How is vaping in public recieved in your country/area?

[QcVaper]

Korea does not punish buyer yet. We divide vaping in 2 kinds, NIC or NIC FREE. So, vaping hardwares are not subject to any regulation here. You may walk with in hand in open places anytime. Possession, purchase or distribution is open to all.
With same reason Nic-free juices are open to all.
Only when Nic is added to juice or Nic is nic itself(a pure nic), it is subject to law of tobacco distribution. they need special pepers to sell(not to buy, you may buy as long as you are 19 of age or older) If you are 17 and someone sell NIC to you, he/she will be punished.
Today's problem is it became very hard to get pure nic since Jan 1 this year. Government insisted we need to "legalize vaping for national health". So they did it, blocked buying nics asking for tons of papers and "IQOS" appeared on market.
If your gov tries to make some action, please notice they do it for their money instead for your satisfaction.

I've seen videos about the Iqos system.... tbh might aswell keep smoking while you're at it seems like the most pointless thing in the world and more expensive than anything vape related....

 

[BOBOKOR]

I agree,,, IQOS is a product between cigarette and vaping. A useless thing, good only for collecting tax.

 

[Letitia]

IQOS still has toxins in it. What toxins are in e liquids?

 

[Rossum]

IQOS still has toxins in it. What toxins are in e liquids?

The list varies depending on who you ask.

I don't think there's any question that iQOS is better than smoking. That means it's harm reduction. It may not reduce harm quite as much as vaping e-liquid, but I think there's also a good chance it will work for at least some people who have not succeeded with conventional vapes. That would make a it a good thing in my view.

 

[BOBOKOR]

IQOS still has toxins in it. What toxins are in e liquids?

It's matter of the temperature. If you drink e-juice, it's as dangerous as coffee. If you burn e-juice it's as dangerous as cigarette. This is why low temperature is important.

 

[QcVaper]

@BOBOKOR Coffee is a stimulant just like nicotine is. Coffee can kill you after about 50+ cups and burning e-juices ? that sounds very disgusting lol

 

[Letitia]

I just read about toxins found while heating the heat sticks. Same toxins found in cigs and some of them at higher levels. Admittedly some toxins at lower levels as well. Phillip Morris is trying to block independent studies already. I'm still on the fence until more information from other sources is made available.

 

[QcVaper]

I just read about toxins found while heating the heat sticks. Same toxins found in cigs and some of them at higher levels. Admittedly some toxins at lower levels as well. Phillip Morris is trying to block independent studies already. I'm still on the fence until more information from other sources is made available.

They wanna limit research because they have their own products it's pretty clear they wanna stomp on everything else vaping related. Some of the current research are even funded by big tobaco. One way or the other Iqos is about the same thing it uses tiny cigarettes but don't burn the end (no you can't use regular cigarettes with it i've seen a guy try it) it's a stupid product imho and probably costs more than vaping ejuice and buying mods for it.

 

[Letitia]

I don't think it is stupid, but I also do not think we know enough about it. My eyes are about toasted tonight. Going to read more tomorrow. I know a few people that vaping did not help, would love for them to have another healthier alternative to smoking cigs.

 

[Letitia]

Had to edit. I do not think IQOS is necessarily a bad idea, just not convinced it is as safe as PM is claiming.

 

[BOBOKOR]

I have not tried a IQOS yet and have no intention to try yet. The solid-liquid-gas(or vapor) is essencial to understand how IQOS makes vapor.
Making solid to vapor is very hard and requires more energy than liquid to vapor. Not always but normally. You can see the stick of IQOS does not have enough liquid(they are not wet enough) to produce fog as seen in youtube.
And heating part of IQOS does not look big enough. When vapor is produced around heating part, it has to move thru the stick and filter to reach mouth. Guess you have thick clothe or a cigarette filter between driptip and your mouth, you will get no vapor visible(we call it stealth vape)
This means IQOS does not only produce vapor also some gas. I think most of them is gas because most vapor would be filtered before it reach mouth.

 

[stols001]

I'm on the fence about them as well. I mean, I don't want to bash any harm reduction product, and I could see a few smokers this might help, even eventually transitioning to trying vape only, possibly? Or a heavy smoker who may have tried vaping and can handle the cost. If that works for them, I'm not going to bash the product.

If it winds up getting special dispensations/lack of government "oversight" deliberately and it is shown to be harmful or used in any way to decredit/reduce the opportunity of vapers, I am going to be upset.

I'm holding off on being upset at the moment, as lack of upset is a goal I've been increasingly going for of late

Anna

 

[AkiraFZ]

More and more people are vaping here now. Just a year ago you rarely see anyone vaping because cigs are so cheap. Buying hardware is much easier in the USA. Prices are about the same oddly enough. However I do go to Shengzhen where it ALL comes from and buy direct from the factory. Very cheap!

I DIY my juice and get supreme quality PG,VG and nic from labs here. Prices are VERY good. However I still get my flavors from FA as I do not trust any from China.

Vapeing here is totally open and you can vape anywhere. No rules. Up until a few months ago, they even allow vapeing on airplanes. Now that is prohibited.

Thank you for your information. Vaping on airplanes is something I never thought about and that was only prohibited a few months ago.

China is still a very interesting country. The industry of vape gear is ahead but the vape users are still on the growing stage.

 

[AkiraFZ]

It's illegal to sell or buy in Turkey but you can freely vape anywhere you want, except non-smoking areas, once you have it.

That is another interesting rule. Illegal to buy but free to use. So for us as travelers, we can just bring vape gear into the country and vape where smokers do.

 

[AkiraFZ]

We have many vapers here in Greece, and we've personally had no trouble carrying our vape stuff in and out of the country, or heard of problems like that. In the recent past (Greece to US trip), along with a couple of mods and a couple of atties, I carried only sealed retail e liquid, just in case an unsealed bottle or diy bottle would cause trouble (I was more worried about the US end of the trip than the European leg), but when my husband recently went to Turkey as part of a job, we packed a couple of diy bottles for him, and nobody cared on either side. I can't promise that this is always dependable, especially on the Turkey side (which I'm less familiar with), but that was his recent experience in the last couple of weeks.

I wouldn't take my favorite / expensive gear anywhere, though, really, because it's too unpredictable from place to place. I can pretty much vouch that Greek airport customs isn't going to care about your vaping stuff (as long as it's "personal use" amounts of items, at least), but other points of contact on an itinerary could be a different story. Once here, you can just ask if vaping is allowed wherever you are (taverna / club / restaurant) or just see if other people are vaping or smoking, and we have so many outside cafes (or outside sections of restaurants, etc) where smoking or vaping is not a problem, that it's not a big issue.

Thank you for your information. I already want to go to Greece
So far that is the most open environment we have learnt.

How about the vape gear shops? Are there many in your country? Where do you buy gears and liquids?

 

[AkiraFZ]

The list varies depending on who you ask.

I don't think there's any question that iQOS is better than smoking. That means it's harm reduction. It may not reduce harm quite as much as vaping e-liquid, but I think there's also a good chance it will work for at least some people who have not succeeded with conventional vapes. That would make a it a good thing in my view.

I feel the same way even though I don't know exactly how good or bad it is.
In my company, more than half of the smokers switched to iQOS. One reason is because most of them don't know what vape is and they don't even know other means of smoking such as vape exist. Other reason probably is Japanese government banned to sell nic liquid within Japan. And also Philip Morris started to sell iQOS in Japan 2014. If I am not mistaken they chose Japan and Italy for the test market countries of iQOS.

I started vaping in 2014 but that was only at home because I didn't want other people see me doing something look like a drug. I started using iQOS at office a few months after, soon I quit smoking and my coughing stopped. iQOS gave me full satisfaction and you feel like you are smoking. But iQOS last for me for a couple of months because it is so smelly. Since then I only vape anywhere.

So I quit smoking because of iQOS not VAPE. And I felt good that time.

 

[Letitia]

Thanks for posting this. I'll pass your experience with IQOS along to others. Most around here have not heard of this alternative. I haven't mentioned due to lack of info.

 

[tazzle]

Thank you for your information. I already want to go to Greece
So far that is the most open environment we have learnt.

How about the vape gear shops? Are there many in your country? Where do you buy gears and liquids?

I buy online from some Greek retailers, but haven't gone to physical shops since our very first starter kit. There isn't one very close by me that makes it very convenient, otherwise I would at least check them out. I also buy hardware from China, and the UK. I buy flavors mostly from the UK and Germany but also from Greek online shops (but they are more expensive, and with fewer options).

Also, we have to comply with TPD regulations, so e liquid is only sold in 10 ml bottles now, and no atomizers that hold over 2 ml (though I occasionally see them in the online shops, so who knows?). I think there are some other country-specific regulations that aren't being strictly enforced (at the moment, anyway).

Goverment is fickle; you never know when they are going to decide to be strict and punitive, or relaxed and lenient. The attitude of the general population here is accepting, in all that I've seen, and vaping is not viewed as "bad," weird, or strange by most people. We do have many top hardware innovators (making collectible, high quality items) here in Greece, and also Dr. Farsalinos, for example, who has been a research advocate of reasonable vaping on the science side, so it's intrinsically a pretty vape-friendly / vape-forward place, I'd say -- as much as possible within the existing EU regulations.

 

[stols001]

Very interesting to hear about someone's experience switching from IQOS to strictly vaping. Thank you for sharing it AkiraFZ. That was a great review/food for thought....

Anna

 

[BOBOKOR]

I'm on the fence about them as well. I mean, I don't want to bash any harm reduction product, and I could see a few smokers this might help, even eventually transitioning to trying vape only, possibly? Or a heavy smoker who may have tried vaping and can handle the cost. If that works for them, I'm not going to bash the product.

If it winds up getting special dispensations/lack of government "oversight" deliberately and it is shown to be harmful or used in any way to decredit/reduce the opportunity of vapers, I am going to be upset.

I'm holding off on being upset at the moment, as lack of upset is a goal I've been increasingly going for of late

Anna

Thank you Anna. You enlighten me. There are good things with IQOS. It also helps people off smoking.