
VAPERS VOICES
Many adult South Africans have used vaping as a method to help them quit smoking and practice tobacco harm reduction.
Since the very beginning, VSML has invited people to share their experiences and what this innovation means to them.
Their stories should not be ignored.
Chantel Van Zyl
Current Smoker:
Yes
Smoking Years:
20
Vaping Years:
2
Flavours:
Like more than one type
I have been a smoker for more than half my life, I smoked around a packet a day and since I started vaping, I’m down to less than 5 cigarettes a day, I can feel a major difference in my health, I have more energy and my mental state of mind has improved. I recently went for a cardiologist checkup as I had heart surgery in my twenties and my cardiologist is thrilled with the improvement seen in my health in general… My lungs are clearer, and my heart is healthy… Vaping has helped me get to where I am today and with persistence, I will eventually stop all together….
Date Uploaded: 20221007
Mayur Naicker
Age:
25
Current Smoker:
No
Smoking Years:
4
Vaping Years:
5
Flavours:
Fruit
Trying to quit smoking is not easy for most. I tried to give up smoking the old fashioned way, but that was a difficult process for me. I’ve been introduced to vaping and to be honest, it made it so much easier. Vaping is proved to be 95% safer than smoking cigarettes. From having chest pains to random coughs at night, I can now proudly say that during and after 5 years of vaping, I’ve had none of those symptoms. Vaping allowed me to live a cleaner and more healthier life. VAPING TRULY SAVES LIVES!
Date Uploaded: 20220116
Janine Theron
Age:
41
Current Smoker:
No
Smoking Years:
15
Vaping Years:
1
Flavours:
Like more than one type
I tried vaping before but had a hard time going over as my mind set wasn’t there yet. I smoked 15+ years, smoked about 40-60 smokes a day. I started vaping March 2020 for 3 months, smoked again while vaping but have completely gone over for about 2-3 months now. My daughter is very happy since I stopped as she always wanted me to stop. I can smell and taste things better now. My chest even feels better since vaping. I sleep better. I just feel so much better in general.
Date Uploaded: 20201128
Kevin Jones
Age:
64
Current Smoker:
No
Smoking Years:
50
Vaping Years:
6
Flavours:
Fruit
I am a cancer survivor and smoked roughly a packet of cigarettes a day for nearly 50 years. I started vaping because i was tired of feeling out of breath and enduring the smell of burning cigarettes on my clothes. My wife an asthmatic and I gave up smoking by killing a cigarette and taking up vaping after I had done as much research about the subject I could find. I realized that the vaping fight had nothing to do with health but was a fight between the tobacco companies and the vape industry. Governments are too scared to ban tobacco products as it generates too much tax. Big tobacco companies, who believe they might lose out to the vaping industry have quietly funded a misinformation campaign against vaping. There is NOT ONE written published article that proves that vaping can kill you instead they all use words such as, possibility, might, could, potentially, probably. The news, which is no longer news but aa selected narrative also likes to insinuate things without emphatical proof. I will state again, NO ONE has died in 30 years from vaping a regulated MOD using commercially available vape juice from a reputable vape outlet. NO ONE.
Date Uploaded: 20230714
Paul Anderson
Age:
44
Current Smoker:
No
Smoking Years:
26
Vaping Years:
3
Flavours:
Dessert
I started smoking at the age of 15, by my late teens I was smoking 25 to 30 cigarettes a day.
I tried to give up many times but I wasn’t able to do it.
At the age of 41 in 2019 I believed that quitting was a lost cause and that I was destined to smoke for the rest of my life, until a friend loaned me a vape device.
I had been unwilling to spend the money on a vape device as I didn’t believe it would help me quit but my friend suggested I try it, just to see what it was like.
I bought a bottle of Caramel Apple Cake flavoured juice and tried vaping, just to try it, but I didn’t intend to quit smoking. I enjoyed the flavour of the juice so I kept going back for another puff, just to enjoy it. within 10 days I was getting enough nicotine satisfaction from the vape that I had dropped to 10-12 cigarettes a day without realising. on 1st august 2019 I smoked 1 cigarette first thing in the morning and then got ready to go out. I decided to go for my morning out and try to see if I could do the whole morning without smoking, and I did. and the afternoon, and so on. three years on I still have not smoked another cigarette.
soon after I switched to vaping I could feel my health improving. I could walk and cycle further and faster, I was sleeping better, I have had fewer days off work sick and my sense of smell and taste have improved.
I truly believe that vaping has make me healthier and extended my life.
I also think that the flavour’s of vape juice available were a significant factor, if I had not enjoyed the flavour so much I would not have kept going back to the vape. Even now, three years smoke free, I wont vape tobacco flavours because I worry that inhaling tobacco flavour vape will connect me to smoking and draw me back.
Date Uploaded: 20221010
Donovan Gregg
Age:
28
Current Smoker:
No
Smoking Years:
1
Vaping Years:
3
Flavours:
Fruit
I started vaping because I found it totally and completely less harmful and less dangerous than cigarettes smoking and it much more less harmful when your in your friends compaion or chatting with friends or family
Gareth Franken
Age:
46
Current Smoker:
Yes
Smoking Years:
20
Vaping Years:
2
Flavours:
Dessert
Date Uploaded: 20210716
Cindy Coulter
Age:
44
Current Smoker:
No
Smoking Years:
26
Vaping Years:
2
Flavours:
Fruit
Date Uploaded: 20220115