#2 Should vape bars be barred?

The health implications of vaping 

By Enya McIntyre

My grandmother tells stories of the glamour associated with cigarettes during their early days on the market. There was an air of elegance to a Vogue cigarette candidly seated between a womans fingers that made cigarettes appear like nothing more than another accessory to accompany your bag and jewels.

It wasn’t until the mid 1960’s that this bubble was burst and the truth about cigarettes and their damning affects were revealed. 

In today’s world, disposable vapes have stolen the spotlight cigarettes once held. As the circle of life would have it, the same craze for cigarettes has emerged for disposable vapes. 

Dr Onkar Mudhar took to TikTok to tell his 22k followers that, "smoking a whole Geek or Elf bar is the equivalent of about 48 to 50 cigarettes”.

No different to the first outcries against cigarettes, the doctors plea made no dent on disposable vape sales.

You’ve heard of smartphones being dubbed modern societies “extra limb”, well consider the disposable vape the “extra extra limb” as it seems people are incapable of putting them down.

Puffs of scented smoke halo people in every bar and cafe. Every second ranting TikToker clutches one of the coloured pens between ‘bad bitch’ taloned nails, waving it around mid speech. Social media is like one big game of where’s wally except it’s where’s the vape hiding this time; is it placed on the table? Oh wait no it’s peaking out of the top of her fisted hand.

“When I was in school I would have been able to count the number of people who smoked on one hand, but now everyone is vaping”, says a student at the University of Limerick (UL).

Their widespread popularity is thought by many to be a result of their attractive range of flavours.

The World Health Organisation have reported that there are 16,000 different flavours of vapes.

During a health debate on Tobacco and Nicotine Inhaling Products, Deputy Colm Burke said:

“Teenagers say in focus group interviews that fewer young people would use e-cigarettes if fruity, sweet, minty or dessert flavours were not available”.

A regular vape user echoed this concern, “A few years ago they got rid of the yellow on Amber Leaf and started putting the pictures on cigarette boxes trying to make them more unattractive so I don’t understand how there’s multiple colours of vapes and they’re so attractive to the young generations and the nicotine levels are so high. I don’t understand how they are legal”.

Recently, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has come forward asking for stricter restrictions around the advertisement of nicotine inhaling products and for the ban of sales to those under 18.

As of now, not much information exists defining the affects of vaping. 

The HSE reports, “E-cigarettes are still fairly new, so we don't yet know how safe they are or if they help people stop smoking”.

According to studies done at The John Hopkins University, the full contents of vaping liquids are still unknown.

E-cigarettes made their debut as a knight in shining armour here to resolve smokers ugly, unhealthy habit. This gave them the illusion of being clean and riskfree but as with anything in life, there’s always a catch.

Furthermore, there are always those willing to push the limits just that bit further. This can be said for the numerous shops scattered across the country illegally selling vapes of up to 1500 puffs.

“I’ve been in this industry 10 years and disposables have become a bit of a wild west type thing, everyday I’ve people in asking for puffs that are above and beyond the limit that is allowed in Ireland”, says owner of Cork’s Vape Store, Michael.

The most common of effects reported by vape users include coughing, headaches and nausea.

We are currently in our crazed phase but the bubble will burst and when it does, what will we find out?