Vaping is a hot-button issue that has been appearing in the news with alarming frequency, especially over the past couple of months. The problem is that it is all coming from the perspective of big tobacco, rabid anti-smoking advocacy groups and the like. Nowhere am I seeing or hearing the voices of the people who are actually at the heart of this controversy - vapers themselves.
Let's face it. The vast majority of us are ex-smokers who are very used to being silenced, vilified and marginalized. When the topic was about cigarettes, it was very difficult to come up with a response because cigarettes ARE just as bad as everyone says they are. That's really not the case with vaping, but it is still hard to find that missing voice.
I want to tell the story of vaping from the perspective of vapers themselves. I want to talk to the people who were the very first to develop this idea: creating vape mods from batteries, wire and altoid tins, to the front porchers: people who are sitting in their rocking chairs enjoying bubblegum candied cherry vape, to the brand spanking newbie who has just arrived and is trying to make sense of this acronym filled universe, the DIYrs who make it all themselves and finally, to the industry leaders who design and develop everything from the devices we use to the flavors we love, how they got started, what being in the business means to them and what losing their business would mean for them.
I thought about doing this a few years ago, but I think that there is no better time to do this than right now. A book like this could help to turn the tide of public opinion. I want to give vapers back the voice that they lost as smokers. We have terrified industry giants into full on seek and destroy mode and we need to fight back. This book will be marketed to the general public and I want it to be eye-opening, thought provoking and revealing.
Are you interested? If you are hit me up. If I generate enough interest, I will set up a kick starter campaign so I can fund this project. I am looking for people to interview for this project and any vaper qualifies! Designers, developers and business owners, most welome!
Let me know what you think.
With so many debates about public vaping raging here, I started to wonder how many people around us are stealthy vapers?
People who vape at home and in their cars, but not out in public.
People that vape with a stealthy setup indoors - around the corner, in the rest room.
People that go outside and vape with the smokers.
People that use small devices with less vapor.
It was common to see posts here about people never having seen another vaper out and about only a short time ago. Now that vaping is much more mainstream and available, I wonder how many people around us are stealth vapers, getting their nic fix right under our noses? Thousands of ego and evod setups are being sold every day, yet very rarely do I see another vaper, unless I'm in a vape shop.
My guess is that stealthy vapers make up more than 75% of all vapers. They just go unnoticed. They might be standing right next to you.
The Invisible Majority?
I was thinking the whole situation in many countries that vaping is straight up banned or illegal....and also countries like USA that is not that extreme but still many regulations going on and anyways we all know the big tobacco companies and what they try to do.
I am sure tho that vaping won't be stoped...u can't stop vaping and all the big tobacco do is to try buy some more time for them cause they know that cigarettes are in their end..
I don't know how long this will last but I am sure vaping will make cigarette smoking obselete and it will go very big...
Europe claims they have a plan to end tobacco use until 2032 or something like that for example....maybe that happens and it would be good cause it's for everyone's good.... but u can't just fight vaping and let smoking still exist...
Vaping will be back and for good....the people slowly start accept it and learn it cause honestly imagine how many smokers are out there and how many vapers...while vaping is much more enjoyable objectively...
We the people didn't support vaping enough...
ok maybe we the vapers did but I mean the majority out there don't......people are scared and they don't like to change their habits easy....even if it's for their own good.
I know politics are corrupted and all that....but some of us live in democracies maybe not perfect but still....if all people wanted to stop smoking and switch into vaping to make their life better then they couldn't stop us...
Worst case they would do it to get votes like they usually do with everything they do... not that they care for us...
So yeah vaping will go very big the next year's..
Someone needs to produce a detailed documentary about the documented research about how safe vaping is. Hopefully that will give the general public as well as potential new vapers some education about what is safe and what isn't.
The contaminated products that are circulating on the black market are what's killing people.
Something of this magnitude needs to be put out in the media otherwise I'm afraid that this industry will die out and a lot of shops will go out of business. It's time to take action, the media has demonized vaping. It's come to a point where most folks can't vape in public in peace.
What are your thoughts on how to combat this issue? It's terrible what has happened to everyone that has been sickened or died as a result of vaping bad products. The CDC and FDA can't seem to get a handle on what's really the culprit and the media isn't giving us any details.
I feel perfectly fine as I've been vaping for almost 10 years now and I feel great in fact never better since I quit smoking cigarettes. Now I'm a bit paranoid and wonder if I should just give up vaping. This whole this is getting to me and I can't even vape around my family in peace now.
So, I think there has been a lot of back and forth as to whether vaping is really safer than cigarettes. We as Vapers know that it is safer because we have done the research. But I think in the eyes of smokers and non-smokers, they really don't know if it is safer. Sometimes it even has me questioning whether vaping is healthier. But then my sanity takes over.
This post was sparked by watching a video from Grimm Green just now. The first person I've ever seen to finally say that vaping is 95% safer than smoking. And quit with all the Bull Shi it, listening to anyone who tells you otherwise.
It's a shame that only vapers know it's safer. Everyone else can't be bothered to do the research. They just listen to all the mainstream BS! "Yea, vaping is just as bad, people are dying cause of vaping." "Yea, they're banning vape mail because it's the same thing as tobacco."
The best strategy according Demetris and PBusardo is to hire a professional PR company to combat the false information that the news media and anti-vaping crowd has been churning out every day/nite on TV and social media. That will take a LOT of money (millions according to D & P). The US vaping industry doesn't have that type of money, but the big manufacturers in China do. China manufacturers will be affected by this if the US vaping industry fails, because it will fail if a flavor ban is successful.
Trump is the key person in all of this. He's the one who will make the final call by using his John Hancock, and he's been known to go against the grain of "The Swamp" in Washington. He is basically only interested in satisfying his voter base. All vapers need to personally contact Trump via the White House and tell him, as a voter, that if he is going to get your vote in 2020 he needs to NOT go forward with a flavor ban. Regardless of how you feel about Trump, or whether you'll actually vote for him when the time comes, this must be done and would take each of us only about 5 - 10 minutes of our time.
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Trump probably doesn't have a clue about vaping. He doesn't understand how important the use of flavored e-liquid is to the success to stop smoking. Having only "tobacco flavors" to choose from just won't cut it for the majority of vapers.
What he must understand is that a flavor ban will likely destroy the vaping industry in the US. Vape shops will not be able remain viable and will close - a loss of thousands of jobs and small businesses. This will affect his "sterling" numbers of the lowest unemployment in recent memory. There has to be at least 10,000 potential voters who have something to do with the vaping community (probably more), about the number of votes that gave him the presidency. He's not going to want to lose that many votes in the next election.
A flavor ban will result in creating its own Black Market. Many vapers will resort to making their own flavored e-liquid. How did that work out for the homemade black market THC vials that killed 6 people and put over 400 people in intensive care?
Smokers looking to quit smoking will no longer have vape shops or US based online vendors to purchase e-cigarettes. Many vapers will return to smoking, which will increase the 400,000 smokers who died last year.
Please tale a few minutes of your time to contact President Trump.
Vape-Related Deaths Are Scaring People Back into Smoking Cigs
Mark, a Massachusetts man who has worked at a vape shop for two years and requested anonymity for fear of losing business, said he had heard from many customers in recent days that they were making the transition—getting rid of nicotine-based e-cigarettes because of what they've been seeing in the media.
Although any shift was in the earliest of stages, it was still a remarkable concern for tobacco-control experts like Michael Siegel, a professor of community health sciences at Boston University, who views getting smokers off traditional cigarettes to be the primary public-health matter. Even now.
"There are two big fears here," Siegel said. "That former smokers are going to return to smoking cigarettes, because they'll think, Why not just have the real thing? And also that smokers who might have otherwise wanted to try e-cigarettes won't any longer."
Click to expand...
What hast thou wrought?
Hi Vapers,
As some of you know I have started a consumer campaign group called We Vape to spread the word about the importance of vaping in the UK. I am a Vaper and Snus user myself and the aim is to make sure vapers get heard during the upcoming consultation on vaping. It would be great to have your support and i've designed a T Shirt and had them printed. So I am going to give away some to 10 lucky people that sign up to We Vape on the get involved page on the website, which I am not allowed to link to but if you search google for you will find it.
Signing up is really important so I can keep people informed about what is happening and how they can help out by responding to consultations and contacting their MP. It will also give me more impact with the media with more members so I can get our voice heard.
Here is the T shirt:
Hi ECF,
I've been a member here on ECF for nearly 4 years now, and one thing that keeps me coming back is the positive atmosphere and sense of community. There are many helpful, knowledgeable, and kind people here that go above and beyond when it comes to helping out fellow vapers, and for this I am extremely grateful. Unfortunately, for some time now I've noticed an increasing trend of being judgmental and condescending towards other people's vaping style and preferences.
Whether vaping with an eGo battery at 7 watts or a .2 ohm build on a 150 watt box, we are all still vapers. We all made an extremely positive change from smoking cigarettes (well, most of us) to the fun and enjoyable world of vaping, but it seems some people are forgetting our common interest and accomplishment and instead focus on the differences, and use those differences to deride others.
Not everybody needs a high-powered device, plenty of people are perfectly happy with a more moderate vape and they aren't any less of a "real vaper" than those with high power or high-end setups. Alternatively, not everyone is satisfied vaping at lower power levels or with cheaper gear, and it does not make someone an immature showoff because they seek out higher performance and/or higher end equipment.
I have seen more examples than I can even begin to remember of thinly veiled insults aimed at people looking for bigger clouds or more power, just as I have seen plenty of useless suggestions when people pressure someone into a piece of equipment that they have made perfectly clear they have no interest in.
So I make a humble request of my fellow vapers here on ECF:
Please show respect towards the vaping style/preference of others.
Thanks for your time
I was wondering what people think of such stores. I know most of us are against the very thought of tobacco now that we are vapers and I have seen people slam such stores in a couple groups I belong to.
I personally don't mind them because the one I go to is actively trying to turn their tobacco customers into vaping customers. But I know other people who see them as nothing more then cancer merchants since they also profit from tobacco.
One thing I found really interesting is how certain vendors will not do business with them. For instance, on the B&M's Facebook page, they said they were getting Five Pawns juice. I went to the store to buy some and was told that it will only be in their couple vape only shops because Five Pawns refuses to sell their liquid where tobacco is sold. This is a bit disappointing to me because if it wasn't for the tobacco store getting me to switch, I might not be vaping.
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I was surprised by this chart that I recently came across.
It shows that the USA is the biggest market by far for vape products.
There are still over a billion, old fashioned tobacco smokers in the world. Vaping has been around for many years already, yet there are only slightly over 40 million vapers in the world, of which I am proud to call myself a part of that wise group.
With all of the anti-vape propaganda and nonsense taking place, it seems that there is a movement out there to keep those billion+ cig smokers hooked on their cigs and also to deny the 40+ million vapers out there the freedom and the choice to remain cig free.
I guess it's better that millions of people die from cancer, because vaping is just pure evil and the work of satan, or something like that. Oh, and think about the kids. Nevermind the kids who would previously just start smoking plain old regular cigarettes before vaping ever existed. That was never a big deal.
Here is the chart I found showing the top vape markets in the world.
And notice how there are no third world countries on the list? Isn't vaping banned in India? That's insane. That country has a huge population. How stupid of them. Their actions are contributing to the deaths and diseases of an awful lot of people.
And here is a link to the article which the chart came from:
How many people vape?