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Vietnam introduces tougher penalties on e-cigarette and heated tobacco use
(www.straitstimes.com)
this post was submitted on 02 Jan 2026
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They're much less harmful than cigarettes. But we don't know long-term stuff, especially with all the different product blends that exist. But I agree, it should be legal to vape where it's legal to smoke.
Just because we don't know the long term stuff doesn't mean there is harmful long term stuff.
Doesn't mean there isn't either.
That's the thing about not knowing.
The evidence on the short and near term stuff does suggest it's orders of msg tide safer than smoking though.
Which doesn't mean harmless.
Harmless means absence of harm. That we don't know of any harms does indeed not mean there aren't any harms to be eventually known.
Therefore, as far as we know it is harmless. Hence why I said exactly that in my original comment.
That would be understandable to commenters ITT if they knew how to read instead of satisfying their dopamine systems with a reactionary outburst straight from the amygdala against a strawman they conjured up in their head, unwittingly making fools of themselves supporting such petty and pathetic authoritarian paternalism.
And additionally, in my personal opinion - it makes plain sense that the longer we study vapes, yet find no harms, the probability increases that they are indeed harmless.
Or at the very least I believe they are no more harmful than the harms caused by our existing standards for e.g. air pollution, in that hypothetical - vaping causes no excess deaths, but may do so if we had cleaner air and lower base rates of lung disease to begin with. Then we may notice increased rates of lung disease and find an associative link, therefore speculate that there is lung disease to which vaping may be some contributing factor and may always have been, but may simply be too minor to notice at present, for instance because people affected by it die of unrelated illness like cancer before they die of any vaping-caused illness or because the lung disease vaping contributes to is also caused by something else more directly that the general population is exposed to, e.g. microplastics or dust particulates from car tires/asphalt.
I'm not an expert nor do I think the above two paragraphs constitute a fact, and I'm more than happy to change my view given sufficient reason, however I also dont think things for no reason or purely because it serves me or brings me some sort of comfort of a lazy mind. Frankly I doubt I would stop using nicotine even if I knew vaping was directly harmful in some way any more than I would stop using alcohol already knowing that it is incredibly harmful (not that I drink alcohol, but that's besides the point, I don't do it because I don't like it's sedative effects, not because of it's harms to long term health outcomes).
My reasoning for this is that even with the extremely primitive understanding of both the scientific method and the human body (not to mention technology for the analysis of it), cause and effect around tobacco-caused illnesses was known since the 1700s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_of_tobacco
You can check the sources yourself, but for example:
Overview of the history: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1440-1843.2003.00483.x
Here's from the 1800s: http://w3.biosci.utexas.edu/prc/lincecum/pages/Nicotiana_tabacum-notes.html
Here's a note of observations between the late 1800s to 1920s
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3490543
Yeah your statement doesn't contradict mine, as far as we know they are harmless. But we also know really well too, these things have been studied up and down since the 90s and still nothing was really found.
The *blends" thing idk about, the only ingredients out there that go into vape juice are VG, PG, nicotine and flavouring, there aren't any legal variations on that, this is usually pretty well regulated in the first world.
“As far as we know they are harmless”
Doctors in old timey days giving people cocaine for their babies toothache.
They didn't exist in the 90s.
PG has been pumped through hospitals hvac since the 50s because of its antibacterial abilities. Basically they do it to help curb MSRA infections. We very well know what PG does to us, vaping isn't much different.
Not since the 50s, in the 50s. And at a much lower concentration than what vaping is.
I've been vaping for about 15 years. Don't get me wrong, vaping is far safer than inhaling tobacco smoke or putting a wad of dip in your mouth. That doesn't make it safe, and I'm unaware of any real studies on the long-term effects of vaping. I am aware of some very badly performed lab studies that were clearly designed to produce results showing how awful it is by operating vape devices in ways that no person ever would or even could. Yes, PG has a mild antiseptic effect. Yes, the flavorings used are "generally regarded as safe" (GRAS) ... for eating.
What I know anecdotally from my own experience:
All that said, I'm still glad I switched from cigarettes.
Interesting, the study I read, which was like 10 years ago now, when I was vaping, showed that it was still a common thing in hospitals to help curb mrsa infections, and why the air in a hospital usually has a weird feel/taste to it.
That residue is basically from VG/PG buildup with whatever flavor you're using. I'd be curious if it happened without any flavoring at all. I suspect it wouldn't build up at all.
Not finding that study myself here, but I'm happy to stand corrected on that.
What I did find was this
Which might explain why everyone in my family (in the house and extended) has had COVID (often more than once) and I never have.
I'll have to dig around for it. It was a legit paper posted from one of those vape forums back in the day when people where building their own vapes. I was really surprised about it.
But that covid/flu paper doesn't surprise me. I'm betting minus the staining you're talking about, you're gums are probably in better shape than others who don't vape as well. As I know it killed bacteria as well.
Yes, a couple months after I switched, my dentist told me my mouth was in much better shape.
Like I said, safer than tobacco by far, not necessarily safe.
Yea that comes with the territory. It's a vice, all vices come with risks, but if someone wants to live without risk or well enjoyment that's their call, but I hate when people want to force that shit on others. Stop worrying about what I do to my body, especially if you're 400lbs and slamming bigmacs into your face or "social drinking" every other day.
2003 for what we now know as vapes. Close enough tbqh. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_cigarette