this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2025
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[–] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 111 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (5 children)

They're worse in one particular way, which isn't the most significant way that cigarettes cause harm. They're not worse overall. Vaping has been a major public-health success story, and it's odd to see people trying to discourage it with misleading headlines. The perfect is the enemy of the good here.

[–] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 49 points 6 days ago

And they’re talking about cheap Chinese gas station vapes here. If you use quality coils, there won’t be lead at all.

[–] tdawg@lemmy.world 15 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (3 children)

Yeah except smoking rates have increased since the invention of vapes. It if was strickly people smoking cigarettes swapping to vapes then maybe we could call it a success

[–] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 11 points 6 days ago

I admit I don't see people vaping as a major problem. The harm is not so severe that it overcomes my inclination to let people make their own choices. This is especially so when the harm is not intrinsic to the act but rather the result of contamination.

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

You can always count on the tobacco companies to turn a useful tool into something evil.

[–] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 7 points 5 days ago

You can always count on the ~~tobacco companies~~ massive corporations to turn a useful tool into something evil.

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

I think people might smoke more in total because people are stressed out more?

I don't have a study on this, but from my personal environment, i can attest that people seem to be more stressed-out, and more worried, about work and wages than 20 years ago. But i could be wrong here. Maybe it's just that i'm getting older and paying more attention to these things now.

Anyways, "more stress" would explain why people smoke more. To many, it seems to have a stress-relieving functionality, at the cost of long-term health disadvantages.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago

I suspect it's hopelessness. The people I saw start smoking young didn't expect to hit 80 in any way that was desirable. Cancer, lung disease, heart attacks… those are future problems, and those who don't believe themselves to have a future don't care at best and are happy to go at worst.

The thing a lot of them didn't get was that the years it takes are the ones coming soon, not the ones far off into the future.

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Yeah, i agree with you.

Just, tell me if i understand this correctly, please:

  • The part of cigarettes that makes you addicted is nicotine, and the psychological habit of "smoking one" as a social ritual.
  • However, nicotine is not really dangerous to your health. The smoke is what's damaging your lungs. Smoke contains half-burnt chemicals, that are acidic and corrosive, and that damages your lungs.
  • Vaping uses (water) vapor instead of smoke, and since vapor is not as acidic or corrosive, it's less dangerous for your health.
  • Vapes still make you addicted though, because they contain nicotine, and that's why you have to buy them over-and-over again, which means you still have the economic disadvantage of spending significant money on them.

That is my current understanding as well, except that I would add that cigarettes are so expensive because of sin taxes, not because they're inherently that expensive to produce. In NYC (admittedly a place with particularly high taxes on cigarettes) the total tax on a single pack is $7.86. Therefore I don't have a lot of sympathy for arguments that the government ought to discourage smoking specifically because it costs poor people a lot of money. (With that said, public health arguments for discouraging the burning of tobacco are valid.) My guess is that a nicotine habit doesn't have to be much more expensive than a caffeine habit.

[–] innermachine@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago

From what I understand your spot on except for the nicotine part. Nicotine on its own right from what I understand isn't all too terrible for you, however having nicotine in ur airways keep ur lungs and throat from expelling contaminants from lungs via the cilia (hairs that push contaminants out of airways). So by the very nature of vaping or smoking, the nicotine in ur airways stops ur airways from clearing out the crap that's bad for ur lungs (for example if u smoke weed and vape, the weed smoke that's bad for u can't get out and will cause more damage than if u didn't vape). This is why when u stop vaping or smoking, after a few days to a week you tend to have coughing fits. This is ur Celia finally getting back to business and pushing nasty shit out of ur lungs after being suppressed for so long. This discovery is also why I finally quit vaping, as I quit smoking cigs for a healthier life but I was not achieving what I wanted by replacing it with vaping. Yes it's better for you, but better is relative. It's still bad for you and there's no arguing that.

[–] Zacryon@feddit.org 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Vaping has been a major public-health success story

WHO disapproves of electronic nicotine delivery systems.

https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/tobacco-e-cigarettes

[–] youCanCallMeDragon@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Oh really, guess I’ll go back to cigarettes then.

[–] Zacryon@feddit.org -1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

WHO also disapproves of conventional cigarettes.

It's best, if you stay away from both.

Given the findings of the study in this post, I'm not sure whether we can even still say whether one is better or worse than the other.

[–] I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago

The one that combusts material is worse.