Vaping on the quiet: the ins and outs of stealth vaping

Let’s face it; it makes little sense why people should be prejudiced against vaping, but they are. Especially as, in the last few years, a UK Government-backed scientific body has come to the conclusion that, after rigorous study, vaping is 95 percent less harmful to the human body than smoking a tobacco-packed cigarette. And yet still more and more public establishments (workplaces, restaurants, pubs, bars and shops among them) are banning the opportunity on their premises to vape e-juice bought from a vapor shop UK (or wherever).

Unfortunately, a side-effect of this climate that’s splitting public opinion down the middle and creating two separate camps across the world (the pro-vapers and the anti-vapers) is that vapers themselves aren’t as bold as they might be when using their e-cigs or mods in public; they’re tending, a good number of them, to become shrinking violets and keeping a low profile when actively vaping – for the precise purpose of not looking like they’re actively vaping. So much so, in fact, that this form of vaping has earned itself a name: stealth vaping.

What is stealth vaping?

It’s rather simple really; stealth vaping is what you do when you want to look as if you’re hardly vaping – or not even vaping at all. To wit, the aim is to reduce the sight of vapour clouds you might generate and control the flavours that emanate from the e liquid you’re vaping and ensure you control the look and, in particular, size of your e-cig, mod or pod and assorted vaping paraphernalia.

Why might you stealth vape?

Despite the fact that vaping’s popularity is only increasing to a dizzying extent, it’s only fair to say there may be a few reasons why you might want to be discreet or even covert in how you go about vaping:

• Anti-vaping prejudice – fake news seems to abound nowadays, doesn’t it? And none more so than around the world of vaping and this means that, sadly, a good proportion of (misinformed) people are dead-set against vaping; convinced, as they are, that it’s potentially as hazardous to health as smoking, which means that stealth vaping could definitely avoid a vaper an altercation with somebody holding this prejudice
• Tobacco temptation – one of the reasons why there are so many millions of vapers on the planet is because using e-cigs has quickly become recognised as perhaps the most consistently reliable method for quitting smoking (and remaining quit), so why would you want to jeopardise falling back into the tobacco habit when vaping? If you are vaping in a public space and you’re nearby or even surrounded by a regular smoking crowd (like it or not, this is entirely possible), you may also be a (would-be) ex-smoker wanting to avoid breathing in second-hand smoke and definitely wanting to resist the temptation of ‘bumming’ a ciggie; jeopardising all the progress you’ve made via vaping
• Avoid ‘anti-social’ labelling – given vaping results in pleasant-smelling and -tasting vapour rather than pongy, carcinogenic tobacco smoke, you might contend the idea that e-cig use in public could be deemed anti-social nonsense, but (in part because of the aforementioned prejudice) others don’t see it that way, so you may want to avoid any such reputation thanks to stealth vaping (especially if you’re in an enclosed public space, like a coffee shop, restaurant or cinema).

Where might you stealth vape?

A fairly straightforward answer to this – pretty much wherever you may be when surrounded by other people and feel the desire to vape (i.e. when you’re liable to vape in public). So, that includes then when people are around you whom will doubtless be, you sense, or whom you know will be hostile to you vaping in their presence; thus, the best bet is to adopt a subtle, far from ostentatious way of vaping that doesn’t result in generating plumes and plumes of vapour clouds.

Or, as noted, when you’re nearby people who are smoking openly in public and you don’t want to draw attention to yourself and so expose yourself either to second-hand smoke or, worse, ensure you get offered a conventional cigarette, carrying with it the danger of hooking you on tobacco and all its oh-so hazardous chemicals once more.