• mindbleach@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    “It beats smoking” is a low fucking bar.

    The science is that putting shit in your lungs is not great. There’s no upside for non-smokers. It’s a lark. The only truly positive side is that it’s objectively better than inhaling smoke, and that only matters if it’s a tobacco alternative - and contains nicotine. Which let this low-impact delivery mechanism create new addicts.

    Two decades in either direction and the calculus would be trivial. 1990, the way people smoked back then? We’d solve the epidemic overnight. Trade it for vaping in a heartbeat. 2030, the way statistics were headed? Pointless and inexcusable. A brief fad that would linger in countries with hookah culture.

    Instead, the worst-case scenario happened immediately. The same murderous liars made money hooking a new generation with a fairly unsafe and hideously addictive chemical. Like they’d previously done by adding filters, and then menthol, and then cloves.

    • Sausage@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Smoking kills 8 million people worldwide every year. I think it’s worth pushing the alternatives.

      • Th4tGuyII@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        The problem isn’t pushing it as an alternative to already active smokers, that’s what it was initially touted as…

        The problem is it became the new smoking fad. People who never smoked are taking this up, and are now the new generation of hungry addicts to keep the tobacco corps alive and well.

        • PenguinJuice@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Then don’t smoke or vape. No one is forcing you to. Please do not be a pearl clutcher and make decisions for everyone else around you. You’re not God and even GOD gave people the choice to believe in him.

          • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            Okay but the only way we can not smoke or vape is for allayall smokers and vapers not to smoke or vape in places where the rest of us breathe. I can’t even go out on my balcony for several of the otherwise most pleasant hours because there’s a guy smoking cigars in the courtyard of the next building and the stench is nauseating. And there’s always a smell of vaping in the hallway of my own building, despite it being open to the outside air at one end. Y’all are so anosmic you have no idea how far your vapor and smoke spreads.

      • Shrek@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Maybe I read it wrong but what I got from it is this:

        Vaping is good as an alternative to non-smokers. The problem is that it’s being pushed to non-smokers. It’s not as bad as smoking, but the best is neither.

      • ChexMax@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        second and third-hand smoke and vaping aerosols contain harmful, toxic and cancer-causing chemicals that can be breathed in.

          • mindbleach@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            You’re why enforced civility is a fucking nightmare to deal with.

            ‘This doesn’t affect you!’ It does. ‘Well make it don’t.’

            • PenguinJuice@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              That doesn’t invalidate my point. Yes, if someone is vaping somewhere inappropriate, that’s not right. But if they are outside, that’s really fucked that you think you get to dictate what other people do outside. It’s their world too.

      • Nouveau_Burnswick@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        People should be properly informed about what they put in their bodies.

        Edit: Just realised I posted in an American politics instance. Ignore the foreigner.

        • PenguinJuice@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Sure, I can agree with that. Maybe we should start with the food industry first. Did you know there’s an acceptable amount of sawdust to put in some types of food as filler? It really is horrific. Vaping at least is something people realize is probably not great for you in the long run… but people who falls for the shitty quality of food standards don’t know what they are putting in their body either.