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: 4, Insightful) by Appalbarry on Tuesday January 01 2019, @07:50PM (4 children)
The linked story lacks any information on the Research estimates that while not risk-free, vaping is at least 95% less harmful than smoking so I'll hold off on accepting that claim. Especially since, as I understand it, the real wild card is the many different flavourings being used.
For now I'll stick to my prediction that in a decade we'll conclude that sucking vape juice into your lungs is a very unhealthy thing to do.
And besides, vaping still looks dumb.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 01 2019, @09:13PM
What a fine day it was. It was neither too hot nor too cold, the birds were singing, and nature was presenting its full splendor. Perhaps this was why Jordonham, who was walking down the sidewalk, became distracted and bumped directly into a woman.
"Ops!" the man exclaimed, as he fell on top of her. It took several seconds for Jordonham to realize just what had happened. Once he figured it out, he knew exactly what the most sensible, natural course of action he needed to undertake was. "It can't be helped," Jordonham muttered to himself. Since he was already on top of the woman, he figured he may as well beat and rape her. Thus, the man began his splendid adventure.
The woman screamed as Jordonham ripped off all of her clothing and began violating her. This confused the man; if she didn't want this to happen, why did she exist in this location at this time? The confusion only caused Jordonham to become more violent, which eventually resulted in a sickening snapping sound. The woman was gone, and so too was Jordonham's interest in her. The man slowly stood up, his fat rolls jiggling as he did so.
Jordonham walked away and once again became enamored by the beauty of nature. Ah, what a fine day it was...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 01 2019, @09:59PM (2 children)
Research confirms:
Sticking your finger in a live light socket is 95% less harmful than sticking your dick in one.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 01 2019, @11:32PM (1 child)
Sticking your dick in might actually be safer. Most people are grounded through their legs, and the route from your finger to your grounding foot is much more likely to pass your heart.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @02:04AM
I'd rather be dead than burn my dick off.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Tuesday January 01 2019, @07:52PM (35 children)
and more importantly, I quit smoking 7 years ago.
Even when I used to smoke, I've always been a cyclist. Ever since I started vaping, I've never felt so fast on my bike. I don't cough no more, I smell things better, I have better lung capacity... At each yearly checkup, my doctor tells me he'd never know I was a smoker if he didn't hear a distinct knock when he listens to my arteries.
And yet, I keep having to listen to ignoramus after ignoramus tell me *to my face* that vaping is as harmful as smoking, because they've "read it in the newspaper the other day". I'm sick and tired of explaining to them that what they read in the newspaper is a pseudo scientific study that was most likely paid for by big tobacco or the pharma industry to paint vaping in the worst possible light.
I'll agree with one thing: it's better to breathe pure air than a cocktail of glycerin, polypropylene, food flavorings and nicotine. But if you have to do that to keep off tobacco, by all means do it because IT'S NOT AS FUCKING DANGEROUS AS SMOKING!!! And I know that first hand for sure!
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 01 2019, @08:04PM (9 children)
If you had any will power, you would not need a crutch like vaping, you semiliterate ( "I don't cough no more" ) fucktard.
Vaping is for pussy boys.
MEN just quit smoking, without a crutch or any whining.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday January 01 2019, @08:52PM (7 children)
Why do so many of you macho men use "pussy" as an insult? Are you trying to tell us you don't like pussy very much? Maybe you'd prefer to smoke (a pole) instead? :D
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: -1, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 01 2019, @09:19PM (4 children)
Because women derive their strength from compulsions and peer pressure while men derive it from fear and hate. So a man is expected to dread and despise a dependence while nothing but random fixation on superficial values in the form of virtue signaling is expected of women.
So, a man's vice can be a woman's virtue. And vice a versa.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 01 2019, @09:37PM
Vices and virtues . . . you mean that someone crushed your head in a vice, and you consider that to be a virtue?
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 01 2019, @09:38PM
That was an unexpectedly good post out of nowhere..
(Score: 5, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday January 02 2019, @02:11AM (1 child)
If you actually believe this, *seek professional help.* That is fucking diseased.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @02:51AM
He's pretty much right as far as societal expectations go though. Not saying that those expectations are right.
(Score: 5, Informative) by dwilson on Wednesday January 02 2019, @02:37AM (1 child)
Because they're ignorant and don't realise that it's derived from pusillanimous [wiktionary.org]. How and why 'pussy' also became slang for 'vagina' is a discussion for another time.
- D
(Score: 4, Insightful) by GeminiDomino on Wednesday January 02 2019, @05:40AM
Too bad. The etymology discussion is bound to be more interested than yet more tiresome gender-baiting.
"We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of our culture"
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 01 2019, @09:16PM
Who said that they even want to quit? Nicotine is a great drug, and I love to use it, but tobacco smoke had my lungs in bad shape so I switched to vaping. Now I get all the nicotine I want, but I can breathe, I can control my dosage, and I am spending $50 a year rather than $7 a day.
(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/@ProfSteveKeen 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/@ProfSteveKeen 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/@ProfSteveKeen 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?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 01 2019, @10:51PM (2 children)
Given the recent strong investment in vaping industry, you sound like a paid drone. I'm not willing to believe that polluting lungs with any harmful chemical substance is benign or almost virtuous.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday January 02 2019, @07:52AM (1 child)
I have some old news for you: oxygen is toxic [wikipedia.org]
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @12:43PM
But lungs have evolved for oxigen, the oxigen from air. Maybe in 5 million years your offspring lungs will adapt to nicotine as you pass the damaged DNA to the next generation.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Tuesday January 01 2019, @07:56PM (5 children)
YMMV [google.com]
--
The eyes are the windows to the soul.
Sunglasses are the window-shades.
(Score: 2) by Subsentient on Tuesday January 01 2019, @09:11PM (1 child)
Lithium batteries are a pain, aren't they?
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Tuesday January 01 2019, @09:31PM
Yep. Even when they don't [flickr.com] actually explode. [flickr.com]
--
Just because someone is offended...
doesn't mean they're right.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 01 2019, @09:44PM
AKA, why mechanical vapes are not for idiots, and you should read the warning labels on the batteries. Idiots get burned when they play with fire, nothing new, certainly can't blame it on vaping.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by fraxinus-tree on Tuesday January 01 2019, @11:28PM (1 child)
Changing smoking to vaping, you get a whole different mix of risks. Comparing is not trivial.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 01 2019, @11:42PM
The problem is that some mods (like SMOK) don't have the correct circuitry for doing on-board charging. You have to charge the batteries in a separate device.
So many mods use junk electronics it's best just to assume they all do.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 01 2019, @09:27PM (5 children)
LOL... they are a lobbying arm of the vaping indystry, funded by Juul!!!
(Score: 4, Informative) by black6host on Tuesday January 01 2019, @10:39PM (2 children)
Actually, there's a good read in the Lancet about where the figure of 95% came from: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2815%2900042-2/fulltext [thelancet.com]
The last two paragraphs are worth reading with care.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 01 2019, @11:01PM
Excellent catch! OP may have been kidding, but looks like it really is the case.
(Score: 3, Informative) by SpockLogic on Wednesday January 02 2019, @01:37PM
I think it is worth quoting from the final paragraph of The Lancet article cited above for those who find it tl;dr.
As always, FOLLOW THE MONEY.
Overreacting is one thing, sticking your head up your ass hoping the problem goes away is another - edIII
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 01 2019, @11:44PM (1 child)
Of course. Nobody does science any more. Or rather, science has been subordinated to the marketing department. So we see big tobacco with their moral panic (ironically enough) and Juul with their equally wrong bullshit.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by GeminiDomino on Wednesday January 02 2019, @05:53AM
Have you read the actual study and sight some anomaly in their data or a methodology error? Or maybe a source where it was reproduced and came out with different results? Or did you only get as far as the funding disclosure before drawing that conclusion?
Pretty much any science (except maybe deep-range astronomy, but that may just be a lack of mercantile creativity on my part) is going to have a commercial interest if you follow the money far enough.
Dismissing it based only on who paid for it is as antithetical to "science" as made-to-order results.
"We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of our culture"
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 01 2019, @09:46PM
Maybe they meant smocking @realdonaldtrump
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @12:20AM (3 children)
But it's very much worse than *not* smoking, and vaping has wiped out decades of progress in smoking prevention [boingboing.net].
The benefits of vaping relative to smoking are clear, and vaping may have value as a smoking cessation aid. So it should be available by prescription. It should not be available over the counter.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @12:28AM
So cigarettes, which are more dangerous (CO inhalation in particular), should be available over the counter, but safer vape should require a prescription, you say.
The moral panic is completely transparent. It's obvious what the motivation is to make vape illegal.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @02:47AM
After all the anti-smoking crusades of the past 30 years, I would have never thought that the government would permit the people to come up with another (legal) drug to make the pain of existing a little more bearable. And then we first got vape, and now even recreational weed!
(Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday January 02 2019, @10:47AM
Actually, vaping has been a major help to smoking prevention. Vaping is not smoking.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @12:46PM
Don't lecture me on how a little home made vape is super bad for me as I sit in my house with the cars whizzing by and spewing their dino juice fumes, filling said house with dust. I can now smell cigarettes 50 ft away and their taste is not satisfying, nor was their cost. I can see the same moral panics against guns, weed, and internet. News man says its bad; you look like a fool. The only things you should be addicted to is work and paying your taxes till you die.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @11:21PM
Still means its harmful.
Dead is still dead.