The ‘Civilising’ of Smoking

[tommy2bad]

Excellent article here about how e-cigerettes are civilizing smoking. I wouldn't agree with everything it says but it's well written and takes vaping seriously as a social phenomenon.
It's long and involved but well worth the read.
E-Cigarettes and the ‘Civilising’ of Smoking | Figurati

 

[Kent C]

Worth the time.... and as you say 'I wouldn't agree with everything' but it's a good history/anthropology piece showing the forces at work. I thought BT one upped BP on getting into ecigs first. It really more in BP's domain, esp. knowing that NRT's are better at continuing the habit rather than stopping it, even though they'd never admit that. Perhaps that's the difference and why BT got them. lol.

Some of the speculations in the last paragraph aren't that good for us, but it may very well be what's down the road given the softness of some of our own advocates for regulation of some sort (other than for kids - which almost all agree). And he seemed quite aware of the distinct possibility of:

... and how 'uncivilising' that would be.

 

[Fast and Furious]

"As recreational use expanded, smoking rapidly became widespread; even a mark of sociability (many tobacconists shops had the motto ‘Let brotherly love continue’). Smokers would meet in alehouses and coffee shops, sharing pipes and discussing the affairs of the day. The practice was typically messy: not just from filling and emptying pipes, but also in a physical sense – smoking would regularly provoke coughing, spitting, expectorating, and sometimes vomiting."

And e-cigarettes are bad? Perhaps so - but if was 'OK' to smoke cigarettes in spite of the ill they caused - and if I suffer no such 'coughing, spitting, expectorating and vomiting" from e-cigarettes, and am willing to chance they really are essentially "less harmful", am I not better off? Not so - according to some "politician"! I loathe the word "politician" - it automatically makes me want to "cough, spit, expectorate, and sometimes vomit".

'Barack' and his kind of political-carcinoma does the same.

Tom