UNHOLY SMOKE

I found this interesting. It's a photograph demonstrating what foodstuffs can be purchased (on the right) for the cost of a packet of cigarettes (on the left). (Australian supermarket calculation 2020)

This is a very scary image and graphically shows how family members might be missing out if one or more of the 'breadwinners' smoke.

Below is a photograph I took of a poster at the hospital's heart clinic which shows the cost of smoking. Note that a person who smokes 30 cigarettes a day spends nearly $15,000 a year.

VAPING

What does vaping cost?

 Vaping is substantially cheaper than smoking. In Australia a pack-a-day smoker (20 cigarettes of the leading brand) spends $10,580 per year on smoking.

The cost of vaping depends on the vaping device used and the level of vaping.
 Many people start with a simple pod device or a refillable tank. Typical cost is about $35-$50.
Nicotine e-liquid. E-liquid for refillable devices can be purchased for $20 per 30ml bottle in Australia. A typical vaper uses 4ml e-liquid per day or 1,460 ml per year, which is 50 bottles. Replaceable pods cost $3-6 and and deliver 200-300 puffs on average.
Total cost of vaping (refillable tank): $1,150 per year.

                    - Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association April 2019


So, vaping is obviously cheaper but the long-term costs on the health system are yet to be determined. In USA there have already been deaths associated with the practice and a lot of hospitalisation.

A recent Radio NZ report suggested that New Zealand is not doing enough to control vaping. Here are some outtakes from that:

E-cigarette flavours "are particularly hazardous" so limiting their sale in New Zealand is an important step, a European public health expert says.
Professor Martin McKee's comments on RNZ's Saturday Morning come after six deaths in the United States were linked with respiratory and lung conditions caused by vaping. The US government is planning to ban the sale of flavoured electronic cigarettes.
The New Zealand government is considering banning all flavours of vaping liquids except tobacco, menthol and mint to reduce the appeal of e-cigarettes to young people.
"If New Zealand is going to limit the flavourings that would be an important step," McKee said.

"Other people have used the word 'reckless' to describe the promotion of these products until we have a much better understanding of their safety profile."
McKee said using electronic cigarettes caused disruption of the lining of arteries and this could be associated with increased risks of heart disease, blood clots and strokes.
Although research funded by electronic cigarette manufacturers and the tobacco industry had found no harmful effects, independent studies had consistently found harmful health effects, he said.
Both e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes contain nicotine, which can cause abnormal heart rhythms that can potentially be fatal.
Nicotine affected the developing brain in young people and could increase the spread of cancer, McKee said.
Tar in conventional cigarettes cause cancer, a harmful effect not produced by e-cigarettes. However, vaping liquids contained propylene glycol that when heated could produce formaldehyde, a known cancer causing agent, he said.
People who smoked and vaped were most at risk, McKee said.
"We're particularly concerned about people who use both, because then you get the worst effects of both products."
Most people who succeeded in quitting smoking did so unaided, while 93 per cent of those who tried to quit by using e-cigarettes were still smoking a year later, he said.
While McKee is not calling for prohibition, he did not support flavourings that increased the appeal of vaping and was opposed to allowing advertising of e-cigarettes.
"If we treat them as a medicine, albeit a very ineffective medicine with a very low success rate, perhaps that might be the best way forward."
While some agencies had said e-cigarettes were 95 per cent safer than normal cigarettes, Prof McKee said this figure had "no credibility whatsoever".
The World Health Organisation had "extreme concerns" about e-cigarettes, as did many other health organisations around the world, he said.
Research showed that people who started out vaping sometimes ended up smoking cigarettes, he said.
"I'm looking at analogies like the opioid epidemic in other countries.
"Many products do have a role but there's a real danger associated with them so we do need to be careful," McKee said.
Professor Richard Edwards, from the University of Otago Department of Public Health, agreed that it was unclear how frequently vaping helped people quit smoking, because research findings differed.
"Vaping is safer than smoking and probably substantially safer... that's not saying much because smoked tobacco is terrible."
New vaping regulations for New Zealand should consider where products could be sold and used and what flavours were available, he said.
Edwards challenged the government to ban nicotine from conventional cigarettes, so they were not addictive.
"Vaping regulation is important but even more important is how we regulate smoking products, because that's the real killer.

This suggests to me that people like McKee are the early warning indicators who are in danger of being ignored because what they are warning about is new. Think global warming warnings, the rise of Hitler and Nationalism, warnings against Donald Trump etc.
Also, big business is involved and the tobacco companies are embracing (and owning) vaping so they will be actively promoting it while having a bob each way on actual cigarette support. As soon as tobacco and cigarettes are banned then they will give 100% support to vaping so forget any notions that vaping is a means of weaning people off cigarettes and into a healthier lifestyle. The tobacco companies will want these people addicted to vaping instead.

The only thing that should be put in our lungs is air.