this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2023
82 points (70.9% liked)

United Kingdom

4060 readers
76 users here now

General community for news/discussion in the UK.

Less serious posts should go in [email protected] or [email protected]
More serious politics should go in [email protected].

Try not to spam the same link to multiple feddit.uk communities.
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.

Posts should be related to UK-centric news, and should be either a link to a reputable source, or a text post on this community.

Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.

If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread.

Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.

Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

A 12-year-old girl who suffered a lung collapse and spent four days in an induced coma has told the BBC that children should never start vaping.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] FellowEarthling 128 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

She had asthma and wasnt using her inhaler. Kids shouldn't be vaping, but there was more going on here.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I had to check to see this was an onion article. There has to be so much more going on here.

[–] DaCookeyMonsta 117 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Man, this destroys my argument that all 12 year olds should vape. Boy do I feel silly.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Fortunately the 13 year olds are good to vape

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Honestly, the minimum age for vaping should be increased to ∞.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I don't like it so i don't want other independent adults to do it. I want everyone to want and do the same things i do all the time ! >:(

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Right but there's some middle ground between no regulation at, and a total ban

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"Sarah's asthma and the fact she was not good at using her preventative inhaler left her at risk of complications."

Ahh, there's the problem

[–] VelvetStorm 19 points 1 year ago

I think the main problem was she was just buying them from a store for 3 years.

[–] byroon 34 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

This is awful and I'm very sorry for the kid but with the greatest respect who gives a fuck what this 12 year old thinks

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Papiermache 29 points 1 year ago

Yeah fuck allowing children to vape but this is clearly a case of poor compliance asthma management and shit parents. Obviously some larger governmental intervention will help but the story is garbage.

Note: you can potentially ignore everything I said because I only read two paragraphs of the article and just looked at the photos of the shitty mom and kid

[–] rustyfish 26 points 1 year ago

What a clickbaity bs article.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Y'all really like your vapes, huh? Jesus fucking Christ with so many of these comments... I smoke, too, but I don't defend tobacco.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Dude I see your username in every comment section of every post I click on. Over 4.5k comments in 3 months! That's impressive

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I always see the dude that is just two eye emojis for a username.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (7 children)

So seriously - who's peddling this anti-vaping propaganda and what's their goal?

Vaping is easily the most effective way to stop smoking that's ever existed. Certainly we don't want kids to start doing it, and kids are the basis for much of the propaganda, but it's never just restricted to trying to make it so kids don't start. All of the propaganda efforts are directed toward stamping out vaping entirely, and that means that millions of people whose lives could literally be saved by switching from smoking to vaping will be denied that opportunity.

Why? Whose interests are served by denying adult smokers access to the most effective smoking cessation product ever?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So seriously - who's peddling this anti-vaping propaganda and what's their goal?

And

Vaping is easily the most effective way to stop smoking that's ever existed.

Care to make a wild guess who's behind the propaganda?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Tobacco companies are in on the vape industry, though

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (5 children)

The entire history of banning shit like cigarette advertising and flavors is regulatory capture.

Awful lot of common people in support of this shit, though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I reckon you’re 100% on the money here. The big tobacco companies push all this drama and concern about the health effects so that everyone thinks the industry needs to be more regulated, that allows them to kill off the smaller competition and push up prices.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] sheogorath 12 points 1 year ago (3 children)

If you smoke, you should be allowed to vape in an attempt to quit. But if you never smoked, fuck vaping. It's too new to be thoroughly studied for health effects.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

They have been studying it for almost 20 years now and it's, among experts, considered extremely safer than smoking. Sure they need to keep studying it but people throw this around like no research is done. There's tons and it shows it's vastly safer. They aren't even comparable based off what we know.

That said I don't smoke or vape but did used to do both, and used vapes to taper off nicotine. 6 years no nicotine.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I tried everything under the sun to quit smoking. It wasn't until I got myself a rig and stepped the nicotine down to zero until I was able to stop. I have remained smoke free for going on 8 years.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Nicely done! Similar route for myself. I did get more addicted to my vape at first, just out of sheer convenience/not having to go outside. Realized it though and took steps to be 8 months vape free.

Do you ever crave it anymore? I smelled someone's cigarette the other day and instantly wanted one.. when I was vaping, cigs smelled awful. monkey brains are weird.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I've been vaping for 8 years after smoking for 6 years and the smell of cigarettes are gross to me. But when I see someone in a tv show or movie smoking that tends to make me crave a smoke. Weird how the brain works lol.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

fortunately i don't. once in a blue moon after a meal there is a brief flash but it's rare and a blink. i just enjoy being in an airport and not wanting to tear my hair out from cravings. oh and it took 2 years to quit...for those who are trying.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Who's trying to stamp out vaping entirely? All I'm reading into this article is just "Kids shouldn't start vaping, especially if they have asthma."

The suggested solutions I've seen in the news recently are things like keep the vaping displays away from kids, stop kid-friendly flavours, and make packaging less enticing - all things that they currently do for cigarettes, and all perfectly reasonable IMO.

No-one I've seen is proposing taking them away from adults.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Fuck this stop kid friendly flavor shit. I'm 40. I prefer sour flavors like apple/peach or red bull. I swear to fuck I will start smoking again to spite you paternalistic motherfuckers.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Christ, chill with the venom. Fair enough, you like those flavours, but there are ways to avoid marketing them as desirable to children.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I buy juice not disposables so it's not really marketed for kids, but congress, the FDA and the tobacco firms that seem to own both won't really discriminate

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Ahh, you're American - the UK system, which this article is referring to, will be different. There is talk of banning disposables for environmental reasons and ease of kids getting hold of them, but the government over here are currently looking into the best options.

The government certainly won't want to ban vapes entirely, as they help people quit smoking, so they take pressure off the health service.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah. Sorry. Not sure I noticed I traipsed into the motherland.

For context, our television advertising ban happened because Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds stalemated on market share. Both had to pay for adverts because they'd lose share if they stopped, but if it's banned they can save millions and nobody else can easily edge into their market.

Flavored cigarette bans were similar. Upstarts started eating into their profits, so it became necessary to ban their products.

Recently our FDA has started clamping down on places that mix juice. You either have to pay for some sort of certification or just buy mass produced juice.

It's ridiculous.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

"kid friendly flavors" tend to be literally everything except for "chemical tobacco flavor" and menthol. And sometimes they go after the menthol too. They're trying to kill the whole thing.

[–] JJROKCZ 5 points 1 year ago

Adults also like the “kid friendly” flavors. Restricting people to vape flavors that taste like ass isn’t going to help them stop smoking cigarettes that are more harmful to themselves and those around them

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

If I had to guess? Tobacco companies.

[–] glimse 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I liked that proposal to raise the minimum age every year that was proposed in the UK. Let people quit or smoke until they die but don't let people start smoking

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I think that became an actual law in Australia.

Edit: it was NZ, my bad!

[–] MutilationWave 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You're thinking of New Zealand.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Ahhh you're right! Thank you!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

In Australia we just put the price up exponentially each year so that eventually noone will be able to afford them except the very richest in the country. I stopped smoking on 1/1/2020 when it was already over $1 per cigarette. It's considerably more expensive now ... I think about $30 for a pack of 20s. That's why my friend never has any dosh and is always borrowing money from ppl.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Media talking about vapes is like: "Olympic athlete who vapes died of a hole in the lung from which he bled out of, raising awareness to the practice of vaping in society."

Article: "The Olympic athlete was shot during a home robbery. It's totally unrelated LOL."

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I vape, it’s how I quit smoking. I’d prefer to smoke, but it is the lesser of two evils, and I would encourage anyone who smokes cigarettes to switch. I recently went on holiday, smashed my vape and couldn’t find a replacement. I ended up buying the disposable kind from a supermarket for the first time and I was honestly shocked at how wasteful the are - so much unnecessary plastic that goes straight into the bin. But I was more shocked by how clearly geared towards children the disposable kind are - the bright colours, the flashy lights, the super sweet flavours, the high nicotine content. The one I bought was called YOLO ffs.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

so much unnecessary plastic that goes straight into the bin.

They are technically WEEE and should be recycled. Apparently the shops which sell them are supposed to take them back for recycling - I wonder if any do! Or maybe they resent anybody who brings them back for disposal.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I returned it to the supermarket and the checkout lady put it straight in the normal bin in front of me! I was referring to the packaging more though - a box, a leaflet, a sealed plastic bag thingy, plastic labels that have to be removed, a little plastic stopper for the mouth piece. You’re meant to get 600 puffs per vape but every one I tried died after 2 days. That’s a huge amount of waste compared to the one bottle of juice I recycle each month and the coil I throw out every two-three months.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The proposals include:

  • restricting the flavours and descriptions of vapes so they are no longer targeted at children
  • keeping vapes out of sight of children in shops
  • regulating vape packaging so they are not targeted at children
  • exploring whether increasing the price of vapes will reduce the number of young people using them
  • considering restricting the sale of disposable vapes, which ministers say are clearly linked to the rise in vaping in children and are incredibly harmful to the environment.

So not really very much, it's hardly worth storming the Bastille over.

load more comments
view more: next ›