My first bad vaping experience

[jcamacho]

I've been smoking in my office all day with no problems. Since I have my own office with a closed door no one has seen me except for a few friends that are very interested in this new find. They are amazed that I, of all people, have quit smoking cigarrettes altogether.

 

[Shortstuff116]

New e-cig owner here and my first post. I've been vaping for 4 days now and the wife just started yesterday. I have read every post in this thread with great curiosity because this is probably the most interesting topic for any x-smoker now vaping. I deliberatly chose a model and color that would not look like a cigarette there by removing some of the stigma associated with smoking.
As a new user I have found myself on both sides of the fence. I want to push the boundaries by vaping everywhere but then it's almost like instinct kicks in and I loose my courage. I am slowly coming out of my shell and have been talking with a few others at work about the device. Some know of them, some have expressed interest, but mostly they concerned with the appearance that I am still "smoking".
One day at a time, a few people a day, and as I continue to talk about it and become more comfortable talking about it I am more comfortable with the device in general.

2 things that I am most concerned with while vaping in public.

1. I am concerned with the general public thinking I am using a device to conceal drugs.
2. I am concerned with promoting the coolness factor to those that are underage.

Does anyone care to share your thoughts on this?
Thanks for the interesting read, and for helping me make the decission to quit smoking analogs!

After vaping for a couple of months, I've pretty much settled into vaping openly where anyone can smoke analogs and inside when I'm sure that there is no problem with it such as a local coffee shop or even my dentist office where I know the owners and have explained/demonstrated my PV and they have NO problem with it. Anywhere else, I use my own judgement. Some places I won't touch my PV, other places I'll vape when no one is around me, and at times I'll stealth vape. I'm not the least bit worried about someone thinking I'm doing illegal drugs at all.

As far as vaping around kids, well if they are very young then I don't think they should be exposed to it at all. If they are in their teens then by now they have been exposed to enough and I don't hesitate to vape in front of them. I would much rather they see me vaping than smoking even if they may not realize the difference.

Congrats on your fist post and hope that vaping works for you as well as it has for me and so many others.

 

[simonduz]

I am curious. For all those that vape, if and when there is ever a study done that will show the health benefits of vaping and it's vapor exhaled has no effect on others would you then practice vaping anywhere without any concern or would the appearance of smoking still have an effect on you decissions?
This to me is very interesting.
Thanks again...

 

[OMB]

I have always been a considerate smoker. I try to smoke where there is the least chance of anybody walking through my smoke. No matter what I do, there is always one jerk that insists on making some snarky comment about my smoking. I have even seen someone eating INSIDE a restaurant, see a smoker OUTSIDE in the open air of the same restaurant, those INSIDE people insisted that the waiter tell the OUTSIDE people to put their cigs out because the idea of someone smoking bothered them!!!! This is what our gov't bans and the rampant 2nd hand (and now "3rd hand" smoke) stories have led to.
I was in San Francisco in 2005. You cannot smoke within 25ft of any entrance to any building. That pretty much leaves the middle of the street...lol! I think I saw 5 ashtray in the entire city over 10 days...and EVERYONE was rude as all hell! I truly believe that I would not have caught as much hell if I had been shooting up on the steps at city hall!!!

 

[simonduz]

I have always been a considerate smoker. I try to smoke where there is the least chance of anybody walking through my smoke.

LOL this seems to be a main point of confusion both personal and public.
This is not smoking. It should not be compared to smoking.
Vaping should be judged on it's own terms but some continue to think of it as smoking in disguise

Again, I find this very interesting...

 

[Shortstuff116]

LOL this seems to be a main point of confusion both personal and public.
This is not smoking. It should not be compared to smoking.
Vaping should be judged on it's own terms but some continue to think of it as smoking in disguise

Again, I find this very interesting...

Exactly.

I ensure that I place no emphasis at all on "smoking". I use a PV, I vape, I am using a nicotine inhaler and nothing more.

There is absolutely no comparison to be made to my PV and a cigarette any more than there are similarities between a cigarette and a nicotine inhaler, the patch or any other nicotine delivery device on the market.

I do not use the word e-cig. Only Personal Vaporizer or Nicotine Inhaler. There just is no similarity to cigarettes.

 

[MickeyMcE]

I vape in the office at work but only after I clearly explained the technology behind my PV. So only visitors who pass by look at me funny. Other than that I am a ninja vaper. I love the fact it is so easy to hide. I have started a vaping trend with about 6 of my coworkers now vaping and myself and two others are completely smoke free.

 

[Shortstuff116]

I vape in the office at work but only after I clearly explained the technology behind my PV. So only visitors who pass by look at me funny. Other than that I am a ninja vaper. I love the fact it is so easy to hide. I have started a vaping trend with about 6 of my coworkers now vaping and myself and two others are completely smoke free.

I think it's great that you are sharing your knowledge and experience with others and even getting a few to come over to the "vape" side and a healthier life.

Kudos to you and anyone who can help a smoker off their bad habits!

 

[nightowl]

I printed up cards on the computer before my pv even arrived. when I go in somewhere I give a couple to the bartender or waitress or whoever so they not only know what it is but can pass it on to any other customer who might complain or even to law enforcement if necessary since Illinois is a no smoking in public places state. So far the cards have worked and they are a bit less confrontational when someone complains to me directly.

 

[KonaNeil]

I've been vaping since July, e-cigs allowing me to quit a 45 year addiction in two days. Over the months I've completely lost my timidity, now vaping pretty much anywhere including Costco, Target, Kaiser, the credit union, a five hour plane flight and a church some friends dragged my atheist .... into last Thanksgiving.

No one has given me a hard time. I suspect it is because my PVs look nothing like cigarettes. The only time someone questioned me from seeing some vapor, I held out my silver VP2 and with a smile offered to explain the device's use if the questioner wished. He apologized instead. In his mind I'm sure he was saving himself from hearing about my gory medical problems.

If you don't want to be bothered, don't vape a white e-cig with a red LED. The further your device is from this image, the less you will be hassled.

 

[gsc4077]

I understand how people will tell themselves "this isn't a cigarette, so i can do it anywhere i want". But at this point in time, i think it's almost a bit cocky to pull it out while you're out shopping, or getting gas or whatever. No offence to anyone. I use my all the same places i would a real cigarette, except for at home where i can now stay inside like at work, i still go out back to the smoking area. It doesn't bother me at all, i know not everybody knows about PVs and will complain about what appears to be smoke. Just avoid conflict in that manner. Now on the other hand, if i DO want to get noticed and not get bashed for it . . i could just walk around the streets of the busy "shopping districts" (i.e. old town alexandria or georgetown for anyone whose familiar with northern VA). I would never casually vape in a Target or grocery store while i was shopping just because i enjoy it and it's not really smoking.

Thinking about all this reminds me again of why i started vaping. To get myself off tobacco. Not to sneak around smoking bans

I think its great introducing people to the world of PVs. I love doing it and it feels extremely rewarding when they're actually receptive of it, and i would encourage everyone to do it. . . but what i've noticed is that most non-smokers don't "care" and shrug it off. They often see it as just a gimmick. I guess what i'm getting at is that i think it's hard for non-smokers to really appreciate what we are doing.

 

[KonaNeil]

.... But at this point in time, i think it's almost a bit cocky to pull it out while you're out shopping, or getting gas or whatever.

While I disagree with you in principle, I hope no one vapes at gas stations. It will likely cause an explosion easier than a lit cigarette will. To the gasoline vapors in the air, its like lighting a match each time we take a draw.

 

[lostdaze]

Id been a smoker most of my life, now a vaporer.

Personally, I think it is rude to smoke or vape in any store or place where people are eating.

Hell Im an idiot, but I have great respect for others and much common sense.

 

[gsc4077]

...Personally, I think it is rude to smoke or vape in any store or place where people are eating....

thank you lostdaze . . keeping it simple, something i can never do lol .
Thats what i was trying to say, i think its rude to do that as well. Just because it isnt smoking doesn't mean it should be done, or be allowed, everywhere.

 

[KonaNeil]

....Hell Im an idiot, but I have great respect for others and much common sense.

Hmmm, I'm extremely bright and have a history of convincing others to agree with my view of reality. Maybe this is the cause of our differing philosophies on public vaping.

Just a guess; are you a union member or a government employee and regularly go to church on Sunday?

 

[Melanie]

I've only been vaping for 5 days now and already I quit smoking. I vape at work and the customers are either interested or they don't care. I tell them it's a nicotine vaporizer. I don't think many people can get offended by the word nicotine.

If it doesn't harm anyone I think people should be free to do it anywhere, there is no valid reason to ban people from vaping. Sure it looks like smoking and that may offend someone, but people are needlessly offended and indignant on a regular basis, and you can't make everyone happy all the time.

People should vape more publicly so e-cigs can become widely known, knowledge is power as they say... or was that ignorance is strength... If more people know about a safe alternative to smoking, the Powers That Be will have less power.

 

[Numanoid]

While I disagree with you in principle, I hope no one vapes at gas stations. It will likely cause an explosion easier than a lit cigarette will. To the gasoline vapors in the air, its like lighting a match each time we take a draw.

While agree with YOU on principle (don't vape at a gas station (especially while filling up) the chance of a PV igniting a gas/air mix is extremely low. FAR lower than using a lit cigarette.

Ignition temp of Gasoline is about 500F. The atty enclosure would have to be far hotter than that to ignite fumes.

 

[Mister]

Regarding the posts on this thread about vaping in non-smoking areas and that people are too easily offended and are not open-minded, try thinking of it this way:

Suppose you are in an enclosed space and someone starts sucking on a device and exhaling a little cloud of puke green "smoke" which glows with a pulsating ugly brown color. I don't know about you but I'd be nervous. I'd be thinking things like "Is it radioactive or what to be giving off light like that?" "Do I want to be breathing whatever is in that?"

That's pretty much how some people are going to perceive vaping if it is thrust upon them. Telling them after you've already done it isn't going to help at all, because you've already raised a fear reaction and they have no reason to believe you. They know nothing about you except that you're willing to do something which is scary to them without asking their permission first.

When you then think of that hostile person as too easily offended or not open-minded, it is you who has not been open-minded. You haven't considered their position.

On the other hand, if you openly vape in a non-enclosed space where smoking is allowed, you not only avoid this fear reaction, you invite curiousity. The same person who would react negatively when you gave them no choice in a closed environment may approach you with curiousity outside. And then when you explain the thing you're using, they will listen because they're not threatened and you've made it their option to be interested.

I have not yet, in almost six months, had one hostile reaction to my vaping in public. I do it openly but non-threatenly. I've had some smokers react by saying "no way, I'd rather smoke" but not as a hostile reaction. Because I wasn't evangalizing, I was just showing them when they expressed interest. This is the approach which I feel will win this war for us. We can convert the public one person at a time to seeing us as doing something positive. Or, we can scare and annoy them, with the opposite effect.

 

[bestthingever]

What Mister said.

 

[RedMizt]

Your not Smoking, your "Vaping", take it from a pack and a half man, just waiting to start "Vaping". as for Public Opinion, it will only continue to worsen against smokers.

I personally, once "Vaping" will not do so indoors until some major research is done that lets us know whats in the vapor. is there a such thing as 2nd hand nicotine vapor??? Would be nice to Vape in a bar though <sigh>...