E-cigarettes and vaping will normalize quitting, not smoking

Can you tell if she's smoking or vaping?

One of the favourite arguments of the anti-e-cigarette movement these days seems to be that vaping and e-cigarettes will "re-normalize" smoking. This argument has no proof to back it up, and seems to be constructed due to the lack of good arguments.

First of all smoking is not at all de-normalized as some of these guys claim. This is just not true. In 2012 18.1% of the adult population in the US was smoking (http://goo.gl/EWmCM), in the UK the number is around 20% (http://goo.gl/ZUoj0B), and European Region countries have rates varying from 20-40% mostly (http://goo.gl/FhhkTr). I would say that something that 20% of people does is pretty normal. In fact it's more normal to smoke than to be left-handed (around 10%: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handedness), or having blue eyes in the US (around 17%: http://www.ask.com/question/eye-color-percentages). So to look at smoking as abnormal behaviour is just narrow-minded and wrong.

Then there is the question of why vaping and e-cigarettes would make smoking more normal. Why? Cause it look like smoking and has the same ritual? I don't think so. With the exception of some of the cig-a-likes that the TPD allows, it is pretty easy to see that someone is vaping, not smoking. It's also pretty easy to tell by the smell. There is also no scientific evidence at all that people go from vaping to smoking. Cause why would they? There is just no reason that someone would want to do that, except for ex-smokers who for some reason like the taste of normal cigarettes so much better (because of limited flavours in e-liquid due to the TPD maybe?) that they are willing to kill themselves for it. Vaping will not normalize smoking. In fact as more and more people start vaping it will become more normal to vape, it will normalize vaping, and smoking will finally be de-normalized.

Think of it, when you see someone using an e-cigarette, do you think that "this is someone who is trying to start smoking"? No-one in their right mind would think that, not even kids if told once what it is. You'd probably think that "this is someone who used to smoke, and has now quit, or is trying to". So vaping and e-cigarettes will in fact normalize quitting, and in the end de-normalize smoking.

However, there are some things that can be done to make the anti-e-cigarette movements "normalizing-argument" a tiny bit more plausible. One could, for example, try to make sure that e-cigarettes look as much as cigarettes as possible, try to limit the range of flavours or maybe put a limit on nicotine content to make sure smoking becomes the only way to get a sufficient nicotine hit for some... oh wait... this is starting to look familiar.

photo credit: alexanderferdinand via photopin cc