UKC

This is not meant to be a grumpy old man post more chuckle worthy with a side order of grumpy old man . but it may descend into grumpy old man . 
This summer one of the things my 12 year old wanted to do was camp at red tarn , get up early and do striding edge at first light . A few years ago despite being a competent climber he had a moment on it Mainly due to the crowds but also the exposure . At the time a confidence rope sorted him out and on we went but he has asked several times to go back and do it again . From about may we have planned it several times and each time the weather has put paid to it . So yesterday he asked to use the good forecast to do it . We couldn’t go up on Friday evening so he asked to forgo the camp and do the scramble anyway . We decided to go up later on ( we got there about 1pm ) to try and avoid the inevitable crowds . The scramble went really well , quiet busy , but everybody was good natured and we passed slow moving people without any drama . He did the whole thing confidently without a rope and we had a great day . On the whole I do my best to make plans that avoid crowds and busy places but in this case it was worth it apart from one thing . Every time we stopped , for rest , to faf with gear , to wait behind people , to gave a drink sat outside the travellers rest on the way down we became enveloped in a cloud of strawberry smelling smoke . As waited at the top of swirl edge  to start going down a group of about 20 people were just ahead of us . Luckily we hadn’t been being thrm going up as they were enveloped in a large sweet smelling cloud . I don’t think I’m particularly bothered and I’m not intending to Moan just make the observation in the title .
 

The outdoors smelled intensely of cow shit round here yesterday. Careful what you wish for.

Who the hell was vaping cowshit?

Don't knock it. It's good shit, man.

A strawberry’s what?

He asked pedantically 

did ur 12yr old explain what the smell was?

If you fancy a chuckle, this is always worth a watch, from about 1 minute in…:  youtube.com/watch?v=VvkclPptu5c&

Fortunately legislation with reduce this in April when disposables are banned and limits to tank sizes and tech are in place. It won’t remove it completely, if Aus is anything to go by the market will move underground. 
The alternative of course is clouds of cigarette smoke. 

What happened in Australia? What do you mean by the market going 'underground'?

Illegal Jam flavoured vapes.

Increased legislation and taxation on nicotine products in Aus has driven the illicit ‘under-the-counter’ market. Vaping is fully banned except pharmacies which has driven consumers to buy non-duty-paid illegal products, exactly what happened to tobacco when taxation effectively priced it out of the market. 

The aroma of a strawberry vape is significantly more pleasant than the aroma of cigarettes (or some old duffer with a pipe that we used to have to endure in the olden days).  

I stopped smoking around 15 years ago and yave no cravings for it at all but one of the lads at work has Sour Cherry flavoured vapes and I've been so close to trying it. It smells amazing! Vapes must be such a problem for kids. At least cigarettes were disgusting for the first couple of weeks. These things just taste like lovely sweets.

the school toilets smell a lot nicer now than they did a couple of years ago.

If the old duffer with the pipe was smoking real hand rubbed twist on a cold winter's morning in a Pennine farmyard then he was producing one of the best and most memorable smells from my childhood, on a par with walking past the open door of a town centre pub next to the outdoor market while traipsing behind my mum,  and squeezing past the flowering currant bushes at my auntie's in spring while delivering her Radio Times.

Which of course begs the question ……..

What? Given that they used to smell of disinfectant, you're wondering who ever used to vape Jeyes Fluid?

Did you see the article reporting the fitness study on Vapers vs Smokers vs Neither? I think it was in the Guardian. Surprise, surprise, vapers’ lungs do not work as well those belonging to non-vapers. 
 

https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/sep/08/vaping-damages-youn...

What? You mean huffing gycol and nicotine laced with flavouring is bad for you? Surely not?

On a more serious note, I wonder how they selected the participants? I'd expect non-smokers/non-vapers to probably be more fitness conscious or take more regular exercise anyway, which would give better test performance.

It would also be interesting to include groups of both smokers and vapers who’ve been abstinent for a period, to give some comparison of acute vs chronic effects of the two.

Something that did surprise me, the other week I was having a look at the NHS stop smoking app before recommending it to someone. I was surprised to see that it now asks if you will be vaping and if you say that you don’t intend to, you get a screen encouraging you to. I get the harm reduction premise, but I had thought the NHS position was still that the evidence was too limited to actively recommend it. 

No, Public Health England’s line has been that vaping is 95% safer than smoking for some years now.