# Why Do People Protest So Much About Vaping? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 16, 2014, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-protest-so-much-about-vaping/701516 "2014-10-16T18:53:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![JustinC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justinc/32/8083_2.png) [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-protest-so-much-about-vaping/701516/41 "2014-10-16T21:11:01Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > We’re just jealous of vapers because they look soooo cool. :dubious:Absolutely, we are all guilty for getting people like you started on smoking, and should accept degradation of indoor air quality and potential harm from secondhand nicotine/vape ingredients because it is our responsibility to keep you hooked on a less dangerous form of nicotine without any meaningful regulation. I think y’all have some problem with cats, too. Don’t get defensive, I appreciate your weakness where the feline is concerned. Let me say I just appreciate your fondness for the feline 😉 ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-protest-so-much-about-vaping/701516/42 "2014-10-16T21:11:29Z")
Can we back up to the original premise of this thread? That people protest so much about vaping? I see it all the time online, but not IRL. As background, I finally quit smoking by taking up vaping in April 2012. I’m pretty discreet about it though. However, I work in peoples’ homes day in and day out. Plus most of my friends are non-smokers. I have never, ever had anyone complain, and I always ask if it’s OK. Many people are interested and want to know more about it because they have a friend or relative who “needs to quit smoking.” I’ve received lots of congratulations for quitting. Generally I’m told that the vapor smells nice. Certainly, now that I am a non-smoker, I know I don’t reek any more (and I can now smell a smoker from ten feet away, yuck.) Granted I don’t always ask permission - such as at a movie theater, or in a restaurant. But even then, nobody has ever complained. So in real life, I just haven’t experienced any push-back; if anything I get 100 percent positive feedback. I do understand that there’s still stigma and nervousness about possible hazards in second-hand vapor, which is why I’m fairly discreet about it. And I do get **JustinC** ’s point about perfume, car exhaust, plug in air “fresheners”, my neighbors’ use of leaf blowers and all that. Part of living around other people is you get to put up with some smells or sounds you don’t like. ---
**Author:** ![JustinC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justinc/32/8083_2.png) [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-protest-so-much-about-vaping/701516/43 "2014-10-16T21:17:16Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > Is this the lyrics to the new version of “We Didn’t Start The Fire”? I din’ start a fire, I jus’’ pressed the blue button, yea’hear? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-protest-so-much-about-vaping/701516/44 "2014-10-16T21:28:41Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > You may prefer to have this relocated to Great Debates or the Pit (where there are already a couple of vaping threads active) Is it Vape Month on the Dope? ---
**Author:** ![BeeGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@BeeGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeeGee)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-protest-so-much-about-vaping/701516/45 "2014-10-16T21:42:58Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Let me get this straight-sometimes it smells like you are smoking a cigarette…and you wonder why people might object? It’s flavored, not scented. I’m starting my third year of not smoking by using an ecig. When I go to vape shops where the employees go at it all day, I don’t really smell anything. Co-workers don’t notice any smell on me; believe me when I say that they would say something. we’re an outspoken bunch. My boss has asthma and if you’ve got an odor hanging on you that makes it hard for her to breathe, she’s going to ask you to leave her office. I know when I pass smokers, I find the stench overwhelming. I can smell again, and it ain’t pretty. Baking cookies and beans in the same kitchen should be outlawed. Honestly, my conditioner has a stronger smell than the vapor. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-protest-so-much-about-vaping/701516/46 "2014-10-16T21:46:53Z")
My husband took up smoking an e-cigarette in his ongoing effort to quit smoking. I have never smelled anything from the e-cigarette. Nothing. He said the one kind he was using had a vanilla scent but I could not smell it. But when he smoked a “real” cigarette at a party, I sure smelled that. Personally I am extremely grateful for the invention of the e-cigarette. And I am never NEVER going to call it vaping. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-protest-so-much-about-vaping/701516/47 "2014-10-16T21:47:12Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Is it Vape Month on the Dope? An over enthusiastic newbie managed to revive a dozen and a half threads on the subject before a mod told her to knock it off. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-protest-so-much-about-vaping/701516/48 "2014-10-16T21:47:14Z")
> [@JustinC](#): > > “Quit whining, and accept that you don’t just get to do what you want to do.” > > Hydrocarbons, nuclear fuel, windfarms, solar, biodiversity, commuting, hashtags, X-Factor, adverts, adverts, adverts, Hollywood, Nobel Peace Prizes, famine, AIDS, gold bugs, Fox News, China, globalization, gasoline, oil wars, ecigs. What? How on earth is this ironic? ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-protest-so-much-about-vaping/701516/49 "2014-10-16T21:50:40Z")
> [@JustinC](#): > > That last statement (I deleted the former) seems a tad ironic, don’t you think? You’re rubber and he’s glue, huh?:rolleyes: I have never actually seen, or smelled, anybody vaping, so I don’t have a strong opinion about it, but you, from your OP, and escalating through the thread, come off as a whiny, entitled, childish git. ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-protest-so-much-about-vaping/701516/50 "2014-10-16T21:51:49Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Let me get this straight-sometimes it smells like you are smoking a cigarette…and you wonder why people might object? Tobacco-flavoured juices seriously do not smell like a cigarette. Have you spent any time around people vaping? I doubt it, because it just doesn’t. Back before I quit smoking, I had an acquaintance who didn’t smoke, but her husband did. She was probably the biggest factor in my trying e-cigs, actually. Because she told me that she was fine with her husband smoking in her corporate (never to be smoked in) car because there was no lingering odor. At all. I found that really hard to believe but that’s been my experience and I do take into account that as a former heavy smoker my sense of smell is fucked. I think some people posting to this thread have no actual experience with vaping or being around people who do, and are just expressing internet outrage. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-protest-so-much-about-vaping/701516/51 "2014-10-16T21:57:10Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Is it Vape Month on the Dope? Heh. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![JustinC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justinc/32/8083_2.png) [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2014, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-protest-so-much-about-vaping/701516/52 "2014-10-17T08:48:56Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > You’re rubber and he’s glue, huh?:rolleyes: > > I have never actually seen, or smelled, anybody vaping, so I don’t have a strong opinion about it, but you, from your OP, and escalating through the thread, come off as a whiny, entitled, childish git. Thank you, very much, for your colourful and enlightening assessment. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2014, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-protest-so-much-about-vaping/701516/53 "2014-10-17T12:45:02Z")
> [@JustinC](#): > > Thank you, very much, for your colourful and enlightening assessment. Well, it pretty much tallied with mine, and I _have_ smelled vapor. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2014, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-protest-so-much-about-vaping/701516/54 "2014-10-17T13:46:54Z")
> [@JustinC](#): > > THAT would be a concern, but are those points validated by academic studies or they only anecdotal observations? [http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2013/p0905-ecigarette-use.html](http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2013/p0905-ecigarette-use.html) > **[FDA ‘Pushing Hard’ For E-Cigarette Rule After CDC Report Brands Vaping As...](https://www.medicaldaily.com/fda-pushing-hard-e-cigarette-rule-after-cdc-report-brands-vaping-poisonous-kids-274796)** > > After a report branded e-cigarettes as poisonous to children, the FDA announced it will push a new rule to manage e-cigarettes. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/08/25/adolescents-who-use-e-cigarettes-are-much-more-likely-to-try-tobacco-cdc-says/](http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/08/25/adolescents-who-use-e-cigarettes-are-much-more-likely-to-try-tobacco-cdc-says/) ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2014, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-protest-so-much-about-vaping/701516/55 "2014-10-17T15:17:26Z")
I see that last cite is from the CDC. These are the folks who said we could protect ourselves from Ebola with paper masks and suits, right? ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2014, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-protest-so-much-about-vaping/701516/56 "2014-10-17T15:25:53Z")
I dislike this “vaping” thing and think it should be illegal in some public places for the same reasons smoking is. Many have already expressed some of the reasons. But there is also this: by any reasonable technical definition of “smoke”, these “e-cigarettes” emit smoke. There doesn’t have to be a lit match involved. Just like spilling oil on your car engine, or getting something stuck on an electric stove burner, or having an electric appliance overheat, this is smoke, and it doesn’t necessarily need a flame there to be smoke. I think this whole “vape” industry is trying the transparent ploy of selling smoking products while proclaiming, “Hey, this is OK, because this smoke is not smoke!” ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2014, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-protest-so-much-about-vaping/701516/57 "2014-10-17T15:27:50Z")
No, it’s not smoke. Have you ever been near someone smoking an e-cigarette? Apparently not. Don’t talk about stuff you don’t understand. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2014, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-protest-so-much-about-vaping/701516/58 "2014-10-17T15:37:37Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > I see that last cite is from the CDC. These are the folks who said we could protect ourselves from Ebola with paper masks and suits, right? I suspect we’ll find that the nurses who were infected, broke protocol. So for the forseeable future, I’ll be taking the word of scientists and doctors before some random individual scoffing on a message board. > [@kayT](#): > > No, it’s not smoke. Have you ever been near someone smoking an e-cigarette? Apparently not. Don’t talk about stuff you don’t understand. Does it have to be smoke in order to be unhealthy to inhale? ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2014, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-protest-so-much-about-vaping/701516/59 "2014-10-17T16:25:30Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > I suspect we’ll find that the nurses who were infected, broke protocol. So for the forseeable future, I’ll be taking the word of scientists and doctors before some random individual scoffing on a message board. > > Does it have to be smoke in order to be unhealthy to inhale? Try mowing the lawn, and running over a patch of poison ivy. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2014, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-protest-so-much-about-vaping/701516/60 "2014-10-17T17:36:34Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > I dislike this “vaping” thing and think it should be illegal in some public places for the same reasons smoking is. Many have already expressed some of the reasons. > > But there is also this: by any reasonable technical definition of “smoke”, these “e-cigarettes” emit smoke. There doesn’t have to be a lit match involved. Just like spilling oil on your car engine, or getting something stuck on an electric stove burner, or having an electric appliance overheat, this is smoke, and it doesn’t necessarily need a flame there to be smoke. > > I think this whole “vape” industry is trying the transparent ploy of selling smoking products while proclaiming, “Hey, this is OK, because this smoke is not smoke!” The difference between “smoke” and “vapor” is the difference between combustion and evaporation. By your argument, the sun burns water off the top of a lake. 😕 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-protest-so-much-about-vaping/701516.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-protest-so-much-about-vaping/701516.md?page=4)