this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2023
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A 12-year-old girl who suffered a lung collapse and spent four days in an induced coma has told the BBC that children should never start vaping.

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[–] Rottcodd@kbin.social 21 points 11 months ago (9 children)

So seriously - who's peddling this anti-vaping propaganda and what's their goal?

Vaping is easily the most effective way to stop smoking that's ever existed. Certainly we don't want kids to start doing it, and kids are the basis for much of the propaganda, but it's never just restricted to trying to make it so kids don't start. All of the propaganda efforts are directed toward stamping out vaping entirely, and that means that millions of people whose lives could literally be saved by switching from smoking to vaping will be denied that opportunity.

Why? Whose interests are served by denying adult smokers access to the most effective smoking cessation product ever?

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.ml 20 points 11 months ago (2 children)

So seriously - who's peddling this anti-vaping propaganda and what's their goal?

And

Vaping is easily the most effective way to stop smoking that's ever existed.

Care to make a wild guess who's behind the propaganda?

[–] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Tobacco companies are in on the vape industry, though

[–] DeceasedPassenger@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Yes but exclusively sold alongside cigarettes afaik. They've been lobbying to pass legislation that kills any other companies, and it's been working.

[–] PsychedSy@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

The entire history of banning shit like cigarette advertising and flavors is regulatory capture.

Awful lot of common people in support of this shit, though.

[–] Blake@feddit.uk 2 points 11 months ago

I reckon you’re 100% on the money here. The big tobacco companies push all this drama and concern about the health effects so that everyone thinks the industry needs to be more regulated, that allows them to kill off the smaller competition and push up prices.

[–] Dkarma@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You don't actually know what regulatory capture is, do you?

[–] PsychedSy@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

When you use regulations to keep or increase your market share? Yeah. Look up the history of advert bans. When big tobacco feels threatened or could save money congress passes laws for them. It's sick. Our country is sick.

[–] Dkarma@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That's not regulatory capture...lmfao.

[–] PsychedSy@sh.itjust.works 0 points 11 months ago

It's one of the main results of it and the bit of it I was referring to.

[–] Whirlgirl9@kbin.social 14 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I tried everything under the sun to quit smoking. It wasn't until I got myself a rig and stepped the nicotine down to zero until I was able to stop. I have remained smoke free for going on 8 years.

[–] 123@lemdro.id 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Nicely done! Similar route for myself. I did get more addicted to my vape at first, just out of sheer convenience/not having to go outside. Realized it though and took steps to be 8 months vape free.

Do you ever crave it anymore? I smelled someone's cigarette the other day and instantly wanted one.. when I was vaping, cigs smelled awful. monkey brains are weird.

[–] AmosBurton_ThatGuy@lemmy.ca 2 points 11 months ago

I've been vaping for 8 years after smoking for 6 years and the smell of cigarettes are gross to me. But when I see someone in a tv show or movie smoking that tends to make me crave a smoke. Weird how the brain works lol.

[–] Whirlgirl9@kbin.social 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

fortunately i don't. once in a blue moon after a meal there is a brief flash but it's rare and a blink. i just enjoy being in an airport and not wanting to tear my hair out from cravings. oh and it took 2 years to quit...for those who are trying.

[–] galmuth@feddit.uk 13 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Who's trying to stamp out vaping entirely? All I'm reading into this article is just "Kids shouldn't start vaping, especially if they have asthma."

The suggested solutions I've seen in the news recently are things like keep the vaping displays away from kids, stop kid-friendly flavours, and make packaging less enticing - all things that they currently do for cigarettes, and all perfectly reasonable IMO.

No-one I've seen is proposing taking them away from adults.

[–] PsychedSy@sh.itjust.works 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Fuck this stop kid friendly flavor shit. I'm 40. I prefer sour flavors like apple/peach or red bull. I swear to fuck I will start smoking again to spite you paternalistic motherfuckers.

[–] galmuth@feddit.uk 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Christ, chill with the venom. Fair enough, you like those flavours, but there are ways to avoid marketing them as desirable to children.

[–] PsychedSy@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I buy juice not disposables so it's not really marketed for kids, but congress, the FDA and the tobacco firms that seem to own both won't really discriminate

[–] galmuth@feddit.uk 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Ahh, you're American - the UK system, which this article is referring to, will be different. There is talk of banning disposables for environmental reasons and ease of kids getting hold of them, but the government over here are currently looking into the best options.

The government certainly won't want to ban vapes entirely, as they help people quit smoking, so they take pressure off the health service.

[–] PsychedSy@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 months ago

Yeah. Sorry. Not sure I noticed I traipsed into the motherland.

For context, our television advertising ban happened because Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds stalemated on market share. Both had to pay for adverts because they'd lose share if they stopped, but if it's banned they can save millions and nobody else can easily edge into their market.

Flavored cigarette bans were similar. Upstarts started eating into their profits, so it became necessary to ban their products.

Recently our FDA has started clamping down on places that mix juice. You either have to pay for some sort of certification or just buy mass produced juice.

It's ridiculous.

[–] ruckblack@sh.itjust.works 7 points 11 months ago

"kid friendly flavors" tend to be literally everything except for "chemical tobacco flavor" and menthol. And sometimes they go after the menthol too. They're trying to kill the whole thing.

[–] JJROKCZ@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

Adults also like the “kid friendly” flavors. Restricting people to vape flavors that taste like ass isn’t going to help them stop smoking cigarettes that are more harmful to themselves and those around them

[–] sheogorath@lemmy.world 12 points 11 months ago (2 children)

If you smoke, you should be allowed to vape in an attempt to quit. But if you never smoked, fuck vaping. It's too new to be thoroughly studied for health effects.

[–] arefx@lemmy.ml 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

They have been studying it for almost 20 years now and it's, among experts, considered extremely safer than smoking. Sure they need to keep studying it but people throw this around like no research is done. There's tons and it shows it's vastly safer. They aren't even comparable based off what we know.

That said I don't smoke or vape but did used to do both, and used vapes to taper off nicotine. 6 years no nicotine.

[–] Rottcodd@kbin.social -1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'm always curious - what is it that leads you to believe that you should be able to decide what other people may or may not do with their own bodies?

I've never been able to wrap my head around that whole idea. There's just no angle on it that makes sense to me.

If I presume that people do have the right to decide what other people can do with their own bodies, then we end up with self-defeating chaos, since different people have entirely different, conflicting and even contradictory, views on that.

But if I decide that they don't have that right, then... they don't have that right.

I don't see a chain of logic that can possibly lead to the conclusion that anyone does have that right, but it seems I can't turn around without running into yet another person, like you here, who blithely presumes that they do.

So really - how does that work? Inside your own mind, what's the reasoning that leads to the conclusion that you, rather than the actual people who actually inhabit the other bodies around you, should be empowered to decide what they may or may not do with their own bodies?

I just can't make sense of it.

[–] SomeoneElseMod@feddit.uk 1 points 11 months ago

You see this way of thinking about poor and disabled people too, as if being unfortunate enough to require government assistance means you lose your agency too.

[–] Afghaniscran@feddit.uk 8 points 11 months ago

If I had to guess? Tobacco companies.

[–] shiveyarbles@beehaw.org 8 points 11 months ago

Well tbf vaping is also a highly effective gateway to hook the youth.

[–] glimse@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I liked that proposal to raise the minimum age every year that was proposed in the UK. Let people quit or smoke until they die but don't let people start smoking

[–] 520@kbin.social 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

I think that became an actual law in Australia.

Edit: it was NZ, my bad!

[–] Sarsaparilla@kbin.social 1 points 11 months ago

In Australia we just put the price up exponentially each year so that eventually noone will be able to afford them except the very richest in the country. I stopped smoking on 1/1/2020 when it was already over $1 per cigarette. It's considerably more expensive now ... I think about $30 for a pack of 20s. That's why my friend never has any dosh and is always borrowing money from ppl.

[–] MutilationWave@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You're thinking of New Zealand.

[–] 520@kbin.social 2 points 11 months ago

Ahhh you're right! Thank you!

[–] FfaerieOxide@kbin.social 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I think people should be able to dope their systems with whatever they want.

[–] HaunchesTV@feddit.uk 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Exactly. Banning tobacco outright isn't going to stop smoking, it'll just create a black market. And we know how effective that has been for 'real' drugs. Smoking has been naturally declining in popularity anyway, so it really just feels like Tory posturing.

[–] bermuda@beehaw.org 2 points 11 months ago

Where I live I rarely see people against vaping for anti smoking usage. Mostly people I meet are against the recreational use.