleteI hate the idea of vaping and know this will cause just as much untold damage as nicotine in the future occasionally someone will pass me in the street and blow out there vapour in my face and I turn my head to avoid it. The other day I was in a local cafe and two lads on the next table were smoking a vape with their coffee. The cafe was so crowded the baristas did not notice.
ReplyDeleteOops a couple of typos there. THAT should teach me not to type on my small phone keyboard.
DeleteAs it is almost Christmas, your heinous errors are forgiven ADDY.
DeleteVaping doesn't worry me. It is rare for anyone to vape indoors or on public transport and honestly, I never smell it. From my observations earlier this year, we have far more vaping outlets here than you do.
ReplyDeleteFrom a date early next year, selling vapes will become illegal unless you have a doctor's prescription.
I heard something like 3/4 of the price of cigarettes here are government taxes and the taxes will increase by 5% each year. This has led to a huge and very profitable blackmarket in illegal cigarettes. I think they are called either Cambridge or Manchester. I can't remember. Middle Eastern criminal gangs want a cut of the profits and fire bomb shops that sell illegal cigarettes when the owners won't pay up. The same will happen once vapes are not legally available.
My question is why did your and my government allow the explosion in the number of vape shops? It should have been stomped on as soon as vapes appeared and now it is too late to control.
Yes. What were they thinking of - allowing this nasty industry to flourish?
DeleteYou can buy Cannabis vapes in the Canaries. Cigarettes are for nothing prices and so is alcohol. Lots of people smoke there.
ReplyDeleteDo they also keep canaries?
DeleteHate it. I think there's also a cannabis component, with a lot of people vaping cannabinoids. I've never understood the desire some people have to suck stuff into their lungs. No thank you!
ReplyDeleteThe smoke makes users' clothes and hair smell sickly sweet.
DeleteI'm sure you would like the onion and catnip flavour.
ReplyDeleteOne could add other things to the list of what governments have allowed to please profiteers and "boost the economy" without thinking about the consequences. All-night drinking comes to mind. The cost of policing and cleaning up city centres is massive.
I have never had a puff Tasker.
DeleteA nasty - probably deadly - habit. Developed by the tobacco companies, to try to keep people addicted to a new product.
ReplyDeleteI had a classmate in law school who went to work for a big tobacco company, was paid a lot of money and traveled the world, after a few years he decided he couldn't do it anymore, he realized that his job was spreading illness and death around the world.
Good on him for seeing the light!
DeleteI am with Bob. It is cigarettes 2.0. Not healthy, expensive, addictive, and wasteful for the environment.
ReplyDeleteIt is as if we learnt nothing from the cigarette plague that continues to make COVID look like a walk in the park.
DeleteYou could buy cannabis vapes in Tenerife last week.
ReplyDeleteHow many did you buy?
DeleteNo, thanks!
ReplyDeleteWe are united.
DeleteI think they are "Adult dummies" acting as a comforter for modern day woes.
ReplyDeleteSmartphones also serve that purpose in my view.
DeleteWe seem to be unable to live without self-harming for "pleasure". I find it inexplicable and unexplainable.
ReplyDeleteBeyond my ken too.
Delete