This. I smoked cigs for such a long time, now on vape. It’s 100% better. You feel better, your teeth are better, list goes on. Sure it’s not the best, we all should quit smoking. But it’s better than nasty ass cigs that stay on your clothes, car, makes your teeth yellow and the list goes on.
There is nothing better than a cig, a glass of whiskey, in a hot tub naked on a cold day. But I don’t want that everyday.
Vaping can smell like watermelon, Fruit Loops, etc, but then it’s gone. Cigarettes stink up the surrounding area, seep indoors, when people do it at entrances, and it lingers. Plus the smoker themselves will have it clinging to them…
If you’re used to secondhand smoke they don’t smell bad, even good because of the slight nicotine buzz, and I assume everyone in that country is used to secondhand smoke.
Don’t laugh … my wife has pulmonary fibrosis … it’s basically a mysterious inflammation of the lungs with your immune system running haywire. No one knows what causes it or what triggered it … all we know is that it is happening. They suspect it was originally a virus of some kind (this all started about three / four years before the pandemic). There is no cure, there is no remedy, there is no healing, there is no recovery. It only grows worse with time, spreads through the lungs and drowns you to death as you run out of healthy lung to breathe.
Sadly no … it’s an immune dysfunctional disease … basically a broken immune system that is destroying itself from the inside. It’s a very complex thing to try to figure out. The more we studied it and read about it, the more we began to realize that we are all just living with a very delicate machine inside our bodies … the wrong thing, at the wrong time, in the wrong place, in the right circumstances will trigger your lungs to react and never stop. It can be caused by a fungus, virus, bacteria, dust, pollen, chemicals, particles, whatever. It’s the main reason why we should be careful about what we breathe in, that we shouldn’t smoke and wear masks in industrial, farming, construction, agriculture, commercial kitchens, etc.
It’s like driving around everywhere with a glass ball that you should never break. The glass ball is pretty durable and tough and takes a bit of a beating but if you ever come across something that will break or crack it … you will never be able to get it back to what it was.
Vaping is less carcinogenic than smoking by a significant degree but it is carcinogenic
Acrolein, a carcinogen, forms in small amounts from the breakdown of glycerin during heating
If a “dry hit” occurs the effect is worsened, acrolein forms in higher amounts, and formaldehyde (another carcinogen) can occur from the breakdown of both glycerin and propylene glycol
Vaping still leads to inflammation and oxidative stress in the lungs and long term use will almost certainly lead to irreversible damage
Harm reduction is important. Vaping is likely better than smoking but it is not yet clear whether that is the case. It is likely the case based on short term anecdotal data from people who have switched but this does not mean that long term use won’t create more severe lung issues over a period of 20-30 years. We don’t know.
In the meantime for further harm reduction to reduce risk you can vape with low temperatures as this mitigates much of the carcinogen risk, you can use reusable devices and frequently change coils and ensure the coil is saturated, and you can use a liquid that is free of flavorings as these present much of the “unknown” variables.
Or you can work to quit. It is challenging. I smoked and vaped, I know it is tremendously hard. But frankly these companies don’t deserve your money. They’re all fucking scumbags
Well said. I smoked a pack a day for 17 years and finally quit a little over a year ago. Lots of people around me quit around the same time but just ended up exchanging the habit for something else like vaping, chewing, or the new fad: nicotine pouches. It made me feel even better to be entirely nicotine free.
For anyone curious, I used nicotine gum from Costco for the first 2 months to help. It tastes like shit and is not enjoyable at all, but I don’t know if I could have done it without.
I think consciously choosing unpleasant methods to get nicotine helped me quit, or at least made quitting a little easier. I understand if you’re making that choice you’re probably well on your way to quitting anyways, but for me it was a good reminder of the goal.
To clarify things from my post: I didn’t even touch upon the environmental harm from vaping. If you use disposable vapes you’re kind of a shithead that is wasting a ton of lithium, that is mined by literal slaves, for your 2 day smoking device that you’ll probably not recycle properly. People recycle these batteries to power e bikes and literal homes. Vape shops with racks of these plastic boxes filled with single use 18650 (or similar high discharge) batteries are an environmental disaster
Nicotine pouches and gum lower the lung risk but are another space where long term risk is unknown.
They do irritate the gums and raise the risk of gum disease
Nicotine in general, gum or pouch, negatively impacts brain development and strains the cardiovascular system.
The acidity from the pouches still irritates the airway and oral mucosa and the constant increase of mucus production can lead to chronic bronchitis
The vasoconstriction effect of nicotine means that there is still potential lung involvement due to decreased blood flow even though it is not inhaled
Nicotine in low doses has some effects similar to adderall or methylphenidate but unlike those medications it tends to increase blood pressure and on long timelines create cardiovascular problems even in low doses. additionally it’s far more addictive (though tbf this is possibly/probably due to ease of access) and most users tend to use a fairly substantial amount, 20-40mg for a pack a day smoker, 35mg for someone who burns through a 5% juul pod in a day, etc
The gum is typically used short term and is actually marketed as a cessation device so that’s one thing but the pouches are huge now as you’ve said. It’s somewhat telling that for a minute they were big with the right wing grifter crowd
We included 39 studies in the main analysis and 12 in the subgroup analysis. Of these, 2 were longitudinal observational studies, 9 were cross-sectional studies, 1 case report and 27 were cell/in vitro and animal studies. All human studies were conducted in adults, and about half of them had a low risk of bias. No significant incident or prevalent risk of lung cancer or other types of cancer was found in the never smoker current vapers population. However, there was substantial biomarker-based evidence of a significant association between e-cigarette exposure and oxidative stress, cellular apoptosis, DNA damage, genotoxicity, and tumor growth, particularly following acute exposure. We did not find any age or sex-based differences in cancer risk, and findings on race and education-based differences were insufficient.
CONCLUSIONS
There is substantial evidence that e-cigarette exposure is associated with biomarkers reflective of cancer disease risk. However, the overall evidence on cancer risk is still limited and should be further investigated by future research, particularly rigorously designed clinical trials and population-based research.
Either way, purposefully inhaling toxic chemicals is pretty stupid.
If you’re trying to get lung cancer … get lung cancer with style
If you are going to get cancer, at least look cool.
Cigarettes look so uncool, though. Hardly a step up from vapes and they fuckin stiiiinnnnk.
I would much rather be near someone vaping their blueberry muffin raztastic whatever than a lit cigarette
This. I smoked cigs for such a long time, now on vape. It’s 100% better. You feel better, your teeth are better, list goes on. Sure it’s not the best, we all should quit smoking. But it’s better than nasty ass cigs that stay on your clothes, car, makes your teeth yellow and the list goes on.
There is nothing better than a cig, a glass of whiskey, in a hot tub naked on a cold day. But I don’t want that everyday.
I mean, I hate it when I’m walking down a street and I get the stink of something sickly sweet wafting over
I honestly put vapes in the same tier of “takes me out of the moment and ruins anything I’m enjoying then”
It’s gone in a few seconds, unlike actual cigarette smoke
I fuckin hate cigarette smoke, vape isn’t great but it’s also not nearly as long-lasting or staining or… Really at all as bad
Yes, but it’s much more common for people to be walking around and just take a puff of their vape rather than start smoking a cigarette
It absolutely ruins a nice breakfast out when somebody vapes walking past
Vaping can smell like watermelon, Fruit Loops, etc, but then it’s gone. Cigarettes stink up the surrounding area, seep indoors, when people do it at entrances, and it lingers. Plus the smoker themselves will have it clinging to them…
Yeah it’s just a meme, people smoke waaay less in France today. Back in the nineties it was a whole other world.
If you’re used to secondhand smoke they don’t smell bad, even good because of the slight nicotine buzz, and I assume everyone in that country is used to secondhand smoke.
Lung cancer or mystery disease/popcorn lung. You choose
Don’t laugh … my wife has pulmonary fibrosis … it’s basically a mysterious inflammation of the lungs with your immune system running haywire. No one knows what causes it or what triggered it … all we know is that it is happening. They suspect it was originally a virus of some kind (this all started about three / four years before the pandemic). There is no cure, there is no remedy, there is no healing, there is no recovery. It only grows worse with time, spreads through the lungs and drowns you to death as you run out of healthy lung to breathe.
Take care of your lungs everyone.
I’m sorry man that sounds horrible. I hope for some kind of innovation in this field for your wife
Sadly no … it’s an immune dysfunctional disease … basically a broken immune system that is destroying itself from the inside. It’s a very complex thing to try to figure out. The more we studied it and read about it, the more we began to realize that we are all just living with a very delicate machine inside our bodies … the wrong thing, at the wrong time, in the wrong place, in the right circumstances will trigger your lungs to react and never stop. It can be caused by a fungus, virus, bacteria, dust, pollen, chemicals, particles, whatever. It’s the main reason why we should be careful about what we breathe in, that we shouldn’t smoke and wear masks in industrial, farming, construction, agriculture, commercial kitchens, etc.
It’s like driving around everywhere with a glass ball that you should never break. The glass ball is pretty durable and tough and takes a bit of a beating but if you ever come across something that will break or crack it … you will never be able to get it back to what it was.
When it hurts to breathe its a particularly frustrating type of pain
My uncle had that. My heart goes out to you both.
Someone in my family had this. Im really sorry that you have to face this. I hope you have a lot of time remaining with them.
Nobody has gotten popcorn lung from vaping
Hah, so that was just a myth. Thanks.
Vaping isn’t carcinogenic.
Vaping is less carcinogenic than smoking by a significant degree but it is carcinogenic
Acrolein, a carcinogen, forms in small amounts from the breakdown of glycerin during heating
If a “dry hit” occurs the effect is worsened, acrolein forms in higher amounts, and formaldehyde (another carcinogen) can occur from the breakdown of both glycerin and propylene glycol
Vaping still leads to inflammation and oxidative stress in the lungs and long term use will almost certainly lead to irreversible damage
Harm reduction is important. Vaping is likely better than smoking but it is not yet clear whether that is the case. It is likely the case based on short term anecdotal data from people who have switched but this does not mean that long term use won’t create more severe lung issues over a period of 20-30 years. We don’t know.
In the meantime for further harm reduction to reduce risk you can vape with low temperatures as this mitigates much of the carcinogen risk, you can use reusable devices and frequently change coils and ensure the coil is saturated, and you can use a liquid that is free of flavorings as these present much of the “unknown” variables.
Or you can work to quit. It is challenging. I smoked and vaped, I know it is tremendously hard. But frankly these companies don’t deserve your money. They’re all fucking scumbags
Well said. I smoked a pack a day for 17 years and finally quit a little over a year ago. Lots of people around me quit around the same time but just ended up exchanging the habit for something else like vaping, chewing, or the new fad: nicotine pouches. It made me feel even better to be entirely nicotine free.
For anyone curious, I used nicotine gum from Costco for the first 2 months to help. It tastes like shit and is not enjoyable at all, but I don’t know if I could have done it without.
I think consciously choosing unpleasant methods to get nicotine helped me quit, or at least made quitting a little easier. I understand if you’re making that choice you’re probably well on your way to quitting anyways, but for me it was a good reminder of the goal.
Congrats on quitting. Shit is super hard
To clarify things from my post: I didn’t even touch upon the environmental harm from vaping. If you use disposable vapes you’re kind of a shithead that is wasting a ton of lithium, that is mined by literal slaves, for your 2 day smoking device that you’ll probably not recycle properly. People recycle these batteries to power e bikes and literal homes. Vape shops with racks of these plastic boxes filled with single use 18650 (or similar high discharge) batteries are an environmental disaster
Nicotine pouches and gum lower the lung risk but are another space where long term risk is unknown.
They do irritate the gums and raise the risk of gum disease
Nicotine in general, gum or pouch, negatively impacts brain development and strains the cardiovascular system.
The acidity from the pouches still irritates the airway and oral mucosa and the constant increase of mucus production can lead to chronic bronchitis
The vasoconstriction effect of nicotine means that there is still potential lung involvement due to decreased blood flow even though it is not inhaled
Nicotine in low doses has some effects similar to adderall or methylphenidate but unlike those medications it tends to increase blood pressure and on long timelines create cardiovascular problems even in low doses. additionally it’s far more addictive (though tbf this is possibly/probably due to ease of access) and most users tend to use a fairly substantial amount, 20-40mg for a pack a day smoker, 35mg for someone who burns through a 5% juul pod in a day, etc
The gum is typically used short term and is actually marketed as a cessation device so that’s one thing but the pouches are huge now as you’ve said. It’s somewhat telling that for a minute they were big with the right wing grifter crowd
Woah. This person just straight-up scienced them!
We don’t know for sure yet.
For example here is a study seemingly published by the department of subdomains and acronyms: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11773639/
Either way, purposefully inhaling toxic chemicals is pretty stupid.
Most aptly named department since The Redundant Department of Redundancy
Can’t believe they came up with that sham when we already had the perfectly adequate Department of Redundancy Department
Luckily, they later discovered the oversight and merged. Only to then split into 16 identical departments.