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Comment by dralley | Hacker News Reader

They've mostly switched to vapes now. It's still annoying, but at least it doesn't leave trash all over the streets.

Seeing the sidewalks / parks outside of the main train station in Prague covered in cigarette butts as an American tourist in 2019 was certainly something.

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> but at least it doesn't leave trash all over the streets

Last time I was in London I saw enough disposable vapes on the sidewalk to build a home-sized backup battery...

I really believe disposable vapes should be banned

They are banned in the UK since 2025. I still see vapes littered around in places but not sure if they are from before or technically non-disposable models that people have cast off regardless.

Indeed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy-wFixuRVU

I smoked less in Prague than in the US. I was addicted to nicotine, sure, but I was also addicted to taking a little vacation outside whatever venue, and in Prague (in 2008) you could smoke just about anywhere.

> They've mostly switched to vapes now. It's still annoying, but at least it doesn't leave trash all over the streets.

Vape fumes also smell far less bad and are almost not toxic to bystanders.

I hate smoke but I wouldn't say vapes are any less bad. It's rare to get a face full of smoke, though, as smokers are generally considerate enough at this point, while vapers seemingly have no qualms with releasing huge clouds of sickly vapour right into crowds of people.

You can't be serious. If someone smokes indoors, you can smell it for hours or days afterward. All your clothes smell like it the next day. Nothing remotely like this happens with vapes. It's far less bad.

Smoking/vaping in indoor public places has been banned across the EU/UK for decades so you only encounter unwanted smoke/vapour outside.

Or in indoor non-public places.

> at least it doesn't leave trash all over the streets.

It leaves lithium ion batteries everywhere. There are even YouTube videos by people scavenging them to build small battery banks.

How many Americans do you think smoke? (Genuine question, I've never been to the States but did live in South America, and was absolutely shocked by how almost nobody smokes there.)

It has supposedly dropped to below 10% (but higher on average in rural areas than in cities, and of course that's just smoking, not the use of other nicotine products)

https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/u-s-smoking-rate-hits-an-all-t...

The article suggests that 18%+ are using some kind of nicotine product in general (zyn, chewing tobacco, vape, smoking)

In any case it has been mostly successfully purged from public spaces.

Holy cow, that's low -- congrats!

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