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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Public Health England (PHE) has released a new film showing the devastating harms that come from smoking, and how this can be avoided by switching to an e-cigarette or using another type of quit aid.
The film has been released as part of PHE’s Health Harms campaign, which encourages smokers to attempt to quit this January, by demonstrating the personal harm to health from every single cigarette.
The film features smoking expert Dr Lion Shahab and Dr Rosemary Leonard, visually demonstrating the high levels of cancer-causing chemicals and tar inhaled by an average smoker over a month, compared to not smoking or using an e-cigarette.
The results of the demonstration visually illustrate the stark contrast between the impacts of smoking and vaping. Research estimates that while not risk-free, vaping is at least 95% less harmful than smoking.
Around 2.5 million adults are using e-cigarettes in England, and they have helped thousands of people successfully quit – but many smokers (44%) either believe that vaping is as harmful as smoking (22%) or don’t know that vaping poses much lower risks to health (22%).
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ledow on Tuesday January 01 2019, @08:59PM (21 children)
In a way, yes.
In another way... is your vape liquid certified food-safe? Even so, whether it is or not, sitting and*inhaling* it (pouring it into your lungs) isn't good for you, no matter what it is. Campfire smoke, etc. isn't harmless, there's no reason at all to suggest that cheap stuff bought from some Chinese knock-off outfit (which you may NEVER know is the origin), burned at an indeterminate heat (people roll their own vaping coils nowadays, no?), and then ingested is any better for you.
Sure, it's better for you than tobacco, because tobacco is particularly bad. Eventually you'll find out that brand X has been added flavour Y to it for years and it's bad for you and you've been inhaling it.
Still, it's an addiction. You still suffer if you stop smoking. You're just addicted to something less harmful. The problem really is the "addiction" bit (that drives people into bad moods, bad debts, etc.) unless you're literally living with a smoker - in which case they are probably a significant risk to you as well as damaging themselves.
Adults with addictions worry me - it's a lack of willpower in someone expected to drive, vote, and other things that adults need to do, and that is going to affect how you live. It's going to affect your decisions, your attention span, and your will.
"I'm addicted to something less damaging than tobacco" isn't a badge of honour.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Captival on Tuesday January 01 2019, @09:12PM (10 children)
Fuck yourself. Sounds like you're more interested in lecturing people than actually trying to help them. There isn't even a worst case scenario possible where vaping isn't better for you than smoking.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 01 2019, @10:10PM (4 children)
It sounds like someone struck a nerve. You should read the GP again and check yourself for irony.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 01 2019, @11:11PM (3 children)
Bad debts lol. Vape isn't expensive. You can make it yourself if you buy VG, PG, nicotine, and some flavorings. Make your own coils and get a good tank and it's very cheap, way cheaper than cigarettes. That's really what's at stake here. We get endless stories in the corporate propaganda (the MSM) about how horrible vaping is and how there's a big moral panic about teenagers vaping (is somebody selling to people under 18? if so, why not stop that instead of having a huge moral panic?). It's all in the name of preserving big tobacco's profits.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday January 02 2019, @07:42AM (2 children)
For now.
It will, though, govts need excise money and what better source than the addicts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @06:36PM (1 child)
Even if they tax pure nicotine 100%, it still wouldn't be expensive to buy more than you could realistically user.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday January 02 2019, @09:31PM
Ummm... For your convenience tobacco excize in Australia [ato.gov.au] straight from the horse's mouth. The excise is probably around 500% of the production cost.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday January 01 2019, @11:43PM (3 children)
I think that this is a legitimate concern. Nobody enjoys being lectured but vaping is still relatively new, and before I switch from ciggies to the vape, I want to be sure that there are no sneaky underlying major health effects that are worse than the lack of smoke and other particulates.
Of course that ain't sayin' much, cigarette smoke is fucking nasty, even if I do smoke additive-free American Spirits.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @02:19AM (2 children)
No offense, but no shit. Cigarette smokers generally have no idea how offensive they smell to non-smokers. I can smell one in a store 30 feet away. It's on their clothes and in their hair. They reek. One woman I used to work with would finish up one on her way to the building every morning and she stunk the elevator up with nicotine breath. I could get on the elevator after she was long gone and the whole car still smelled like her breath. She smelled like she gargled from a dirty ashtray. She was a nice woman and all but I'd rather take a leak in the bathroom all the Indians used than talk to her face to face.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday January 02 2019, @02:42AM (1 child)
I smoke only on weekends. Which means that when I get into that elevator with you I don't stink.
But judging from your saltiness, I bet you're an ex-smoker trying to quit. I quit for 5 years straight, and I know how pungent and noticeable it smells to non-smokers, especially those who "quit." Whether or not you consider me a non-smoker is debatable, but I assure you that I'm not the asshole stinking up your sterile public space.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @05:06AM
You guessed wrong. I'm a lifetime non-smoker. I didn't use to be so offended by smokers but when my workplace at the time went non-smoking, I quickly got used to clean, fresh air. When restaurants, bars and bowling alleys went non-smoking, the last few places I had any close encounters with active smokers stopped. Home was always smoke free. None of my friends or family ever smoked except for one buddy's wife. The longer I was away from second hand smoke, the more the smell became disgusting to me. Now it smells to me like walking past a pig sty. Cigar smoke actually gives me stomach nausea.
My ex took up smoking because her new husband is a serious chain smoker and she couldn't stand the smell of him unless she smoked too. Long story; she's crazy. When the kids come home after an infrequent visit, I have to have them strip at the door and hit the shower. Everything - coats and all - go in the washer. They stink when they get home.
My workplace has gone full on non-smoking; anywhere on the property. No running out to your car to smoke or hiding behind bushes. I don't know how some of the most addicted managed. God knows they can't cheat because the smell gives them away. Now I only have to put up with smoker-stank first thing in the morning and right after lunch.
(Score: 2) by DeVilla on Thursday January 03 2019, @12:08AM
I have to admit, I'm waiting for the "ambulance chaser" ads 15 to 20 years from now like the mesothelioma ones we've had a lot of. I'm waiting to find out some unexpected behavior with small particulate matter embedding in the lungs causing something terrible down the road.
I hope it's safe, but if I were betting money ...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 01 2019, @09:19PM (2 children)
Fuck you. I'm a grown adult, and I can use whatever substances I feel like using. GTFO with that puritanical bullshit. Sobriety is nothing special.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @08:11PM (1 child)
Good! You can pay all your own medical bills as well without state charity. If you can't afford the Doctor then just be sick - you're your own free and independent person, after all! Now and forever, too... when you lose your insurance and/or job and/or retire no Medicare for you! Just be sure to die quickly as we don't want to have to be responsible for either you fucking up your own body nor that of somebody else, please.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @11:27PM
I don't have insurance. Haven't been to a doctor in over a decade.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 01 2019, @10:18PM
You have a very simple view of drugs and addiction. I'm addicted to amphetamines and I know how I could probably quit easily. I'll have withdrawal symptoms, I'll feind in the mornings.
If I don't make a new doctor's appointment in time my prescription will run out and I will do whatever can't be procrastinated just enough that my life keeps going and since the doctor can be put off a week at a time forever it will be maybe a year before I feel like getting around to it. My credit score will sag from carrying balances for money I have. I start exercising less which has all sorts of negative effects on my life. I know this because I've done it several times. I'll hold it together with a bunch of little notes and lists but it's harder. As a matter of fact it's probably as easy as never adjusting my meds. I'll stop refilling naturally whenever my tolerance gets high enough.
I guess that's fine for me, since things bother me less when I'm unmedicated. But it's not fair to anyone who has to depend on me like family or co-workers. I know that it seems that smoking has similar benefits, it may have gotten me through college. Not saying they're great habits but some people are probably at their best with a vape in their pocket.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday January 01 2019, @11:22PM (1 child)
>Adults with addictions worry me
Out of curiosity - do you consume caffeine?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 01 2019, @11:37PM
Of course GP doesn't. GP once broke both his legs in 50 different places and didn't even need a single ibuprofen pill. A real internet tough guy, that one.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday January 02 2019, @01:38AM
And exactly who made the claim the addiction is a badge of honour? Or do you have excess of straws? Or are you trying to associate guilt/shame to nicotine addiction? Or what?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: -1) by fakefuck39 on Wednesday January 02 2019, @01:40AM (1 child)
what percentage of your body is fat? 6% for me. just curious if you regularly work out. Do you consume alcohol? I don't, at all. I do drink 10 cups of coffee per day, and smoke half a pack of cigs if not more. Sometimes I don't smoke at all (like now, when it's too cold to go outside). Sometimes I vape.
That period when I vape is better for my body than if I smoked. If when I vape I couldn't vape, I would smoke instead, not quit instead.
Smoking increases your chance of lung cancer from about 1% to about 10%. I bet I could find a whole bunch of non-ideal behavior in your life.
It's not lack of willpower that causes me to keep smoking - it's choice, just like the food you eat, and how much you work out. BTW, being overweight - twice as bad for you as smoking. Fat people worry me. They're lazy and they don't have the will power to stop eating when they're full and do 30min of pushups in the morning. Weight is going to affect your decisions, your attention span, your will, your comfort, the comfort of everyone around you if you get the center seat on the plane, everyone's healthcare costs, you'll die from it also.
No one is saying being addicted to nicotine is a badge of honor. Tu parle un peu le francais, ou tu es simplement un debile dyslexique? I guess if something is not a badge of honor, we should all just stick to something that's really bad for us, instead of no worse for us than the exhaust of a hybrid car? I think your lack of exercise and your weight is effecting your logic there buddy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 04 2019, @02:27PM
Your breath must smell like three week old unwashed ass crack. When you talk to people, do you notice them slowly backing away or strategically putting their hands in front of their faces?
(Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday January 02 2019, @02:20AM
The ingredients are, but the whole product isn't since I mix it myself. Naturally the nicotine itself isn't but it is sufficiently pure. I don't vape random things from China.
Interestingly, the addictive effects of the nicotine are greatly reduced compared to cigarettes since my juice doesn't contain MAO inhibitors to potentiate the addiction. It's more akin to coffee (a bit stronger, but in that ballpark).
So do you abstain from all caffeine, alcohol, and refined sugar?