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I may be biased towards vaping, but I do believe the biggest increase in the decline of smoking is mainly due to vaping. You have to look at WHY teenagers smoke... to look cool and rebel against their parents. If you tell a child "don't do this".. when they're angry with you, they'll do it. It's just part of the teenage psyche. Teenagers are at a point where they're coming up with their own outlook on life, but are restricted by their parents. Smoking had the tough "bad boy" reputation for so long, so it naturally attracted teenagers to it.
Then along came vaping. Vaping started as being called Ecigarettes. They named it that way to attract smokers to try this new alternative. It was something new, and it was primarily unique to the younger culture. It is "their thing", and they were drawn to it. If you do a search for vaping videos, you'll notice a very high percentage of under 30 year old vapers... not many of us older folks vape. Where I work, The only ones interested in vaping are 18-25 year olds... .the older folks see it as smoking and try to even try to avoid the vapor if they're around me outside. It's just the demographics.
All that being said, I would rather the younger folks "rebel" by vaping rather than smoking. It is well known, but rarely talked about, that cigarettes have added chemicals that enhance the nicotine's affect. Us vapers know, that vaping does not lead to smoking, since they taste totally different. me, being an ex 20 year smoker, finds cigarettes to taste disgusting. I know, I've lit one up and coughed, then ran for the mouthwash to get the taste out. We know that, but the CDC doesn't. I know a few non smokers who took up vaping... guess what, they don't vape very often.. and if they forget about it, they go a few days without. If they would've tried smoking, you know that wouldn't have been the case.
I'm not a Tinfoil hat wearing alien chasing conspiracy theorist. I do believe that money is an issue here. Probably not directly involved or a conscious "ban vaping because we get more money from vaping". I believe the government is being guided by corporations who find vaping as a competition. Big pharma who make smoking cessation supports those unaware of the benefits of vaping, and the overall lack of scientific knowledge of the general public is what hurts us the most. Everyone opposed to vaping say "they said that smoking was safe before"... well, we didn't even have computers back then, and the research equipment to find out.. now we do, and so far, everything points out that vaping is MUCH SAFER. And I whole heartedly believe it's much less addicting than traditional cigarettes. CDC... prove me wrong... I dare you.