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Good point, hadn't looked at it quite like that. Does the surgeon general still put out scary warnings? It's fair to say vaping has had huge and surprising imp
by NeedMoreTea 8y ago
Good point, hadn't looked at it quite like that. Does the surgeon general still put out scary warnings?
It's fair to say vaping has had huge and surprising impact on smoking in the UK, it's now become really rare to see a smoker. It's now an occasional surprise when you catch a whiff of tobacco in the street.
It helped that cigarettes have been progressively taxed to nearly unaffordable (not sure, but I think a pack of 20 is now comfortably over £10). At the same time tobacco has been hidden in ugly packaging and no visibility is allowed in stores.
- madaxe_again 8y agoYeah, a 20 pack is now well over a tenner. It’s great. I do not smoke at all in the uk now, where I currently predominantly live, as the cost is just nuts. £4000 a year or so if you’re on a pack a day, which is where most active smokers sit. I now vape, spend about £200 a year on it. I will confess that I do still smoke if I find myself in a country where vaping is illegal and the cigarettes are 50p a pack, as I am still a nicotine addict, but I would much rather vape. Cigarettes make my lungs hurt. Vaping doesn’t. So, unless it turns out that vaping is somehow worse than smoking, this is a resounding public health policy success. My behaviour and the scarcity of smoking you note underscores this.
- seanmcdirmid 8y agoIn Australia, a pack is around $25! Taxation helps, but states are loathe to tax so much that they actually decrease demand more, they are addicted to the extra revenue and don’t want to see that go down. But society still loses out in the long run, whereas in the UK and Australia, the costs of smoking are all socialized, so sin revenue isn’t as appealing.