My personal etiquette for vaping in public

[Intervap]

Most of us vape in public, whether in a coffee shop, place of work, or department store.
I myself have created my own etiquette. If it is crowded as to where I cannot avoid children, elderly, or people in general, I won't vape.
If I can find a seat where no one is near, I will quietly vape small clouds, being sure not to draw attention or disturb anyone.
On the first day of any class I make sure to show up early to have a general discussion with the instructor, get to know them. Now, I include vaping. I ask them if it is okay if a discretely vape in class. If s/he doesn't know anything about it, I will give them the facts I know. If other students clearly have a problem with my vaping, I'll stop and go outside or in the hall during the break.
I don't ask everyone around me, I find that unnecessary. However, if someone, anyone, asks me to stop, I will! I don't see my vaping as a "right".
I feel like I use common courtesy and sense in my public vaping as to not bring a negative image to vaping.
What kind of etiquette do you guys hold when vaping in public? I feel like this is a very important, yet lightly touched, topic we vapers need to discuss!

 

[kissprof]

I think you are taking the right approach. No need to stick it in people's face. I personally don't vape anywhere smoking is not allowed, unless it is stealth.

 

[belsenj]

I think vaping has to be done a little at time. After all the hype about analogs, the whole world is on edge about them.

Some things come to us with patience.

 

[eratikmind]

As relative to everything else, a bit of common courtesy always is a very good idea.

- Andy

 

[Colleen T]

I think you are taking the right approach. No need to stick it in people's face. I personally don't vape anywhere smoking is not allowed, unless it is stealth.

Same here.

 

[stevegmu]

Is vaping more addictive than smoking? I never felt the need to smoke in class or a department store. At what point is one addiction worse than the other?

 

[Intervap]

I have wondered this myself. I generally vape 18mg. As an experiment I vaped 0mg to see if I was picking up my PV for a nic hit or just a "smoking sensation". I vaped just as much as the 18mg, about 15-20 min of every hour, but instead for the flavor and sensation. At this point, i would find MY PERSONAL VAPING as a dependence, not an addiction. Either way, I do find that the nic hit does help with me focusing in class\work.

 

[kissprof]

Is vaping more addictive than smoking?

I don't know. I'll tell you this though....I vaped in the shower this morning (the vapor cloud is enormous), and I usually fall asleep with my e-cig and take drags when I wake up at night. Usually when I would wake up at night it would be a good 45 minutes before I got back to sleep. Since I started vaping during that time, I fall right back to sleep after 1 or 2 drags.

 

[Asmotron]

OP, good on you for using common courtesy!

As far as it being more/less addictive, I think it is more of a matter of convenience. When everyone could smoke in their offices they probably smoked pretty regularly. The availability makes it easier to just do now and then. TBH I was never a smoker and picked up vaping 0mg for the flavor as an alternative to snacking*. I do however find myself wanting to take my PV to bed with me to puff before I go to sleep, and I do bring it to work to puff on when I'm on the road (1-2 hour trips), etc.

*- Side note, I've lost nearly 10 pounds since Memorial Day using vape to satiate my sweet/snack cravings instead of snacking.

 

[mooshi]

I generally will vape in "designated smoke areas" just to avoid any hassle, avoid the crowds... The exclusion would be school campus, where there are no designated smoking areas - the entire campus is tobacco free. I hadn't encountered any problems when teachers/students see me vape, though I'm not going around making it obvious either.

 

[wrath186]

Is vaping more addictive than smoking? I never felt the need to smoke in class or a department store. At what point is one addiction worse than the other?

I've been thinking about this as well. I don't vape in my car or at work. Generally only after work in the evenings. I did notice that when I do vape it's generally throughout the evening. So we're talking about 5-6 hours in the evenings during the week, more on the weekend. I like to vape 0 or low nic juice and have felt no ill effects or cravings to vape more than I already do. What I can say at this point is I have an open pack of cigarettes on my bookcase that just sit there. I have no desire to have one, so I guess that's a good thing.

 

[mare ze dotes]

Vaping in class?

Like you said, be respectful

 

[wbbrn1952]

I love to vape but at work it is taboo - treated as smoking - only in designated areas. When I smoked I did not smoke in the house or in my car - but I vape in those places. I am not into stealth vaping so if a place is designated no smoking I just don't vape. As to nicotine I started at 18mg/ml last year and within 1 month I had reduced to 12 - now I am at 6 and I don't vape any more liquid than I did when I started.
I find vaping relaxing - much like pipe smoking to me. I plan on going to 0 nicotine in a couple of months and feel that it will not make any difference.
Kudos for this thread great advice on being polite and considerate of others.

 

[ppeeble]

Every vaper has their own set parameters of where it is and isn't acceptable to vape.
I personally show as much courtesy as when i was smoking.
I do find it interesting though that when smoking was considered normal and actively encouraged, people smoked everywhere and every when. No-one considered it bad form. No one complained about it. When it became common knowledge that 2nd hand smoke was dangerous a massive media frenzy occurred (perhaps rightly so) and a stigma was attached to smoking in public.
I genuinely believe that a lot of vapers consider vaping in public to be bad form. It isn't. It is a perfectly legal, non bystander harming activity which should carry the same social stigma as drinking a hot beverage in public (i.e.None).
I am afraid that if vapers treat their activity the same as smoking we are just feeding the public perception that PVs are somehow dangerous to them.
I refuse to stand with smokers and vape simply because i do not smoke and do not wish to breath in their 2nd hand cr@p.
I will not vape if it is inappropriate to do so but i will not be bullied into submission either.
Peace and goodwill to most.

 

[Caridwen]

Most of us vape in public, whether in a coffee shop, place of work, or department store.
I myself have created my own etiquette. If it is crowded as to where I cannot avoid children, elderly, or people in general, I won't vape.
If I can find a seat where no one is near, I will quietly vape small clouds, being sure not to draw attention or disturb anyone.
On the first day of any class I make sure to show up early to have a general discussion with the instructor, get to know them. Now, I include vaping. I ask them if it is okay if a discretely vape in class. If s/he doesn't know anything about it, I will give them the facts I know. If other students clearly have a problem with my vaping, I'll stop and go outside or in the hall during the break.
I don't ask everyone around me, I find that unnecessary. However, if someone, anyone, asks me to stop, I will! I don't see my vaping as a "right".
I feel like I use common courtesy and sense in my public vaping as to not bring a negative image to vaping.
What kind of etiquette do you guys hold when vaping in public? I feel like this is a very important, yet lightly touched, topic we vapers need to discuss!

You're lucky you have options. In my state you can't vape inside or outside of some areas.

Courtesty has nothing to do with it. No one cares how courteous you are. There is big money behind the fight to eliminate vaping. They're spewing lies that really aren't going to be helped by non-smokers not seeing anyone vaping. Get involved, join CASAA and fight regulations.

 

[peakcomm]

While I don't necessarily believe I have a specific "right to vape," I believe I DO have a right to freely do anything in public that is not against the law and does not harm or infringe on the rights of others -- and that's the right I fight for.

If I were using a big-pharm solution for smoking cessation, I could use nicotine patches, gum or lozenges virtually anywhere. If I were an asthmatic, I could use an inhaler virtually anywhere. People feel free to use (and overuse) personal fragrances anywhere. My PV is my nicotine delivery system. It is no more dangerous to others than an inhaler. It leaves no more trace than a mild aroma. So I use it whenever and wherever I feel the desire.

In the six months I've been vaping, I have visited about a dozen states in the southeast and midwest. In none of them was vaping illegal or restricted, so I have vaped everywhere I went, including restaurants, retail stores, auditoriums and on the street. I have never asked permission. No one has ever asked me to stop. No one has ever directed me to take it to the smoking area. Many have asked me, "Is that one of those e-cigarettes? Does it really work?" And every time, I happily climbed up on my pro-vape soapbox and told them as much as they wanted to know (and sometimes, perhaps, a bit more!)

I consider myself a vaping evangelist. To spread the good news, I need to witness to my conviction -- to vape publicly, without shame or fear of recrimination.

Now, understand, I'm not a boorish nincompoop. I don't vape in elevators, in check-out lines, or in crowded venues. No one wants to consciously inhale some stranger's exhalations and plumes make my exhalations obvious. I try not to vape around kids; they ask questions I don't feel comfortable answering in loco parentis. And I realize that I may yet visit an area where vaping is explicitly prohibited. I will comply, though I'm likely to do so by removing myself and spending my money elsewhere.

But I will not restrict my own freedom by voluntarily behaving as if I were still a smoker. I do not smoke. I do not stink up my surroundings, exhale carbon monoxide and carcinogens, or fill ashtrays and gutters with smelly trash. I don't hate smokers -- how could I? I was one for decades. But I will breathe and marinate myself in their noxious atmosphere only when I chose to, not because someone ignorant about vaping thinks I ought to.

That's my choice. My family, my friends, my doctor and my dentist approve. Vape on.

 

[Tatsel_Morte]

I'm with ppeeble and peakcomm. I don't stand in a store sending out human sized plumes like I do at home; except for one time when a store manager, having noticed me taking a small puff, was curious about the pv, and skeptical of my lung improvement and gave me explicit permission to envelope him in a cloud. It was pretty awesome realizing I could, after only 3 weeks of vaping, already cover a 5'7" grown man in vaper front to back and head to toe.

Anyway given the lack of health concern, and because MS has no prohibitive legislation, I do as I please more or less. I use some dicretion of course, but I hate being crammed in with smokers cause being new to vaping, that's just bad form for my willpower. Also, I just hate the smell. I actually now forbid smoking in my car and home, but I keep extra vapes in both so that should someone want a smoke, I have a clean tip and an assortment of flavors for them to use as they wish. I recommend that other vapers do a bit of the same as after hitting a vape, many of my smoking friends followed behind me. I've already spent $350 on vapes cause innevitably a friend loves it and being the guy I am I tell them if they throw their analogs in my trash can, I'll let them keep the vape and the 30ml bottle of whatever flavor they picked out.

 

[Lombaowski]

I openly vape in bars. At baseball games or in an environment like that, I stealth vape. At work I vape with my office door open and often I get a curious look, but no protest.

 

[fourtytwo]

I find the act of stealth vaping disturbing.
By doing so, you are acknowledging that the act is not permitted but you do it anyway.

I don't vape anywhere where I know it is not permitted.
If it is not explicitly prohibited, I still ask.
Restaurants, bars, theatres etc are not public property and the management has the right to set the terms for my visiting.

 

[THETOTALLYCOOL]

I still haven't figured out what I think I should/shouldn't do. At work, I visit the smoking area, but staying away from that place and the same stale people is part of why I quit analogs. So, I've been spending time in the men's room. That certainly isn't right.