Hacker News Reader

Comment by tornadofart | Hacker News Reader

Dose for dose, sure. OTOH vaping does tend to increase nicotine consumption because it doesn't taste as bad as the alternative, or so I have read...

View on HN

It's complex, other compounds in tobacco do potentiate the effects but (as an ex-smoker, n=1) I never found even the high-octane gas station vapes to be as satisfying (felt like a completely different experience). And the taste is definitely subjective (I know people who say the dirtier the better)- I definitely prefer a good tobacco to any vape, flavored or unflavored. (Oh how I miss it sometimes...why do we love things that want to kill us?)

Pardon my asking, but how do cigars compare?

I'm not who you asked, but it's not typically comparable since you don't traditionally inhale cigar smoke and therefore don't usually absorb nearly as much nicotine.

Cigars can be great sure. As the sibling comment mentioned you typically aren't supposed to inhale the smoke- however I think being that they're unfiltered and a lot bigger, you can still absorb a lot of nicotine/etc through your mouth. Probably just as much (or higher) risk of mouth/throat cancers.

I've worked at traditional ayahuasca retreats and a lot of "mapacho" (a South American style of tobacco, unprocessed but from a MUCH stronger species of tobacco, Nicotiana rustica, something like 10-20x as much nicotine as Virginia tobacco) is smoked in ceremonies, but not inhaled. You can still get a heck of a buzz from it.

I should have clarified: I meant I was wondering how cigars compare to vaping when one is just looking “for flavour” - not for nicotine, sorry.

Not sure I totally get it but I think it's pretty subjective, some people really loathe tobacco smoke. I'd personally never go out of my way to use a vape just for flavor (but I've never really liked flavors anyways and only went unflavored when I did it). To each their own shrug . It does suck that smoke sticks to everything and makes you reek.

My understanding of cigarettes is that while nicotine is responsible for the addictive effects of tobacco, it is a very minor contributor to the overall health impact of smoking, which are mostly the other tobacco ingredients, primarily particulates.

So while you may consume more nicotine, which has some deleterious effects, the overall risk is literally orders of magnitude lower. You'd need to consume 100s of vapes to get enough nicotine to have health risks on par with what you get from a cigarette.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com