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Because vaping is an effective tool for quitting smoking, which is much worse. The physical improvements from smoking to vaping are pretty remarkable - everyt

Because vaping is an effective tool for quitting smoking, which is much worse. The physical improvements from smoking to vaping are pretty remarkable - everything from lung function to circulation and skin quality and general energy improves. It helped me quit my decade-plus long smoking habit, and I'm now 3+ years off of vaping as well. I hate to see vaping demonized, but I also don't particularly care to see kids take it up. It's just as, if not more addictive than cigarettes.

daenz 4y ago
Huh thanks, I didn't know so many vapers were ex smokers. I always thought it was some new fad.
- HWR_14 4y ago
  It started among ex-smokers, but moved to teens especially as it went from "specialty shops" to "in drug stores". At this point, the number of ex smokers is the minority.
- bcrosby95 4y ago
  Every vaper I know is an ex-smoker. But I'm also 40 so I don't know many people that would be taking something like this up as a new thing.
  - ev1 4y ago
    I'm close to ~half your age, and every vaper I know started vaping from clean-slate. Absolutely zero of them were ex-smokers or have ever touched a cigarette. I honestly cannot name a single ex-smoker in my circle or a degree or two removed - all of them started vaping to vape. Almost all of them started before 18. I don't know of a single person using it as a cessation device. Anecdotal, of course, but still, didn't expect such big of a difference compared to your post.
    - Clubber 4y ago
      How many of those people would have picked up cigarettes if vapes never existed? Probably a bunch.
      - ev1 4y ago
        I'd be curious too but vapes would have to never exist in the first place probably. None have moved on to smoking, and 100% of my group finds smoking to be gross/smelly/etc "will never, that's disgusting", including the ones that have had a vape since they were 12.
- BizarroLand 4y ago
  There's always going to be some people who get into a bad habit simply because it's available, but barring one teenager everyone that vapes that I personally know are ex-smokers. I think, (barring dangerous additives like the buttered popcorn flavorings), that vaping is probably 3-10% as harmful as smoking. Not harmless, but less harmful, if that makes sense.
- InvaderFizz 4y ago
  It's partially generational. Kids don't pick up cigarettes anymore, they vape, so those who came of age after vape was common never smoked. The older generation, those who were adults in 2010 or thereabouts, all used to smoke. We rapidly adopted vaping for QoL improvements: No more smelling like an ashtray, massively less costs, improved lung capacity, and as a side affect, quitting became massively easier. Every cigarette user I know that switched to vaping has in turn found it easy to taper nicotine and quit. Vaping doesn't have the same addictive power as cigarettes. I was a 10 year smoker with multiple failed attempts at quitting, vaped for two years, then just stopped. As for popcorn lung, this was widely known and discussed within the vaping community at the time, basically within a year you could not even purchase the affected flavorings without being very intentional.
HWR_14 4y ago
Vaping is an effective tool, but it definitely ruins more people's lives (those who went from nothing to vaping) instead of helping them (people who went from cigarettes to vaping). We could use even stricter rules (such as making vapes prescription products) to tilt it even more towards the "quitting" market.
- defective 4y ago
  I wonder if people are actually having their lives "ruined" by vaping. Maybe. What would be worse is if vaping wasn't available and they went from nothing to cigarettes. I guess you'd say those lives would be "devastated", or something?
  - HWR_14 4y ago
    > What would be worse is if vaping wasn't available and they went from nothing to cigarettes Good thing we don't have to worry about it because it's a situation we have data on. You've created a hypothetical that is incorrect. Before vaping cigarette use from people who had never smoked before had plummeted to almost nothing. Meanwhile, 1 in 4 kids from 6-12 grade vapes.
    - eurasiantiger 4y ago
      This is still preferable to a situation where 1 in 10 smokes, since tobacco smoke contains various ”boosters” intended to increase the effects of nicotine, including addiction. Vaping does not generate dangerous particles in the form of second hand smoke — on the contrary, second hand tobacco smoke is around 95% as dangerous as smoking yourself.

daenz 4y ago

Huh thanks, I didn't know so many vapers were ex smokers. I always thought it was some new fad.

HWR_14 4y ago
It started among ex-smokers, but moved to teens especially as it went from "specialty shops" to "in drug stores". At this point, the number of ex smokers is the minority.
bcrosby95 4y ago
Every vaper I know is an ex-smoker. But I'm also 40 so I don't know many people that would be taking something like this up as a new thing.
- ev1 4y ago
  I'm close to ~half your age, and every vaper I know started vaping from clean-slate. Absolutely zero of them were ex-smokers or have ever touched a cigarette. I honestly cannot name a single ex-smoker in my circle or a degree or two removed - all of them started vaping to vape. Almost all of them started before 18. I don't know of a single person using it as a cessation device. Anecdotal, of course, but still, didn't expect such big of a difference compared to your post.
  - Clubber 4y ago
    How many of those people would have picked up cigarettes if vapes never existed? Probably a bunch.
    - ev1 4y ago
      I'd be curious too but vapes would have to never exist in the first place probably. None have moved on to smoking, and 100% of my group finds smoking to be gross/smelly/etc "will never, that's disgusting", including the ones that have had a vape since they were 12.
BizarroLand 4y ago
There's always going to be some people who get into a bad habit simply because it's available, but barring one teenager everyone that vapes that I personally know are ex-smokers. I think, (barring dangerous additives like the buttered popcorn flavorings), that vaping is probably 3-10% as harmful as smoking. Not harmless, but less harmful, if that makes sense.
InvaderFizz 4y ago
It's partially generational. Kids don't pick up cigarettes anymore, they vape, so those who came of age after vape was common never smoked. The older generation, those who were adults in 2010 or thereabouts, all used to smoke. We rapidly adopted vaping for QoL improvements: No more smelling like an ashtray, massively less costs, improved lung capacity, and as a side affect, quitting became massively easier. Every cigarette user I know that switched to vaping has in turn found it easy to taper nicotine and quit. Vaping doesn't have the same addictive power as cigarettes. I was a 10 year smoker with multiple failed attempts at quitting, vaped for two years, then just stopped. As for popcorn lung, this was widely known and discussed within the vaping community at the time, basically within a year you could not even purchase the affected flavorings without being very intentional.

HWR_14 4y ago

Vaping is an effective tool, but it definitely ruins more people's lives (those who went from nothing to vaping) instead of helping them (people who went from cigarettes to vaping). We could use even stricter rules (such as making vapes prescription products) to tilt it even more towards the "quitting" market.

defective 4y ago
I wonder if people are actually having their lives "ruined" by vaping. Maybe. What would be worse is if vaping wasn't available and they went from nothing to cigarettes. I guess you'd say those lives would be "devastated", or something?
- HWR_14 4y ago
  > What would be worse is if vaping wasn't available and they went from nothing to cigarettes Good thing we don't have to worry about it because it's a situation we have data on. You've created a hypothetical that is incorrect. Before vaping cigarette use from people who had never smoked before had plummeted to almost nothing. Meanwhile, 1 in 4 kids from 6-12 grade vapes.
  - eurasiantiger 4y ago
    This is still preferable to a situation where 1 in 10 smokes, since tobacco smoke contains various ”boosters” intended to increase the effects of nicotine, including addiction. Vaping does not generate dangerous particles in the form of second hand smoke — on the contrary, second hand tobacco smoke is around 95% as dangerous as smoking yourself.