this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2024
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Seems like it's more about discouraging any tobacco use, rather than how unpleasant it is to others.
To be fair, ecigs don't use tobacco. They may have nicotine added to the liquid, but no tobacco.
Wasn't aware of that, so thanks for pointing it out, but yeah, what it's really about is the nicotine. They want fewer people addicted.
Is alcohol still legal? Afaik at this point we have more evidence to the dangers of alcohol than vaping
There's studies suggesting that vaping has a lot of negative effects as well, particularly on the lungs. Inhaling smoke or damps just isn't great for one's health it seems. Vaping also release a number of poisonous substances (propylene glycol and various aldehydes to name a few). Vaping also seems to increase your risk of cancer, but studying that is tough still because vaping is fairly new.
I wasn't arguing it isn't harmful. I'm just interested how there's so much public effort to go after it but seemingly not alcohol even a bit.
Vaping is new, it's more likely it can be stopped in its tracks now, compared to alcohol which is sadly ingrained into our culture for thousands of years now. Though I should say that in some countries alcohol usage is trending down as well.
Yes, but it's also controlled and pretty well regulated in terms of what you can sell. E-cigs are not, or at least not enough, leading to the sale of devices which deliver nicotine in incredibly potent doses, which makes them very addictive (especially because nicotine is one of the most addictive substances in the world). Couple that with sleek packaging, and in some countries advertising which will be seen by kids, and you have a device which is creating a new generation of nicotine addicts.
Don't get me wrong, vaping is generally healthier than smoking, and thus better for existing nicotine addicts. We should, however, be doing everything to avoid creating new addicts.
I think it is more about that drinking in public is legal in many countries (also in many it isn't). So for the "discouraging" it should also be banned from the public equally.
In regards to "regulated what you can sell" You can also buy anything from 2,5% beer-mix stuff over 40-60% Schnaps and even up to 80% high destillate for cooking purposes. Which are still drunk by some alcoholics. Strong alcohol burns your throat away, but it is available on the market easily.
E-cigs are regulated in Europe, or more precisely e-liquids are, which is what determines the amount of nicotine rather than the device itself. Of course you can DIY liquids with stupid amounts of nicotine, but what you can buy off-the-shelf, including those terrible prefilled single-use e-cigs (which should be banned IMO) won't deliver you more nicotine than regular cigarettes.
Nobody is talking about making vaping illegal entirely.
Alcohol already usually has restrictions on drinking it when walking down the street.
Sure there are some places (e.g. UK) where it isn't, but even there local authorities have the power to forbid it if they want to.
Currently smoking doesn't have this, and neither does vaping.