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'Banning vaping will just lead to more smokers'

Experts have told The Journal that Ireland should not follow Australia in banning the products.

IRELAND SHOULD NOT completely ban the sale of electronic cigarettes or vapes, but there could be more regulation when it comes to who can purchase them, experts have told The Journal.

It comes after Australia announced it will ban recreational vaping, with e-cigarettes no longer being sold in general and convenience stores.

The country’s government will increase the product standards for vapes, including by restricting flavours and colours, in order to tackle the growing black market. 

It will also require pharmaceutical-like packaging, a reduction in the maximum allowed nicotine concentrations and volumes and a ban on single-use vapes.

In Ireland, these devices are about the size and shape of a highlighter and are sold with the nicotine e-liquid already inside them.

There is currently no mandatory age restriction on the sale and marketing of e-cigarettes in Ireland, however a Bill that proposes banning the sale and purchase of e-cigarettes by anyone under the age of 18 will be published in the coming weeks. 

While it says it will continue to review new studies, the HSE does not currently recommend vaping as a method of quitting smoking. It says that based on evidence thus far, it has found it to be less useful for smoking cessation than nicotine gum or patches.

There are also no e-cigarettes on the market in Ireland authorised by the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) as a medication for smoking cessation.

However, the NHS in the UK does recognise e-cigarettes as an aid to smoking cessation. Though it does not prescribe them, it states that nicotine vaping is “substantially less harmful than smoking” and is “one of the most effective tools for quitting smoking”.

A GP specialising in addiction medicine told The Journal that he believes that Australia’s move to ban the sale of e-cigarettes is “totally counterproductive”. 

‘Safer than smoking’

Dr Garrett McGovern, who is also the HSE clinical lead on addictions, said the ban in Australia “is going to reduce the uptake of people vaping”.

“There are people in my position who believe that that’s a good thing. They’ve not really bought into the idea of vaping. I’m not one of those people,” he said.

“Vaping is immeasurably safer than smoking and we really do need to continue with our strategy of trying to get Ireland as close as we can to a smoke free-place and I believe vaping has a role, as do nicotine replacement therapies, as does counselling, and all sorts of other interventions.

“I think if we’re going to do anything in Ireland, we’ve got to look at how many people are vaping… The vast majority of people using those devices are actually smokers trying to quit, so we should applaud those and we shouldn’t put barriers in the way.”

McGovern said he is in favour of restrictions being put in place, such as an age restriction on purchasing e-cigarettes, which he said “should have happened a long time ago”.

“Any place that sells them where they are very enticing and very colourful in terms of sweets and that sort of thing is wrong. We need to tighten up on that aspect.” 

But he added that if we “go down a road that is going to make it more difficult to access them, we’re going to have more smokers”. 

Vapes are battery-powered devices that heat nicotine mixed with flavourings and other chemicals to create an aerosol that you then inhale. They are sold in some supermarkets and independent “vape shops” as well as online.

According to the Irish Vape Vendors Association (IVVA), approximately 200,000 people use vapes in Ireland, with around €70 million spent on e-cigarettes in the country in 2018. 

A number of organisations have called for more regulations around the use and sale of e-cigarettes to be introduced in Ireland. 

The Irish Cancer Society has said that while e-cigarettes are less harmful than combustible cigarettes, health risks remain.

In a statement on their website, it says: “There is not enough evidence e-cigarettes are an effective quit aid for smokers; while other methods, such as Nicotine Replacement Therapy and prescription drugs have been proven to be effective in helping people to quit.

“There is a need for greater evidence on the long-term health consequences of e-cigarette use. As a result of clever marketing, e-cigarette use is increasing among young people and may act as a gateway to smoking.

Investment is needed in smoking cessation strategies we know will make a difference in supporting people to quit smoking.”

There are also concerns around the increase in adolescents who are vaping recreationally.

Speaking to The Journal, Professor Des Cox, a consultant in paediatric respiratory medicine at Children’s Health Ireland in Crumlin, said Australia has “taken a bold approach to vaping to tackle the alarming increase in teenagers vaping”.

Ireland should look at introducing increased restrictions on the sale of vaping products beyond the current bill but perhaps not as far as having them as prescription only.

“Certainly vaping is not as harmful as tobacco cigarettes but they are not harmless. There is emerging research which shows that long-term vaping may lead to an increased risk of heart and lung conditions,” he said.

Research

The European Commission’s Scientific Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging Risks found that there was moderate evidence that electronic cigarettes are a gateway to smoking for young people.

It also found there to be weak evidence for the support of electronic cigarettes’ effectiveness in helping smokers to quit.

However, McGovern said the evidence to support the gateway theory is “very flaky”.

“This idea that you do something and then downstream you do something else so one causes the other is nonsense really,” he said.

“I treat heroin users. Nearly all of them would have taken cannabis at some stage before they took heroin. They also smoked, but nobody called smoking a gateway to other drugs which is astonishing really. If you think that cannabis was a gateway to heroin use, you really don’t understand the sort of social determinants of that drug.”

In 2020, a review from the Health Research Board (HRB) found that teenagers who use e-cigarettes are three-to-five times more likely to start smoking tobacco cigarettes compared to those who have never used e-cigarettes.

The HRB also said that e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation device are not regulated or approved, and their safety beyond 12 months is not yet known.

Cox said a number of Irish surveys have also demonstrated an increase in the number of teenagers vaping.

“One study reported a 50% increase in the number of 15-17 year olds vaping from 2015 to 2019 in Ireland. Teenagers who vape are inhaling harmful substances which potentially have long-lasting effects on their lungs and heart.

“Also, teenagers who vape are four times more likely to go on and smoke tobacco products which is a real worry.”

But McGovern argues that teenagers “dabbling” with e-cigarettes does not necessarily mean that they will use them continuously or go on to smoke cigarettes.

A review carried out by the TobaccoFree Research Institute Ireland surveyed 1,949 students aged between 15-16 in 2019. It found that 39% had tried e-cigarettes and 16% were current users.

This compared to 32% of respondents who said they had tried smoking, while 14% said they were current smokers, with 5% smoking daily.

Professor Luke Clancy, the founder and current director general of the TobaccoFree Research Institute Ireland, told The Journal that making e-cigarettes prescription only would mean you could “rely on them” as a smoking cessation treatment.

“The big advantage of the Australian system would be that you would need to be a smoker before you go to that trouble and if that were to occur, it would mean that our children wouldn’t become addicted,” he said.

“A lot of people who make them and sell them keep stressing how great they are for stopping smoking. They are not recommended by the HSE for smoking cessation and that’s because there isn’t enough evidence. It’s also because the products aren’t guaranteed as medicine.

“So what that would do, if they were to do it here, would be to guarantee that the e-cigarettes were what they said they were and they had the constituents that they said, and you could rely on them. That would be a good thing.”

He said he would like to see vapes of medicinal quality become freely available for people who want to stop smoking.

Government Bill

The HRB review was conducted to help inform Department of Health policy regarding e-cigarettes. 

The Government’s Public Health (Tobacco and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill, which will ban the sale of e-cigarettes to children, is expected to be published this summer.

The sale and purchase of e-cigarettes by anyone under the age of 18 will be prohibited under the Bill, while they will not be permitted to be sold from vending machines or pop-up shops. 

Advertising for e-cigarettes on public transport, in cinemas and within 200 metres of schools will also be banned under the Bill.

The Bill will also introduce, for the first time, a requirement that anyone who wishes to sell e-cigarettes must obtain a licence which must be renewed annually and can be revoked for breaches of tobacco control law.

Announcing the proposals last year, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said: “These measures are designed to protect our children and young people from starting to vape.

“We recognise that nicotine is a highly addictive drug, and we are acting today to make these products less accessible to our young people and to remove the advertising for these products from our children’s everyday lives.”

However, Cox believes the Bill doesn’t go far enough.

“Teenagers and young adults are clearly being targeted by vaping companies for their custom. We are at risk of a new generation of young people becoming addicted to nicotine,” he said.

“In addition to banning the sale of e-cigarettes to anyone under 18 years, there needs to be increased restrictions on the flavourings, advertising, marketing and packaging of e-cigarettes in Ireland. The government should ban all flavours except tobacco flavouring as well as restrict the advertising, marketing and packaging of e-cigarettes in the same way that tobacco products are.”

Clancy agreed that the Bill needs to go further and include a ban on flavours, as well as a ban on single-use e-cigarettes.

“The problem of pollution that the plastic e-cigarettes are causing is well recognised, and the other aspect of it is they are electronic devices. That means they’re batteries and that means they’re using lithium that is scarce and needed for important things in life and they’re just putting it into these things which are being thrown away,” he said.

“These are electronic devices that should be dealt with, like you would your old phone, whereas they just throw them away and this is polluting.”

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79 Comments
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    Mute Seamus Quaide
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    May 7th 2023, 8:35 AM

    I have a bad feeling that in years to come, vaping will be proven as deadly to our health as smoking ever was.

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    Mute James Gorman
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    May 7th 2023, 8:42 AM

    @Seamus Quaide: absolute rubbish. We know the ingredients of both. No comparison. There are people today alive because vaping helped them quit smoking 60 a day 8 years ago and their health is immeasurably better now.

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    Mute Peter
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    May 7th 2023, 9:41 AM

    @James Gorman:

    Which people?

    I guess it’s also the habit outside of the nicotine addiction which I was surprised to only find out is contained in the vaping, too.

    I agree with the original post that we will eventually find out there are very serious negative effects to the use of vapes.

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    Mute Jason Ebbs
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    May 7th 2023, 12:10 PM

    @Seamus Quaide: I personally now two people who never smoked but are now vaping.

    41
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    Mute UK Hurling Bloke
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    May 7th 2023, 1:05 PM

    @Seamus Quaide: where do you buy your crystal balls from ? AliExpress / Wish ?

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    Mute Gary Kearney
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    May 7th 2023, 3:15 PM

    @Seamus Quaide: Well dont worry all the research has ben done and more is constantly happening. Are they perfectly safe no,they are not but that is the same with almost everything in life.
    Are they anywgere in the sae ballpark as smoking no they are not.
    As an exsmoker who has a cheical addiction to nicotine, if I dont get it I get ill, not withdrwals a lot worse. My neurochemistry is different after brain injuries.
    I stopped smoking after I started vaping.
    My health has imrived dramartically. NO more chest infections, my lungs have cleared up almost completely and I am in a much better osition.
    The scare mingering was done by th big cigareete manufacturers, whi have ended uo buying into the vape business as it was taking so much mney off them.

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    Mute Gary Kearney
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    May 7th 2023, 3:16 PM

    @Peter: Read my post and there are thousnads more like me. You have very little kniwedge of the issue and it shows.

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    Mute Noel_Random
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    May 7th 2023, 5:46 PM

    @Seamus Quaide: after two decades there’s plenty of evidence that vaping has only a tiny fraction of danger that vaping poses. They have been studied and regulated. Millions using them for years and not a single death from vaping, unlike smoking. Our health department should be explaining these basics to the public to combat online misinformation but instead the HSE continues to plead ignorance. It’s truly disgraceful and why we’ll pay in the end. We have to follow Sweden’s lead. https://smokefreesweden.org/

    23
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    Mute Andrew Giles
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    May 7th 2023, 10:06 PM

    @Seamus Quaide: I smoked 40 a day, used vaping to stop smoking, and still vape,6 years on, I run an average of 50 km a week, something I would never have been able to do as a smoker.
    But, I do get what you are saying, vaping hasn’t been around long enough,for long term studies to prove any harmful health risks. I’ve no doubt they will find some, as even breathing in the air in congested built up traffic area is potentially bad for you.

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    Mute Peter
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    May 7th 2023, 11:12 PM

    @Gary Kearney:

    I just read it and the first sentence is contradictory. If research is still being done, as you’ve stated, then they surely going to find some negatives. Your reply doesn’t change anything. Like another response, I also know people vaping who have never smoked.

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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    May 8th 2023, 2:08 PM

    @Andrew Giles: Are you seriously suggesting that people stop breathing the air in cities? Traffic and industrial pollution are entirely separate topics. You were and are entirely free to smoke or not smoke, vape or not in Ireland. Let’s respect individual choices here.

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    Mute Rob
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    May 7th 2023, 8:11 AM

    Well ban smoking!!

    200
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    Mute Gavin Conran
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    May 7th 2023, 8:15 AM

    @Rob: Thats ultimately it isn’t it. Banning vaping because you (they) are worried its a gateway to smoking is absurd when you can just ban the thing you fear it’s a gateway to.

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    Mute Glen OhAilpin
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    May 7th 2023, 8:22 AM

    @Rob: I really wish they would ban it so I can stop falling for the temptation of buying a pack every 3-4 weeks. Desperately hard thing to kick.

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    Mute Rob
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    May 7th 2023, 9:40 AM

    @Gavin Conran: But it is a ‘gateway’ to smoking. The taxes we take in from smoking don’t come near what the effects of smoking causes in later life. The burden on healthcare from smoking related conditions. Streets are littered with cigarette butts, packages etc.
    Is there anything good that comes from smoking?

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    Mute thesaltyurchin
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    May 7th 2023, 10:11 AM

    @Rob: Lol! the gateway argument is so weak.

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    Mute Steven Schulz
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    May 7th 2023, 12:49 PM

    @Rob: Useless without a simultaneous ban in the UK. The black marketeers are already counting their profits from that idea.

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    Mute Gavin Conran
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    May 7th 2023, 1:45 PM

    @Rob: So as I said – ban smoking if anything. Why ban the gateway (vaping) that leads to something more dangerous (smoking) rather than just ban smoking altogether.

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    Mute Gary Kearney
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    May 7th 2023, 3:17 PM

    @Rob: Nothing to do with smoking and vaping has reduced it.

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    Mute kevin mc cormack
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    May 7th 2023, 4:16 PM

    @Rob: let’s just ban people leaving their house and be done with it,but hang on that already been done

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    Mute Noel_Random
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    May 7th 2023, 5:42 PM

    @Gavin Conran: if there’s a gateway, vaping is a gateway out of smoking. Nobody who enjoys nicotine without tar and with nice flavour in a vape would want to switch to the stink, expense and dangers of smoking.

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    Mute James Reardon
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    May 7th 2023, 8:46 AM

    I don’t know how legislation was never brought in to stop the sale of these ecigs/nicotine products to u18s. I’ve been vaping nearly 8 years and only found out this week we hadn’t any. This is a massive ball drop on the governments part and should rightly scrutinised over. Disgraceful.

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    Mute Gavin Conran
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    May 7th 2023, 1:46 PM

    @James Reardon: I don’t know why, but for years I was convinced we already bad such legislation. Also only recently found out that wasn’t the case.

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    Mute joe mulhern
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    May 7th 2023, 8:33 AM

    Banning it makes no sense to allow it to then become shady business of criminals.. people have problems. We don’t ban fast food because people are morbidly obese.

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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    May 8th 2023, 2:08 PM

    @joe mulhern: I absolutely agree. Each to their own.

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    Mute Gerald Obrien
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    May 7th 2023, 10:53 AM

    Vapes are the only reason I don’t smoke often and the reason I can limit the nicotine habit to a recreational level . Many friends of mine are the same. Please feck off with nanny state prohibition

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    Mute Carl Pyne
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    May 7th 2023, 9:45 AM

    Even just get rid of the single use ones. Plastic straws & cutlery have been all but banned, coffee cups have to be biodegradable. Yet there’s this new plastic product littering our streets.

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    Mute Gary Kearney
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    May 7th 2023, 3:19 PM

    @Carl Pyne: The plastic straw bad was useless and made to look good. The amount of damage they did was tiny. Yet a lot of people needed them.
    Now they bu=y them fro China, not green but they are essential for a lot of people

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    Mute Noel_Random
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    May 7th 2023, 5:58 PM

    @Carl Pyne: As someone who’s 100% in favour of vaping, I do think that this is something to consider. The really annoying thing is that they can be recycled along with other battery collections in supermarkets etc but, well, some people are just lazy asses when it comes to litter.

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    Mute Malachi Shanks
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    May 7th 2023, 8:53 AM

    Banning vaping will certainly not lead to more new smokers who are usually kids because the price of cigarettes is astronomical (as it should be, make them 20 euro a pack)

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    Mute Noel_Random
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    May 7th 2023, 10:00 AM

    @Malachi Shanks: it’s not all about the kids. Thousands of former smokers would relapse if they removed the most effective quit aid on the market, vaping.

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    Mute Damien Leahy
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    May 7th 2023, 10:12 AM

    @Malachi Shanks: you can f off with 20 euro a pack. Either ban them or leave the price alone.

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    Mute Malachi Shanks
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    May 7th 2023, 1:15 PM

    @Noel_Random: as I said “new smokers” , I’m not talking about former smokers

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    Mute Noel_Random
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    May 7th 2023, 5:50 PM

    @Malachi Shanks: so you’re happy for youngsters to smoke rather than relatively much safer vaping?!? There will always be a cohort of teens who’ll experiment. Much better they vape than smoke. Perfect if they did neither but, well, reality.

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    Mute BLD Games
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    May 7th 2023, 9:04 AM

    Why consider banning flavours if the purchaser is over 18 ?

    62
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    Mute Pauline Cahill
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    May 7th 2023, 10:39 AM

    If we wish to smoke vapes or cigarettes that is up to us

    63
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    Mute Noel_Random
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    May 7th 2023, 6:00 PM

    @Pauline Cahill: part of the problem with the misinformation around vaping is right there in your comment, Pauline, you can’t smoke a vape. You switch from smoking to vaping for health reasons. They don’t combust, don’t produce smoke. That’s partly why they are so much healthier.

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    Mute Noel_Random
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    May 7th 2023, 9:28 AM

    Irish policy is deeply flawed. The HRB review was at the request of health minister Simon Harris who didn’t understand vaping and believed they’re part of a Big Tobacco conspiracy and instructed the HRB to find dangers. They duly reviewed some flawed studies and this fed back to the HSE who have now for over a decade spout the nonsense that they “just don’t know enough” and that vapes are ineffective. There’s lots of good evidence that not only are they far far safer than smoking but are also far more effective than the drugs and patches (containing the same nicotine) that the HSE continues to push at taxpayers expense. 1/2

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    Mute Carm(Orange Vampire)
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    May 7th 2023, 9:33 AM

    Vaping was only supposed to be to help people stop smoking, they were supposed to be a medical product. They should have only ever been sold in the pharmacy or chemist.

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    Mute Noel_Random
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    May 7th 2023, 10:07 AM

    @Carm(Orange Vampire): they were never “supposed to be a medical product”. Vaping started out 2 decades ago as a grassroots movement of adult smokers who developed the early “e cigarette” as a far more effective quit method than the pharmaceutical nicotine products available such as patches and gums. They developed fun flavours in the liquid used to get away from the tobacco taste of cigarettes. The anti tobacco lobby were not happy seeing smokers taking the issue into their own hands and quitting tobacco by a method that they, or Big Pharma, didn’t control.

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    Mute thesaltyurchin
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    May 7th 2023, 10:11 AM

    more damage is done from traffic and fireplaces, but yea, ban everything, live like I live or pay the price, etc.

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    Mute Lydia McLoughlin
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    May 7th 2023, 9:41 AM

    I think these smaller disposable vapes should be banned. I also think people suck on vapes way more than they ever did on a cigarette, those I know who use them (my husband too but now has stopped using them). I think teeth are being weakened too, three of them have both encountered broken.and fractured teeth (hubbie lost one) too, a bit too coincidental for me. I used to smoke never vaped, I see plusses and minuses but I do feel at the least disposable ones need to be banned, for the environment too!

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    Mute Gary Kearney
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    May 7th 2023, 3:21 PM

    @Lydia McLoughlin: I know a large amount of people who vaoe and loose teeth has not been a problem!

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    Mute Noel_Random
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    May 7th 2023, 5:53 PM

    @Lydia McLoughlin: strange. I’ve had the completely opposite experience. My dental health has improved hugely since I quit smoking and switched. My doctor also very impressed with lung function which he said is that of a never smoker now. Smoked pretty heavily for over 30 years. Vaping is a no brainer for any smokers considering the switch.

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    Mute Lydia McLoughlin
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    May 7th 2023, 6:37 PM

    @Gary Kearney: just an observation one has stopped vaping now, both have in general strong teeth too, perhaps its their choice of vape juice – and of course perhaps its just them!! I feel they still need to be studied and facts gathered, still in their infancy.

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    Mute Lydia McLoughlin
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    May 7th 2023, 6:40 PM

    @Noel_Random: as I say to Gary I’m no expert just observing. Theres no doubt many have found them brilliant and stepping stone to even getting off cigs, but some have them constantly in their mouth sucking on them, that can’t be good, like soothers. Well done on getting off them. I’m an ex smoker myself of almost 30 yrs and don’t vape, wld be afraid to start in case got hooked on them myself!!

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    Mute Noel_Random
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    May 7th 2023, 9:28 AM

    2/2 They’re also being led by anti tobacco chancers such at Luke Clancy and the Irish Cancer Society. I don’t even get why the latter is so vocal against vaping, I presume they must realise that nicotine is not a carcinogen?!? Ireland needs a radical new approach to smoking and needs to follow the lead of countries such as Sweden which is about to become the first smoke free country in Europe. Take a look at this: https://smokefreesweden.org/

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    Mute Andy Murphy
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    May 7th 2023, 9:42 AM

    They need more rules it terrible to see people walking around supermarkets and sitting in pubs vaping that’s why they stopped smoking indoors but some people now think it OK to vape

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    Mute Gary Kearney
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    May 7th 2023, 3:24 PM

    @Andy Murphy: Anybody that vapes in closed areas,takes a tiy putff and does not release it . We are niot taking abiout the smoke machine people, thay are being irriots and that is what they are.

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    Mute Noel_Random
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    May 7th 2023, 5:54 PM

    @Andy Murphy: you do realise Andy that the vape poses no threat to bystanders? You might be confusing it with smoking?

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    Mute The Bolt
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    May 7th 2023, 2:58 PM

    Maybe the government want them banned, cause if the 200,000 people using vapes went back on the cigarettes, spending €15 per day on a pack, it’ll generate a far better revenue stream that the €70m they currently get from vaping sales.

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    Mute john mac
    Favourite john mac
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    May 7th 2023, 2:30 PM

    Nanny state do as I say not as I do as we’ve found out many many times

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    Mute Noel_Random
    Favourite Noel_Random
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    May 7th 2023, 9:42 AM

    Sweden about to become the first smoke free country in Europe. Take a look at this: https://smokefreesweden.org/

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    Mute Noel_Random
    Favourite Noel_Random
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    May 7th 2023, 5:55 PM

    @Tom: fascism???

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    Mute Roy Jenkins
    Favourite Roy Jenkins
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    May 7th 2023, 1:37 PM

    I found my 12 year old daughter with a vape. Smelled like a lollypop. She just started secondary school and a second year gave her the vape. This government would want to get real about the health of future generations. There is no place in society for flavoured nicotine dispensers. Especially when they are targeting children as a consumer group. They should taste as awful as real cigarettes.

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    Mute Gary Kearney
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    May 7th 2023, 3:27 PM

    @Roy Jenkins: Most of the single vapes are non nicotine ones. People should research the subject befor knee jerk “think if the childre” reactions!

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    Mute Noel_Random
    Favourite Noel_Random
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    May 7th 2023, 6:06 PM

    @Roy Jenkins: I don’t know where to start with this one! Oh dear. We really need some proper direction and education from the dept of health on this issue. But. We’ll be waiting.

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    Mute Jason Walsh
    Favourite Jason Walsh
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    May 7th 2023, 10:06 AM

    Please at a minimum ban the disposable ones. Allowing the sale of disposable ones is just daft considering how toxic they are. some vape smokers are ignorant and think nothing of throwing them on the ground.

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    Mute Yvon Queguiner
    Favourite Yvon Queguiner
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    May 7th 2023, 9:41 AM

    Smokers and people who vape are bell ends. Let them lull themselves slowly.

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    Mute Declan Doherty
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    May 7th 2023, 10:44 AM

    @Yvon Queguiner: What a wonderfully intelligent contribution to the discussion. You should give yourself the rest of the day off after that effort.

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    Mute Gary Kearney
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    May 7th 2023, 3:26 PM

    @Yvon Queguiner: And soe are people who used to smoke and vape now Youattitude says a lot more about you than us.

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    Mute Nicola Ní Chathail
    Favourite Nicola Ní Chathail
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    May 7th 2023, 1:30 PM

    Nearly all the children in 3rd year in the local secondary school now vape… this is according to a child in their year group.

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    Mute Noel_Random
    Favourite Noel_Random
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    May 7th 2023, 6:04 PM

    @Nicola Ní Chathail: if only one chooses it over smoking, that’s a win in my book. Kids will experiment. At least they’re experimenting with a far less harmful product. Mind you, I live near a school and still see youngsters down the lane still smoking. Great if they did neither but, well, reality.

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    Mute Gerry Dornan
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    May 7th 2023, 7:09 PM

    Ban alcohol, McDonald’s, cigarettes, motor bikes, rugby…

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    Mute Gary Kearney
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    May 7th 2023, 3:30 PM

    Throwing the baby out with the bathwater and the bath in this case.
    Nonalcoholic alcohol is the big thing to stop people drinking alocohol.
    Vapes are similar.
    Some people , myelf included require the nicotine and vaping is the best way to take it.
    Am I addicted yes I am and sadly due to brain injuries the detox put me in hospital the last tiome I tried to stop smoking.
    It is considerably safer to me toi vaoe.
    I dont blow clouds of smoke around me and have respect for the people around me.

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    Mute William Slevin
    Favourite William Slevin
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    May 7th 2023, 12:32 PM

    @Colm Kane:”@William Slevin: Let’s make heroin and crack legal then. The problem with many humans is we have destructive habits even though those habits are bad for ourselves and society, hence rules and laws. Also thinking you have the right and freedom to do everything you want is not conducive to a civilized society.”

    Theirs that word “civilised” it’s a rediculouse concept that we as people cannot live decent lives unless we let a small cohort determine what’s best for the general good…voted in by the majority…so then the minority has to live according to the majority….even though that minority is not infringing on anyone’s rights…and then the irony when the minority in the oireachtas starts restricting certain rights of freedom of the majority voters they give out about it…

    Law is their to stop the infringement of rights of the people…we don’t need legislation outside of that…victimless crimes should never exist ie the legislation that makes it a crime…

    Do I believe their should be no rules no legislation of course not…legislation definitely should be their for limited liability corporations to controll them…where builds are attached and or shared to prevent danger…creating danger such as improper works on a gas mine yes should be illigal when the house is attach and or right next other house or buildings…city’s and towns need more legislation because of the proximity of people living near each other…

    We don’t have a right to put people in danger as that with infringe on their right to bodily integrity of their safety to live…

    So no…no one should have their freedoms restricted once their not infringing on the rights of others…

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    Mute AnthonyK
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    May 7th 2023, 11:33 PM

    I see 14 – 17 year olds vaping. So, while vaping was something people figured would get smokers to quit, it has certainly become addictive among young people who were not smokers of cigarettes.

    Popcorn lung. That’s what is around the corner.

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    Mute Noel Donohue
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    May 7th 2023, 1:27 PM

    What a load of puff

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    Mute Sean O'C
    Favourite Sean O'C
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    May 8th 2023, 4:01 PM

    What a con the tobacco industry has pulled with introducing vaps. Yes it does get older people off cigarettes onto something ‘less’ harmful. But it wasn’t about that. It was a play for the teen market, get the kids hooked earlier, by targeting them ‘bubblegum’ etc flavors. Its a disgrace that we have allowed this happen, right in front of us.

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    Mute Onome Ekere
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    May 8th 2023, 11:20 PM

    First World stringent laws will be Third World greatest opportunities…Nigeria is already Africa’s largest beer producer, palm wine producer, cigarette producer (and no other that awful plain packing law here), and it looks like the Big Tobacco will be bringing the vape business here.

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    Mute Hugh Mccarry
    Favourite Hugh Mccarry
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    May 7th 2023, 7:29 PM

    Vaping is worst than Smoking , the G P is wrong , Super heated Nicotine inhaled into lungs will destroy the lungs and you end up with lung Cancer
    a

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