Because, in my opinion, there is a contiuum of what is bad with vaping being worse and the line could reasonably fall between them.
A valid point, but the antipathy clearly goes beyond that alone (Not that it’s worth much, but my personal experience is that vapers are more sensitive to others than the smokers. Probably just a function of the particular people that work here.).
There might be some unknown effects, but my question is more about nicotine than vaping specifically. There’s a moralizing component to some of the criticism that any nicotine ingestion is a bad thing.
Going with most of what’s been said above as a general feeling, I try not to care too much about the few times I see it. However, I do note a couple of things… 1) The people I’ve seen do it have the attitude y’all have been talking about and appear to be huge douches. And 2) it looks to me like they’ve got a giant pacifier getup going on. For the ones trying to be cool (and I saw someone at a rally today on the news, holding up a sign that read, “I Vape and I Vote!”), it sure seems to be missing the boat.
So, I don’t know. It just seems Not Good, you know?
Seems like everyone I encounter vaping has strawberry flavored whatever. Sickly sweet strawberry. AFAIC, you don’t vape anywhere you don’t smoke. It’s not even a health thing-- it’s a courtesy thing. Just assume that no one wants to smell the flavored vapor you’re spewing into the air.
Surely not on this message board.
Sigh…
This whole vaping controversy is nonsense. If the smell of fruity vapor bothers you, fine, but that means anyone could also try to ban Guido gumba douchebags who dump a gallon of cologne on themselves everyday as well. Or naturist Earth-childs who stink because they refuse to wear deodorant. You’d instantly be hit with a political correctness ‘cultural’ discrimination lawsuit.
Vaping is fundamentally no different than gum or patches. They are nicotine delivery systems. Yet when someone is seen using a patch or gum to quit smoking, they’re tremendously praised for the effort and given endless encouragement. Vapers however are shamed and harassed for essentially making exactly the same effort.
So what’s the difference? Merely this: From a stranger’s perspective vaping looks 100% exactly the same as smoking. And I’m not saying people mistake it for that, I’m saying anti-smokers base-level reptilian brains can’t (or won’t) separate the two. Cigarette smoking has become so demonized that the mere appearance of being a ‘supporter of big tobacco’ is not tolerated.
And even if you’re not an ex-smoker, but started out vaping as a recreational pleasure, so what? The vapor does not contain nicotine. Suppose you hate the smell of coffee? You think you have the right to never smell it anywhere? And are you gonna shame people for supporting ‘big coffee’?!
P.S. I don’t smoke…
I’m guessing you never checked out my picture in the Photo Gallery, huh? 
To be fair, I would be equally unimpressed if people were throwing used gum or patches in my general direction on a regular basis.
Pretty much this.
For the record, though, I don’t hate vape, find it less offensive that smoking, and wish every smoker would switch to it.
I’d still be happier if every smoker just quit. But in the meantime, I wish people would feel free to vape wherever. I think if smoking isn’t allowed, vaping shouldn’t be allowed either.
The clouds of vape are not as bothersome as smoke, not by half, but they are still annoying.
Normal breathing involves small volumes of breath. People cover their faces when sneezing or coughing. When you’re vaping, you’re taking a deep breath and exhaling a large cloud of it, laced with nicotine and propylene glycol. The usual breathing courtesies do not apply.
I think you are underselling the reptilian nature of the anti-smoking motivation. I have long believed that a lot of the popularity of the whole anti-smoking movement is based on the idea of otherness. It is human nature to categorize everyone and everything as me or other. And it is human nature to blame, dislike and disregard that which is other. It is even better if other can be identified on sight. An other that looks different is the perfect target for our disdain. As it became socially unacceptable to pick on readily identifiable ethnic or social groups smokers became the target of choice. If drinkers stood around all day with beers in hand they would cop it too.
I think smartphone users will be next. The media are just beginning to drip feed us about their evils.
It’s not a matter of “hate”, or of jealousy towards the Utter Coolness of long-term nicotine addiction in electronic form.
What’s unacceptable to me is the sense of entitlement e-cig users (especially simultaneous/ex-smokers) have. Everyone else is supposed to tolerate their “vaping” in public (including indoor and other enclosed spaces) without complaint, and there mustn’t be any “exorbitant” taxes or other restrictions aimed at least in part at discouraging kids from taking up the practice.
I’m seeing very similar arguments from e-cig users about their secondhand waste that used to come from smokers belligerent about regulation. “There’s no danger to you! Scientists are just making it up! It’s just a drop in the bucket compared to air pollution in general! Won’t you just accept a few extra carcinogens for my benefit? You should make sacrifices so I can quit smoking (wheedle).”
Um, nope. I can accept that e-cig fumes are not as bad as secondhand cigarette smoke, but they’re far from proven safe. No thanks, I do not want to breathe in your acrolein, formaldehyde, propylene oxide etc. in addition to nicotine vapors while I’m on a commercial flight or eating in a restaurant.
There are numerous other ways to quit smoking that don’t potentially endanger others around you. Use them.
^ This.
In most places, certainly in California, the same regulations apply for vaping and smoking. I have a few smoker friends and they are, without exception, extremely courteous about their habit.
The entitled shit and rationalization I am seing from a few people is disgusting. I reminds me of the 90s when smoking bans started. Very few people want to go back to the days when people could smoke in bars, restaurants and fucking airplanes.
About a year ago I and a friend who’d recently taken up vaping had a long auto-trip together. It was in my truck so he asked if he could vape. If it was smoke it would have been an instant no (“We’ll make stops.”) but I said we could try it.
He didn’t vape like a smoker smokes. Instead of puffing more or less constantly on something for the ten or fifteen minutes it was alight, he’d take one hit about every ten or fifteen minutes for an hour or so, then put it away entirely for an hour or two; it was a long trip.
When he’d inhale he’d hold it for several seconds like a toker, then when he exhaled there was some vapor but not nearly as much as I’ve seen some do. I suspect the vapor was being held long enough to condense in his lungs or something. There was some odor – rather like a good-quality pipe tobacco without the burnt undertone – but having no air-conditioning in the truck the vapor and odor were gone in a few seconds through the open windows.
I don’t know if I’d let someone vape inside the house, but on the go I found it hardly objectionable at all.
There is to some of them.
As smoking diminishes the sense of smell your perceptions may not be as sensitive as some other peoples’.
There most certainly is.
This is the best news I’ve heard in a long time. I now have my plan for long-term success:
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start a business making/selling vape supplies.
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Wait for Big Tobacco to buy it from me (so they can shut it down). According to you this is important to BT’s survival, so surely they will pay me an amount considerably greater than my startup costs.
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Profit. Stash some of it in the bank, and use the rest to repeat steps 1 and 2 half a dozen times.
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Now that I have a large pile of capital, I can hire a whole team of business experts to start multiple vape-supply business every year and sell them to BT. I am a businessman, my product is vape-supply businesses, and my customer is BT; as long as they’re willing to buy, I’ll keep making product.
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After maybe a decade, I’ll retire wealthier than Smaug and Scrooge McDuck combined.
I don’t mind the vaping so much. It usually smells pretty nice. And it doesn’t seem to have that godawful stale cigarette smoke stench that gets into people’s clothes, hair, wall, furniture…
I’ve been vaping since the first ecigs came on the market – seven or eight years, I guess – after over 40 years of heavy smoking. I agree 100% that the cloud chasers are a problem.
Some eliquids do have a strong smell, some don’t.
Much of the hate is from moral crusaders – no hope to change their minds.
In the beginning most eliquid was made in China. Now there are many manufacturers in the USA and other first-world countries. You can still buy cheap Chinese eliquid online but would have a hard time finding any in a local vape shop.
In the beginning all eliquid was made with nicotine extracted (by two chemical companies, one in China and one in India) from the waste tobacco swept from cigarette factories – and the pharmaceutical companies still use those sources for the nicotine they put in patches, gum, etc. The boom in the ecig market caused a shortage of available nicotine and new businesses started up extracting nicotine from whole leaf tobacco in the USA, some of it being organically grown specifically for the ecig market. The product tests much purer in labs than that used by the pharmaceutical companies.
In the beginning the big tobacco companies campaigned against ecigs; one thing they did was surreptitiously organize and fund supposedly “grass roots” campaigns to try to pass local legislation banning ecigs as a way to set legal precedents. They pretty quickly saw the light and changed their position – now all big tobacco companies have bought or started their own ecig brands. Their fight now is to get them regulated the same way cigarettes are regulated and have them sold only in places that also sell cigarettes, using their current distribution system while putting thousands of local vape shops out of business.
The pharmaceutical companies remain steadfast in wanting a total ban on ecigs. Ecigs are very effective for helping people stop smoking – the gums, patches, etc.s, are not very effective. If all smokers switched to ecigs the pharmaceutical companies stand to lose billions and billions of dollars in sales of drugs that treat smoking related illness. Big Pharma really does not want people to stop smoking and/or switch to ecigs.
Very few people start with ecigs and switch to smoking – that is just a “what about the children” scare tactic.
The danger of nicotine has been totally overblown for a very long time. The original ‘research’ was done by a pharmacist in the 1800s; he was anti-smoking and experimented on himself, finding all sorts of dangers. No other actual research was done for a long time, with all the published papers pointing back to his original publication as a source. Actual modern research is finding that nicotine is not nearly so deadly and many new medical uses are being found.
The British National Health Service recently released a study stating that ecigs are “at least 95% less harmful than cigarettes.” They said they suspect the harm reduction is ever greater than 95% but wanted to leave themselves some wiggle room. The NHS now prescribes and gives ecigs to patients as a medical treatment to stop or reduce smoking.