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How Concerned Are You For People Who Vape?
I’m in my late 40’s and I believe it was my generation who really made a big impact on encouraging people to stop smoking and more importantly, to never start. It was encouraging to see fewer sightings of teens and young adults puffing on cigarettes but then along came vaping. From day one I haven’t bought into the idea that it is safer, how about you?
Stories are starting to appear in the media that vaping can be harmful to your health. How concerned are you that years down the road we might see an increase in pulmonary hypertension and other lung disease due to vaping? If you have PH, do you allow people to vape near you? Have you discussed with your PH doctor the dangers of vaping and if so, what were you told?
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12 Replies
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I know this may sound cold hearted but no one smokes around me. Being on oxygen I look at them and want to say “do you know how valuable your lungs are???” I guess I feel that PH was something that was in my blood genes or happened because of blood clots. People who smoke or who intentionally harm their lungs just makes me mad! Stay healthy. If you smoke, try to quit. Again, I don’t say this to be mean but truthful. Hang in their PH members!! take care
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Margie,
I know exactly how you feel. It has always been hard for me to see people just not taking care of themselves the way they should. I have never taken what I have for granted in my life especially growing up with multiple medical conditions and hospital stays. So many people I know smoke and drink and just do the wrong things for their body. It always makes me cringe. Smokers will sometimes smoke near me too but then they will step further away from me to have a cigarette. I usually get away from whoever is smoking too.
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My sentiments exactly Margie! No one in my family smokes. It breaks my heart when I see others smoking or vaping.
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Colleen, you brought up one of the most pressing issues for me! I have to say, I HATE people who smoke ANYTHING. The main thing that I could not understand before – why they so easily destroy the health. “Give me your lungs if you don’t need them!”. And these people are impenetrable, they can not be hurt. If someone starts telling them about the dangers of Smoking, asking them not to do it at least in front of other people, in front of children, they have a lot of evil words in their defense. They’re unbearable! Maybe you watched “Sherlock,” where one evil character said: “I’m a killer… I’m a cereal killer!”. I see a person who smokes, and it seems to me that he defiantly declares: “I’m a killer… I’m a serial killer!”. Now I do not feel sorry for them, because it is their conscious choice. NOW the main thing I can’t understand is how they can literally kill people around without the slightest remorse!
And the stupidest fashion vape… Why don’t parents or teachers explain to teenagers that it’s not as harmless as it seems? Why don’t adults tell teenagers: “turn on the logic and think about what’s inside this cigarette!”? I see this huge cloud of smoke and imagine how it penetrates into my body and destroy what was still alive. I am sorry that there are no lessons in school and also in families children are not told that ANY smoking is harmful, that it leads to sad consequences not only for the smoker, but also for all people around.
This is a huge problem for the health of all people, and for lucky people who have lung disease, it’s just like a bullet in the heart. I had a long battle with some neighbors who smoked in the entrance of the house in which I live. My neighbor with asthma was also terrified of these pests. Now like this problem disappeared, but only in one the entrance one homes. Outside, I’m still angry and demonstratively quicken my pace (as much as a person with PH can accelerate) when I walk past a smoker.
Oh, I think I wrote so much. This problem really touches me to the quick!-
Valerie and Margie,
I feel as strongly about this topic as you. Unfortunately, I think parents and teachers have been trying to educate kids that vaping isn’t any safer than smoking but they have brain washed into thinking that it’s not the same. Teens have been convinced into thinking that vaping is safe. It’s so heartbreaking to see smoking make a comeback in such a way. I am convinced that in time we will see an increase in lung problems caused by vaping. I’m worried for the future of our youth. We need to educate all over again and hopefully kids will start listening.-
Colleen, you’re absolutely right. I just think it’s a shame that it takes human sacrifice for someone to finally understand how harmful smoking is. And it will help not everyone, because smokers of conventional cigarettes does not stop the knowledge of the dangers of nicotine. Similarly, knowledge of the dangers of vaping and similar things will stop few people when this knowledge becomes widespread.
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In the end people are going to make the decision THEY want to make. Even with education and knowledge and with ample warning I think that there will still be a great amount of people who are convinced that vaping isn’t “that bad” because it doesn’t contain nicotine. I have heard this so many times before that I lost count.
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Valerie,
I feel like more education about vaping and smoking needs to be brought up in school. I can remember I was SCARED TO DEATH when we did a program called D.A.R.E. in school. It was education about drugs, drinking, tobacco etc and also offered a lot of healthy coping strategies to avoid situations where a child may be around these substances.As an educator, I taught this to my students and told them about the importance of health, but I did this on my own time with the students. A program like this just wasn’t worked into the curriculum but I think that substance abuse and mental health NEED to be top priority for the future kids. It shouldn’t just stop at 5th grade.
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I don’t believe for a second that vaping is safer than smoking real cigarettes. Except for medicine (like an inhaler), does anybody really believe that they can inhale anything into their lungs without causing harm? I’ve heard, “but it’s just water vapor.” I don’t believe that either, but if it were true, can a person inhale water without damaging the lungs? My apologies for coming on so strong, but these vape-smokers are just as clueless as those who believed that smoking cigarettes improved one’s health more than 50 years ago.
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I completely agree. I don’t know what goes through people’s heads when they KNOW the risk and still CHOOSE to do it anyway, it is as if someone is writing their own ticket out of this world. If things CAN be prevented, why wouldn’t we do everything in our power to prevent them from happening? People are getting content with just letting themselves go and not caring. I get it, that’s definitely easier than dealing with medical problems as they arise, but it makes for a harder treatment plan if people keep pushing it off as “no big deal”
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I completely agree with everyone. Then after it is discovered that their illness was from “vaping” they will sue the makers of the product claiming “they didn’t know” and try to get money. We cannot get payment for the illness we are suffering. Boy, the expensive of PH is unbelievable but that is a separate topic. But, reports can come out about anything being bad and people just ignore them. Hang in there PH members! Live each day!!!
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Margie,
you are NOT ALONE in your feelings towards this or your aggravation for those that actually end up getting money and sue when they claim they “didn’t know” the dangers. Honestly, how can they NOT when something is going into their lungs as smoke? And it is sad that teenagers have their hands on this and that they make competitions with one another of who can take in the most smoke etc. It is terrible to see such young kids doing these things. The adults should be the ones that know better, it’s more the kids that I have concern for and really worry about. So much pressure out there.
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