Slashdot Mirror


Vaping Can Be Addictive and May Lure Teenagers to Smoking, Science Panel Concludes (nytimes.com)

A national panel of public health experts concluded in a report released on Tuesday that vaping with e-cigarettes that contain nicotine can be addictive and that teenagers who use the devices may be put at higher risk of switching to traditional smoking. From a report: Whether teenage use of e-cigarettes may lead to conventional smoking has been intensely debated in the United States and elsewhere. While the industry argues that vaping is not a steppingstone to conventional cigarettes or addiction, some antismoking advocates contend that young people become hooked on nicotine, and are enticed to cancer-causing tobacco-based cigarettes over time. The new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine is the most comprehensive analysis of existing research on e-cigarettes. It concluded the devices are safer than traditional smoking products and that they do help smokers quit, citing conclusive proof that switching can reduce smokers' exposure to deadly tar, numerous dangerous chemicals and other carcinogens.

38 of 229 comments (clear)

  1. To be human by DigiShaman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Scientists discover that teenagers make poorer decision to that of adults. Shocking, I know!

    --
    Life is not for the lazy.
    1. Re: To be human by c6gunner · · Score: 2

      Then how do you explain adults (which I'll define here as "at least 25 years old") who are smokers?

      They too were teens once?

      Very few people start smoking at 25.

    2. Re:To be human by cayenne8 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Then how do you explain adults (which I'll define here as "at least 25 years old") who are smokers? Who are aware of the enormous preponderance of incontrovertible medical and scientific evidence that smoking is among the worst things you can do to your health, and smoke anyway?

      1. Because it is fun/pleasurable

      2. They may be addicted and can't stop.

      That pretty much sums it up I think.

      I quit smoking last year. I was never a heavy smoker, maybe a half to pack a week...except for the weekends. If drinking, I could almost chain smoke a pack in a night.

      That's the real time I miss smoking, it just is so much fun when drinking, especially in a bar with your friends that are smoking too.

      And frankly, the only reason I quit, is that it started to physically hurt and bother me. I would get headaches after smoking (very noticeable if not drinking too)....and it would just make my whole body feel poorly.

      It didn't used to do that..so, I quit.

      I DO miss it when out drinking....but I'm over it and it isn't worth it, so, I"m staying quit.

      The other time I miss it...was the workday smoke break. When I worked on site, it was a GREAT couple of breaks a day. If stuck on a problem, get up, down downstairs smoke one, and often I'd solve problems or have inspiration on my smoke break and run back in after.

      Smoke breaks also were VERY social....I would often rub elbows with upper management on smoke breaks, which did help in my career at times.

      Is it bad for you? Sure, but no one really thinks about that when you're young and in your teens-early 40's even. Hell, till you are about 39 you often still feel bullet proof.

      But to keep from temptation, I avoid some of the bars I used to go to, with everyone smoking inside....if I catch a buzz, I'll want to bum a couple smokes which turns into buying a pack from the bartender that sells them behind the bar...etc.

      But lung cancer just really never crosses your mind, when you're young, you're drinking a beer and chatting up a chick and you're both smoking.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    3. Re:To be human by chaotixx · · Score: 2

      You must live in North Carolina.

  2. The gateway drug theory doesn't make sense by Lord+Kano · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We understand how people can get addicted to opiates and when the supply runs our or their money dries up, they switch to heroin as a cheaper and more widely available source of the high but with eCigarettes, that doesn't hold up.

    Vaping is CHEAPER than smoking. Vaping supplies are widely available.

    It's nonsensical to think that people would seek alternatives to the cheaper method that they're already using.

    LK

    --
    "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
    1. Re:The gateway drug theory doesn't make sense by burtosis · · Score: 3, Funny

      It's nonsensical to think that people would seek alternatives to the cheaper method that they're already using.

      LK

      Sorry but you failed to not apply logic. Branding, trends and popular culture all push people far away from sensible cheap alternatives, teens rarely make rational reasoned decisions - it's how it feels instead.

      That said caffeine is the real gateway drug, once I got high on that, around 6 or so, I was hooked on how good drugs can be.

    2. Re:The gateway drug theory doesn't make sense by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 3, Informative
      You are overlooking an important part of this:
      • various levels of government entered into an agreement with the tobacco companies for those companies to pay them a certain percentage of their revenue each year.
      • Many of those governments issued bonds with a repayment schedule based on what those payments were projected to be.
      • Partly as a result of vaping, the tobacco company revenues are not as large as projected
      • As a result of lower than projected tobacco company revenues, payments to those government bodies is less than projected.
        • This set of facts leaves those governmental bodies with insufficient revenue to pay the bonds they issued without dipping into tax revenues. Therefore, the NYT is shilling for the tobacco companies to prop up their revenue.
      --
      The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
    3. Re:The gateway drug theory doesn't make sense by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 2

      Minor quibble, the NYT is shilling for the tobacco companies in order to prop up the tax stream of the governmental bodies. I find it highly incongruous that an organization that once demonized Big Tobacco now finds itself campaigning to increase its revenue.

      It reminds me of when Mayor Bloomberg passed a large tax increase on cigarettes in order to "reduce smoking" and a ban on smoking just about every where, then was shocked that people actually smoked so much less that the tax generated massively less than projected.

      --
      The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
    4. Re:The gateway drug theory doesn't make sense by Hadlock · · Score: 2

      Vaping is cheaper, and doesn't make your clothes reek like homeless people. I don't see why a teenager would switch to burning leaves for more money if they're trying to look cool and keep it from their parents.
       
      Vaping is weird and probably worse for you than breathing air, but it doesn't impact me or my freedoms, I super don't care if teens do it. Smoking leaves is a public health hazard and the smell of the smoke lingers for years, I definitely have an incentive to protect my right to life and liberty in that case.

      --
      moox. for a new generation.
    5. Re:The gateway drug theory doesn't make sense by Orgasmatron · · Score: 5, Informative

      Tobacco contains a variety of psychoactive chemicals, mostly alkaloids and nitrosamines. Nicotine is the most well known, and tobacco plants produce a large amount of it. Several of the alkaloids would be called "antidepressants", if they were being sold by a pharmaceutical company.

      Traditional electronic cigarette juice contains none of these other chemicals. They contain nicotine has has been extracted from tobacco leaves, and then purified. Which is important, because...

      Different people react to the different chemicals in different ways. Some people develop an addiction to nicotine only, while other people also develop addiction to the other alkaloids. The people who do not get addicted to the lesser chemicals generally stop smoking permanently within a day or two after getting an electronic cigarette. It really is almost like flipping a switch in them.

      I know at least a dozen people in real life like that, and I've read hundreds of their stories online since like 2009 or 2010 (whenever I first started looking into electronic cigarettes). I've never heard of anyone in this group ever having gone back to smoking, ever, for any reason. Quite a few of them have reduced their nicotine intake to zero and a several have stopped using their electronic cigarettes entirely, but most don't see any point because nicotine isn't very harmful by itself.

      Other people, if their brains get more involved with the other alkaloids, fit on a spectrum. Some of them took months to quit smoking, others haven't quit entirely and maybe never will. For those people, things like snus can be used to fill in the missing chemicals, and work is underway to develop liquids that contain the full spectrum of tobacco-derived alkaloids.

      These other chemicals were poorly understood 10 years ago, at least by laymen. Possibly researchers in some specific fields were well aware of them, but pretty much no one else was. Today, they are fairly well understood by (at least) the enthusiast portion of the electronic cigarette community. But I haven't seen any reason to think that they've entered the general consciousness.

      No offense intended towards you, but your knowledge of the subject appears to be about on the level that a high school student would learn in health class in the 1990s. Thinking in terms of "nicotine addiction" is a dead giveaway! I encourage you to educate yourself on the subject matter if you find it likely that you will be offering your opinion to others in the future.

      --
      See that "Preview" button?
    6. Re:The gateway drug theory doesn't make sense by Lord+Kano · · Score: 2

      They're all consumables but they have a life-cycle.

      Just a top of the head calculation...

      I used to smoke 3-4 packs per week. I'll just call it 3.5 packs per week.
      If I call it $8.00 per pack, that would be $28 per week smoking tobacco.

      I currently use an Aspire CF Sub Ohm that I paid $50 for, almost 3 years ago. In that time, I have had to replace the battery once and that battery cost me $10. That takes the cost of that unit to about $60.
      I use a Kanger Subtank Min II, which cost me about $45, 3 years ago.

      I replace my coils twice per month. At $5.00 each, that's $10 per month.

      I use about 20ml of liquid per week. I can spent between $8 and $25 per 30ml bottle depending on my tastes. Calculating 4 weeks per month, based on my buying habits, I spend about $48 per month on liquid.

      Smoking
      $28x4[weeks]x12[months]x3[years]=$4032in costs over three years

      Vaping
      $60[battery+mod]+$45[tank] +($48[liquid]+$10[coils]x12[months]x3[years] )=$2193 in costs over 3 years.

      Even if I bought only the high cost liquids, that would be $75 per month on liquid and the total cost would be $3060 for three years.

      Over the course of three years, for a half a pack a day smoker, it is still more than $1,000 less expensive to vape.

      With my particular pattern of consumption, it's closer to $1800 in savings over 3 years.

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
    7. Re:The gateway drug theory doesn't make sense by swb · · Score: 2

      This makes no sense.

      I'd wager 99% of never-smoker vapers use some sweet and fruity vape juice.

      It's just not logical that they would decide that the taste of a cigarette would be at all appealing vs. vaping, regardless of branding, trends, and pop culture.

      I smoked hand-rolled cigarettes for years and could barely tolerate a factory rolled cigarette when I was an active smoker. After quitting smoking, all cigarettes are super gross. Even cannabis is pretty nasty, it's only redeeming quality that you only need 1-2 hits to get high. If you had to suck down an entire joint to get high, I'm not sure I could do it.

      About the only migration path that makes sense to me for vaping->cigarettes would involve heavy/regular cannabis users who prefer smoking joints. They might be just used to inhaling burning leaves to make it worthwhile. Ironically, the heaviest cannabis smoker I know only smokes joints because he loved cigarettes and it lets him experience "smoking" (although 1 joint a day, not the 2 packs of nails he used to smoke).

      But I'd also guess in an era of increasingly legalized cannabis leading to vaporizers, edibles and other below-the-radar consumption methods, that's an increasingly small number of potential joint smokers who might turn into cigarette smokers.

      Asking a vaper who digs fruity flavored vape to smoke is like asking a wine cooler drinker to decide that rotgut whiskey is better. Vanishingly few would take you up on that.

    8. Re:The gateway drug theory doesn't make sense by AvitarX · · Score: 2

      I don't really see smoking cannabis as similar to smoking cigs at all.

      I was a fairly heavy smoker (pack a day) of full strength often unfiltered cigs. Cannabis is/was always unpleasant for me, and I know heavy pot smokers that the opposite is true for (can't smoke a cig). The two are very differently harsh.

      Vaping has been great to me for both, no more coughing up a lung to get high (though I do like a super thin joint every now and again), and I save massively on nicotine too (though I suspect I haven't cut back much, as I notice my consumption of juice has gone up dramatically as I've reduced the nicotine levels).

      I'm saving well over $100/month after the initial $120 investment to start vaping though (that and being datable were my primary motivations).

      --
      Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
    9. Re:The gateway drug theory doesn't make sense by AvitarX · · Score: 2

      Spend the money up front for some good kit, it was well worth it.

      I won't say it's as good as smoking, but it does a really good job at covering my trigger cigs (coffee, lunch, driving, quick break from work).

      I tried twice before with lower investment and failed both times (Blu, and some random all in one box).

      I currently have a kanger too tank (no leaking issues ever, I've had two even (one for other herbal extracts), a Tesla mod (the ability to select a hard hit being key, I'm sure there's plenty of good brands) that's over powered (two batteries lasts forever at the strength I use), and a variety of flavors and coils (the main benefit of the Kanger top tank was a wide selection of coils), I found that the flavors I enjoyed were weird and followed no pattern.

      I spent about $120 for the first month (probably a little less), and now I spend far far less than smoking (my main incentive).

      --
      Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
    10. Re:The gateway drug theory doesn't make sense by sjames · · Score: 2

      That was a problem, especially with the old "cigalike" e-cigs. They just couldn;t provide enough nicotine.

      I managed to switch ans stay switched anyway.

      A big part of the issue is that cigarette smoke also contains MAOIs that potentiate nicotine's addictive properties. You have to INCREASE nicotine consumption when first switching just to maintain something like status quo. Then after getting thoroughly used to the e-cig, you can slowly back off on the nicotine.

  3. Unbiased data hard to find by xtal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nicotine is an interesting drug with a lot of psychoactive properties. There's a reason it's popular.

    However, try to find data on health impacts from infrequent use, or infrequent smoking, or even to suggest such a thing is possible, is not very easy to do.

    Likewise, quantitative data on the beneficial effects of smoking is very difficult to find. There is evidence for increased memory performance, mood stabilizing, and possible anti-psychotic effects.

    There's no question smoking is bad for you.. but drugs have benefits and side effects, and personally, I'd like to know both.

    --
    ..don't panic
    1. Re:Unbiased data hard to find by Linux_ho · · Score: 3, Informative

      As someone who struggled with nicotine addiction for decades, I can testify to its addictive nature. There is also pretty compelling evidence that nicotine is bad for your heart, just like cocaine which has a similar addictive mechanism.

      --
      include $sig;
      1;
    2. Re:Unbiased data hard to find by Razed+By+TV · · Score: 2

      It would also be helpful to draw a distinction between pure nicotine and the other chemicals that tobacco consists of.
      Something in tobacco, not nicotine, supposedly acts as an MAOI.
      Many people are unable to switch from cigarettes to e-cigarettes and stick with it, and it would be good to know just what it is that's got people hooked.

    3. Re:Unbiased data hard to find by sjames · · Score: 2

      Again, cigarettes or nicotine?

      The cigs have a number of substances known to greatly increase the addictive quality.

  4. Re:In other news... water is wet! by Anon-Admin · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Nicotine is optional in e-cigs. I know a lot of people that smoke the flavors without nicotine.

    In those instances, I would assume that e-cigs are not addictive.

  5. Re:In other news... water is wet! by MightyYar · · Score: 2

    Nicotine is also not necessarily in the vaping fluid. A recent survey showed about 1/3 of teen use was non-nicotine. (Whether this means it was drug-free or the nicotine was substituted by another drug was not mentioned.)

    --
    W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
  6. Addiction is 21st Century Capitalism by geekmux · · Score: 2

    "...public health experts concluded in a report released on Tuesday that vaping with e-cigarettes that contain nicotine can be addictive..."

    Wait, you mean nicotine-infused products are still addictive? Gee, can't imagine how that wasn't rather fucking obvious after Big Tobacco agreed to a couple hundred billion in medical settlements 20 years ago.

    Starbucks. Big Pharma. Gaming. Social Media. Addiction is nothing more than 21st Century Capitalism. If you're not making a patented/trademarked product that's physically, mentally, or psychologically addictive these days, investors will be quick to point out that you're fucking doing it wrong.

  7. Personal Experience by MikeWin10 · · Score: 2

    From personal experience, as a smoker for 15 years, smoking upwards of 2 packs a day, switching to vape HAS made a tremendous impact on my bank account and how I feel. It tastes better than cigarettes (DUH!), my lungs don't hurt, I don't wheeze anymore, my car doesn't smell like ciggarettes, and I don't have ashes everywhere. Switching to vapor has been a solid WIN for me. I have been vaping almost 4 years now and successfully quit smoking. I thought one day I would try and smoke a ciggarette and I couldn't finish it and thought, how the HELL did I start doing this in the FIRST place! So honestly, I don't see how vaping could LEAD a person to smoking...that to me is INSANE. Only a weak minded fool would do that...sadly there are too many of those around.

  8. Re:Not this again. by elrous0 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I've never in my life heard of ANYONE who went from vaping to smoking. I have, however, known quite a few people who went from smoking to vaping. And I can tell you that it's nice to switch to an alternative that doesn't leave you hacking up phlegm, gasping for breath, and smelling like shit. Vaping may not be as healthy as not vaping, but it's sure as shit a lot healthier than smoking tobacco.

    Of course moral puritans want everyone to quit cold-turkey. But never let perfect be the enemy of good.
     

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  9. Doesn't do a body good by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There is an enormous push by the tobacco industry to take over vaping via regulation to hinder competition. If they can press into service "useful idiots", i.e. moral busybodies, all the better.

    See also taxi services trying to tie up Uber and Lyft.

    I'm ready for my downmod, busybodies^H^H^H^H^H^H Mr. Demille!

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  10. Marijuana is a different situation re:cancer... by Ellis+D.+Tripp · · Score: 2

    No evidence has yet shown a definitive link between MJ smoking and lung cancer. But MJ smoke contains many of the same known carcinogens as tobacco smoke, or smoke from burning ANY kind of dried plant material, for that matter.

    The lack of cancer in pot smokers then would seem to come down to a few key differences:

    The amount of material being smoked. Even the heaviest pot smoker is going through a LOT less material and inhaling a LOT less smoke than your typical tobacco smoker. A pack of cigarettes is the rough equivalent of an ounce of pot as far as the amount of material being burned and inhaled. A pack or more a day cigarette habit is pretty common, but smoking that much pot per day would be pretty much incapacitating for most users.

    Tobacco is typically treated with all kinds of additives, burn rate modifiers, flavorings, "impact boosters", etc. Marijuana is just dried flowers.

    The tobacco plant has a natural tendency to sequester radioactive material from the soils it is grown in. Commercial tobacco is usually grown using rock phosphate as a fertilizer, which contain trace amounts of polonium, uranium, radium, and thorium, all of which stay in the leaves and are inhaled when the tobacco is smoked.

    In the lungs, nicotine acts like a bronchoconstrictor, tightening up airways and paralyzing the cilia of the lungs, reducing their ability to sweep out and remove deposited particulates from the smoke. THC and other cannabinoids are bronchodilators, which may enhance the ability of the lungs to "self clean" to some degree after smoking.

    Many of the cannabinoids also have documented anti-cancer properties in and of themselves.

    --
    Remember "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters"? Help make it a reality again! http://soylentnews.org
  11. Big tobacco not getting that HEETS traction... by cloud.pt · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I guess phillip morris and co aren't really getting the desired product adherence on their "heat-not-burn-definetely-not-vape" product, so they're back to old tactics of subsidizing "may" studies about vaping. I am a vaper, and I will tell you for sure: vaping IS addictive, surely a habit, and to an extent can be a social reason to transition to cigarretes, but the correlation of that transition on the young population is more likely to be out of individuals' environment for vaping already being a biased environment for smoking.

    So until we get a study that takes into account this correlation, to me this is just more propaganda from a scientific lobby that is financed by an industry that has been in steep decline, not only due to e-cigarettes but also from societal patterns changing in evolved countries. I hope vaping goes away eventually - I love it, but it is a lesser evil. And by being the lesser evil of tobacco, I hope tobacco goes away much sooner than vaping. Because I know with a high degree of certainty I am more likely to die if I have a political reason to stop vaping and going back to smoking, you know, like the government baning ecigs...

    If you really want solid science about ecigs, vaping, HEETS and real tobacco products comparison, you should lookup Doctor Konstantinos' Farsalinos work - he has been a reference in the unbiased nicotine research for the last 10 years now.

  12. "can be" "may" by iggymanz · · Score: 2

    So no solid evidence, and breathing smoke, whether from burning building or tobacco or tree is worse for you than vaping.

    Here's an idea, outlaw cigarettes, pipe tobacco, cigars...and let vaping be unregulated. Watch the lung cancer rates plummet.

  13. Of course this again. by OrangeTide · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oxygen - the ultimate gateway drug. Once you start inhaling oxygen in a few years you'll move onto the smell of frying bacon, stopping to smell the roses, and eventually crack.

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  14. Re:Not this again. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I know two that put down vaping and moved to smoking - I _think_ their reason was that it was a more satisfying pull/effect. I also have one friend that just keeps switching from one to the other. I don't know if it's relevant and I agree that vaping seems a better alternative but I can't agree with the notion that no one switches from vaping to smoking.

  15. Re:In other news... water is wet! by PraiseBob · · Score: 2

    Some people enjoy going for a sunday drive, or sightseeing, or engaging in various, entirely optional, automobile trips, purely for their own personal enjoyment. This activity is dangerous, and tens of thousands of people die every year on the roads. Should they be banned from driving?

    There are very few people who believe smoking is completely safe, nearly everyone makes a choice between their personal gain versus their comfort level with the risks involved... just like driving.

  16. I hate misleading titles by Coldeagle · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This kind of stuff drives me nuts. The title of this article is misleading. If you read through you'll find this piece:

    "The panel found evidence among studies it reviewed that vaping may prompt teenagers or young adults to try regular cigarettes, putting them at higher risk for addiction, but that any significant linkage between e-cigarettes and long-term smoking has not been established"

    From what I read it looks like there is no significant linkage. The article also didn't give any specifics. Based on my reading it sounds like someone may have tried a cigarette after vaping. I bet if you compared those numbers to those who have tried a cigarette without vaping you would probably see a corollary. This article seems to try imply that there is a larger linkage. It feels like folks are trying to slant this towards their own agenda.

    I hate how people try to villainize vaping. Here are some facts as someone who has quit smoking by switching to vaping:

    • I quit smoking because vaping tasted better. One day (when I was alternating between smoking and vaping) I started smoking a cigarette and said to my self, "This tastes like sh** why am I doing this?" I proceeded to switch back to vaping and gave away the remainder of my cigarettes. I have had one cigarette since and it was so unappetizing that it's ridiculous. I haven't wanted another one since.
    • Vaping can be significantly less expensive than smoking. I spend about $200 a year on e juice (because I buy in bulk), I used to spend that in a month on cigarettes, now it would probably be closer to 300 because of tax increases.
    • I keep vaping because it's a habit replacement. I still use a little nicotine (3mg/ml), just enough to get a little buzz. I vape ~6 ml per day, so I'm getting ~18mg of nicotine per day. One cigarette is on average 12 mg of nicotine. I can go for hours without vaping without real issue. Smoking I couldn't go more than an hour or so without getting anxious.
    • After completely switching to vaping for a month, I was able to go up four flights of stairs without getting winded. I used to get winded going up two.
    • I don't wake up coughing everyday like I did when I smoked
    • My sense of taste and smell have improved. My overall health has improved

    Now I would like to emphasize that vaping is a habit replacement for me. Habits can be a mother f***er to break. I think it's the habit that is what makes smoking so difficult to quit. Read a great book called, "The Power of Habit" by Charles Duhigg. It was very eye opening. It's habits that are difficult to break. The physical addiction is over fairly quickly, but coming up with a habit replacement is what really made the difference for me quitting smoking and succeeding at it. I smoked for 15 years, tried quitting at least 15 times. I have been smoke free for nearly 3 years thanks to vaping.

    Why keep vaping? Well see above. Also, the primary ingredients in most ejuice are vegetable glycerin (VG) and propylene glycol (PG). Both of which have been studied and been found to be safe. PG has been used in fog machines for years with no ill effects found.

    Also, most of the studies that find toxins and the such related to vaping are from what's called a dry hit, meaning that you're essentially burning the wicking material because it doesn't have enough liquid, thus causing a different reaction than heating. One generally doesn't like the taste of a dry hit, it's nasty and if it happens you fix the issue by adding more liquid or replacing the atomizer. You still get more carcinogenics and toxic byproducts from a cigarette puff than a dry hit.

    Not looking to start an argument, just wanted to put out what I've experienced and why articles like this tend to piss me off. As a rule I don't think anyone should start smoking. I would rather kids not vape too, it's a habit and there are risks of habit formation (even without nicotine, which creates an addiction on top of the habit); however, kids are going to want to rebel and b

  17. Re:Just quit 5 weeks ago by um...+Lucas · · Score: 2

    As someone who just quit smoking in favor of vaping, yes, nicotine isn't the only thing that keeps you smoking. I think its the combination of nicotine AND the activity itself. Because I've NEVER been able to quite using nicotine replacement (patches, gum, lozenges) or just trying to divert my attention to other things (fiddling with things, etc). But the combination of nicotine AND an activity has done it, and broken the smoking cycle for me.

    Right now i'm at 12mg of nicotine juice. Some friends have said "you should start cutting back on that", but for now, I'm not going to mess with it. Maybe a year down the road, I'll try to lower the nicotine intake, but for now, i'm more than happy. Physically, it's better. I was stunned when i started smelling things that I had missed out on for years. Who ever would have thought you'd smell gasoline at gas stations? I was looking for a spill or leak, but then realized "oh, i can smell again!". And, being in a high tax state, rather than spending $80 a week on cigarettes, I'm getting by with $6-$8 worth of nicotine juice.

    I hadn't been able to achieve this in any other way but through vaping.

  18. Re: In other news... water is wet! by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 2

    Because customers want the nicotine. You really couldn't figure that out for yourself?

    --
    Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  19. Re: In other news... water is wet! by goose-incarnated · · Score: 2

    Who's ass did you pull those numbers from? Almost every flavor of ejuice is available with different amounts of nicotine.

    Availability does not ensure popularity. This study's survey showed only 1% of users using nicotine free e-liquid.

    I'm looking at the full-text of that document. I think I see where you went wrong: What the paper says is "a 2015 review suggests that 1% of ejuice is nicotine-free", with the previous statement "Although some e juice is nicotine-free, surveys demonstrate that 97% of e cigarette users use products that contain nicotine."

    Both those surveys were (ref3 and ref18) are available as full-text using a google search. Both surveys exclude non-smokers from the pool of ejuice users.

    IOW, the 1%-3% figure you give is accurate for those who both smoke and vape. No surprise that smokers who also vape almost exclusivley use nicotine when vaping. Those who vape only (don't smke at all) comprise around 2/3 of all vapers (same article), and they did not present any figures for the nicotine content of the non-smokers vaping.

    This is why your information is inconsistent with what the vapers are saying - your data covers those who smoke and vape while most of the vapers don't smoke.

    --
    I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
  20. Re:Not this again. by gnick · · Score: 2

    ...hacking up phlegm, gasping for breath, and smelling like shit.

    After I finish a cigarette, I smell like an ash tray. If you smell like shit, you're doing something very, very wrong.

    --
    He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
  21. Re:Not this again. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Tell those two you know to try e-juice/e-liquid containing "Whole Tobacco Alkaloid" instead of only nicotine, and they will start vaping, and stop smoking.

  22. Re:Not this again. by st0nes · · Score: 2

    Nicotine is addictive? Stop the presses! Hold the front page! FFS, is stating the bleeding obvious the new fashion?

    Here's the thing: vaping is almost certainly healthier than smoking. Many people--myself included--have successfully stopped smoking by switching to vaping. I can't think of any reason why someone who vapes should switch to smoking. It simply doesn't make sense.

    --
    Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis