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Apple To Remove Vaping Apps From Store (axios.com) 128

Amid growing health concerns over e-cigarettes, Apple will remove all 181 vaping-related apps from its mobile App Store this morning, Axios reports. From a report: The move comes after at least 42 people have died from vaping-related lung illness, per the CDC. Most of those people had been using cartridges containing THC, though some exclusively used nicotine cartridges. The company has never allowed the sale of vape cartridges directly from apps. But there were apps that let people control the temperature and lighting of their vape pens, and others provided vaping-related news, social networks and games.
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Apple To Remove Vaping Apps From Store

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  • How am I supposed to know when to vape without my app? At least I still have my tattoo app.

    • If they just cross out the word Vape and write in "bath salts" everything will still work

  • by mschaffer ( 97223 ) on Friday November 15, 2019 @10:28AM (#59416700)

    While I don't condone vaping, I support the right for people to have vaping-related apps. But, I suppose that Mother Apple knows best.
    (I wonder if Mother Apple wears a suit like Mom does?)

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      "I don't condone vaping."

      Either you don't know what the word "condone" means, or you've got a major stick up your ass about other peoples' business.

      • Similar to the stick up Apple's posterior?

      • by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Friday November 15, 2019 @11:53AM (#59416996) Homepage Journal

        In this context, condone means "approve or sanction". But not condoning is not the same thing as condemning. Before you concern yourself with the stick up your neighbor's ass, first remove the log from your own.

        • Before you concern yourself with the stick up your neighbor's ass, first remove the log from your own.

          Breaking News: All 193 stick up the ass apps have been removed from the App Store. Problem solved

      • Your comment revealed the giant stick up your own ass regarding other people's business. Your fascist mind just cannot accept anyone else may have an opinion counterposed to yours.

      • "I don't condone vaping."

        Either you don't know what the word "condone" means, or you've got a major stick up your ass about other peoples' business.

        There are different, sometimes conflicting, definitions of the word condone [dictionary.com]. The OP obviously does not agree with vaping, but agrees with people's rights to have vaping apps.

        When I saw the headline, my first question was what an app could provide for vaping. I was not aware vaping pens could have their temperatures adjusted, for example. I can't imagine using an app to light the e-cig to be any easier than using the actual device.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Vaping does not have the negative effects on bystanders that smoking has. How do you dare "not condoning" anything here? Do you think your specific morals are an imperative for others?

  • says no.
  • Due to the chems!

    Dry Herb vaporizers so far dont appear to have been reported as causing these types of issues.

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Actually, it is specifically Vitamin-E acetate laced THC liquids, no others. And you can be sure they have looked carefully by now. "Chems" is a nonsensical description. You herb-stuff is full of "chems", just biologically synthesized ones.

  • by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Friday November 15, 2019 @10:51AM (#59416798)

    This whole thing is beyond ridiculous and is bordering into evil now. Classical smoking kills masses of people, vaping is much, much safer, even with the (now identified bad THC liquids) in the picture. But the "new" thing gets measured on standards that the old thing could not satisfy in a million years and people are now pushed in entirely the wrong direction.

    • by jythie ( 914043 )
      Does the app store include apps that allow you to control the lights and temperature of cigarettes?
    • Vaping has never hurt anyone. This issue is not vaping. It's black market synthetic narcotics. Something like 75% of the users who have gotten sick report inhaling THC oil. And I suspect the other 25% just don't want to admit they were committing a crime.

      The whole thing is a lie spread by the media and the FDA. And I highly suspect Big Tobacco is involved somehow. It's wrong for the FDA to not be honest about what is really happening. More people die from smoking every minute than this - even if it w

      • Vaping has never hurt anyone. This issue is not vaping. It's black market synthetic narcotics. Something like 75% of the users who have gotten sick report inhaling THC oil. And I suspect the other 25% just don't want to admit they were committing a crime.

        It's not about THC, which never gave anyone cancer, ever. It's about Vitamin E Acetate, which isn't even good as a vitamin. The THC is natural, though that fact has no bearing on its safety — studies (including one at UCLA) show that even smoking cannabis flower does not elevate cancer risk in spite of the carcinogenic combustion byproducts in the smoke, which does.

        • by gweihir ( 88907 )

          Indeed. It seems the Vitamin E Acetate is something commonly put into THC oil, but it seems to be a really bad idea breathing the stuff. The problem here is morons thinking they can competently decide to just use standard THC oil for vaping. The first google hit on "vitamin E acetate toxicity" is a paper form 1986 saying it causes Lung inflammation, among other things: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p... [nih.gov] (even though this was for ingestion).
          Apparently, nobody checked whether this stuff was potentially dangero

          • by Holi ( 250190 )
            How do you say it is commonly used? It appears vitamin e oil was used to cut the product by one manufacturer, One would hardly say vitamin e acetate is commonly used since the percentage of affected users is so small.
      • by Holi ( 250190 )
        Synthetic narcotics??? You mean Meperidine, Methadone, Fentanyl, and Pentazocine? What the hell do they have to do with vaping?
    • by geek ( 5680 )

      My take is simple. Vaping is for fucking retards. So is smoking. There is no law against being a fucking retard, people are welcome to fuck themselves up as much as they like. In that vein, just remove all the safety labels off of things and let these people weed themselves out naturally.

      However, your right to swing your arm (or breathe whatever foul shit you want) stops at the tip of my nose. If I get a whif of your stink I'm letting you know and so help me if you pull that shit out near my kids I'll shove

      • by gweihir ( 88907 )

        So you beat up people with bad body hygiene as well? Seems you have a criminally aggressive disorder here. Better make sure your kids are provided for when you eventually go to prison for a long time.

        • by geek ( 5680 )

          So you beat up people with bad body hygiene as well? Seems you have a criminally aggressive disorder here. Better make sure your kids are provided for when you eventually go to prison for a long time.

          Hygiene wont cause cancer you snide little fuckwit. B all means though, create strawmen, just proves what a fucking loser you are.

    • This whole thing is beyond ridiculous and is bordering into evil now. Classical smoking kills masses of people, vaping is much, much safer, even with the (now identified bad THC liquids) in the picture. But the "new" thing gets measured on standards that the old thing could not satisfy in a million years and people are now pushed in entirely the wrong direction.

      Vaping still puts dangerous chemicals into your body, and releases these chemicals into the air where non-vapers could inhale them. The chemicals released by vaping generally are safer than traditional cigarettes, but there still is risk.

      • by Khyber ( 864651 )

        https://monq.com/science/veget... [monq.com]

        Vaping does what again? You failed your basic chemistry.

      • by gweihir ( 88907 )

        Not really. Somebody driving a non-electric car past you is a lot more of a risk. You may want to do anything about that first.

        Also, "dangerous chemicals"? Really? What about some actual facts instead of some nebulous "this is bad"?

        • Not really. Somebody driving a non-electric car past you is a lot more of a risk. You may want to do anything about that first.

          Also, "dangerous chemicals"? Really? What about some actual facts instead of some nebulous "this is bad"?

          Besides the obvious nocotine, you could have heavy metals, metal nanoparticles, aldehydes, volatile organic compounds, carbonyl compounds (including formaldehyde), etc. (from Wikipedia) [wikipedia.org]. As the list of chemicals varies based on what liquid is vaporized at what temperature and with what wattage, it is difficult to give a single definitive list.

          • by gweihir ( 88907 )

            "Could have"? And what amount of that is actually breathed out? And how does that compare to base levels in, say, a city or compared against that car?

            Lets face it, any militant stance against vapers is not really based on facts at this time.

            • "Could have"? And what amount of that is actually breathed out? And how does that compare to base levels in, say, a city or compared against that car?

              Lets face it, any militant stance against vapers is not really based on facts at this time.

              I used the term "could have" because each liquid has a different formula, and each formula has a different list of potentially dangerous chemicals. In another post on this article I provided a list showing a growing concern regarding second-hand vaping. I'm fairly confident that vaping is safer than smoking (except the obvious black market THC cartridges), but feel leery that vaping is being portrayed as safe, or with minimal risk. More research is needed. The dangers of car exhaust are moot in this convers

  • by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday November 15, 2019 @10:53AM (#59416810)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • It's coming from those who "think of the children!" For a good decade or so, it looked like we would have a new generation of Americans who rarely if ever use tobacco products. Then vaping came along and suddenly tobacco is as popular as ever.

      Add to that the introduction of cannabis everywhere. So now if you are an authoritarian who likes to control other people's bodies (America has lots of these) you have to accept that there are people surreptitiously ingesting cannabis products everywhere and this can b

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • I'm kind of curious what the think-of-the-children/moral panic would have been if there was no vaping.

        For a while it was mostly focused on the opioid epidemic, but that seems to have gone by the wayside a bit (was it solved? Has China cut off fentanyl supplies enough to cause an actual ebb?).

        I wonder if there would be more moral panic over social media and its corrosive effects, or maybe youth smartphone addiction or something.

        I suspect social media will never come under that microscope because its too use

    • I'm not getting the anti-vaping stuff right now. Clearly the industry needs regulation, but it's an industry that's migrating people from an extremely unsafe practice to a far safer version and saving a non-trivial number of lives in the process.

      The tobacco industry has invested in vape companies, and now they want as much regulation as possible to keep smaller players out of the market. Regulation is a minor cost for them, but a bar to entry for everyone else.

    • And a sizable number of vapers, hopefully the majority, have decided to vape in order to stop using a far more deadly way of feeding their addiction.

      Hope is good. Too bad it's misplaced [pewresearch.org].

      The shares of secondary students who have vaped nicotine in the past month have roughly doubled since 2017. From 2017 to 2019, the shares who had done so increased among 12th graders (11% to 25%), 10th graders (8% to 20%) and 8th graders (4% to 9%), according to preliminary data from the University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey.

      ...

      In a July 2018 Gallup poll, 9% of U.S. adults said they “regularly or occasionally” vape – still below the 20% who said they “regularly or occasionally” smoke cigarettes. Two-in-ten Americans ages 18 to 29 said they vape, compared with 8% of those ages 30 to 64 and fewer than 0.5% among those 65 and older.

      Vaping is primarily young people who have never smoked. There are of course some adults switching to vaping as a safer alternative to smoking, but that's far from the most common scenario.

  • It was called the Note 7. Didn't work out well for them.
  • As a smoker, I always try to insure my smoke does not bother others. I have no problem with being prohibited from smoking in areas. I will not even go outside to smoke if I am the only smoker in a crowd.

    A lot of vapers(not all) that I have encountered just do their thing and exhale where ever they are at. No matter if people are around or not. I really doubt there is any problem with second hand vaping(smoke/mist). But, I still consider it rude for someone to blow that shit in my face.

    Vape all y
  • What does a vaping app do?
    • There are usually a bunch of whizz-bang stupid features, but the primary purpose is to control settings on the device like temperature and vapor limits for precise dosing. These features are critical for medical use, but the devices are intended to be portable, so building an interface on the device itself is a non-starter. Instead they usually have a bluetooth radio and a phone app.

  • Whenever Apple fanbois wrangle me into a platform discussion, I regularly bring up the fact that Apple prevents you from using your device how you want. I generally cite the years of free wireless tethering I enjoyed on Android before Apple pulled their head out of their ass to offer the same. I cite the years it was nearly impossible to use iThings for Bitcoin before Apple pulled their head out of their ass to offer the same.

    They typically respond with, "oh but we have that now".

    Well, enjoy the device you

  • FDA/CDC: we found the culprit - vitamin E acetate added as a juice preservative. It will be removed.
    Apple: let's destroy 181 businesses anyway. We're woke, they're broke.
    Fanbois: Mama Apple is protecting us from the vaping scourge!

    So... does this mean we'll see higher lung cancer rates among iCult members in 20 years than Android users?

    • by e3m4n ( 947977 )

      no, it probably means that people will be using bluetooth on their laptop to make vape pen adjustments. Its not like you need the app in order to vape, only to make changes. I imagine thats few and far between.

    • If this breaks e-cig companies, they have a problem other than Apple. I'm an ex-smoker and current vaper and although I believe I've avoided this vitamin E acetate I'm still not convinced it's a good idea to continue vaping and I have no idea why I would want an app, but then again the toothbrush I bought last month came with an app.

      I don't use it - the app, that is. I do still brush my teeth.

      I'm actually surprised there's enough business to support as many e-cig stores as I see, but apparently there is.

      A

  • by Vandil X ( 636030 ) on Friday November 15, 2019 @12:13PM (#59417076)
    I don't vape.

    But it would appear Apple is here to virtue signal their help to prevent the dangers teen vaping by removing Vape apps from the App Store...

    But they're still totally okay with the human oppression going on in a foreign country with a substantially large population, aiding and abetting its government as it cracks down on people.

    I get it. Vaping teens don't have nearly as much money as that country's tech market.
    • What virtual? There is essentially zero danger from vaping mainstream commercial cartridges. A teen would be far better off to vape than to smoke tobacco. Meanwhile, 8 million drop like flies each year from smoking each year.

    • by e3m4n ( 947977 )

      from what my daughter tells me, most teens are abusing Juul pods in the bathrooms. 1 pod is equivalent to 20 cigarettes and has more nicotine per hit than smoking. So the teens sneak into the bathroom and hotbox the juul cartridges making themselves 'dizzy' and thinking they are getting high. I dont think those use apps.

  • I'm going to miss my vaping games!!
    My favorite was Flappy Lung. I hope it's still on Android.

  • How many people have died playing Pokemon Go with their nose in their phone instead of their eyes on the world around them? http://pokemongodeathtracker.c... [pokemongod...racker.com] And that's DIRECTLY app related, unlike these vaping related incidents. Oh, wait... maybe it's really not about the deaths but about virtue signaling. That makes more sense.
  • you get the vaping app as well and, in case you want to resume smoking cigarettes, the smartphone can be used as lighter [notebookcheck.net] as well.
  • Pokémon go has [businessinsider.com] killed [pokemongod...racker.com] roughly the same or more people than vaping, often to innocent bystanders, and likely amassed billions in damages according to the above link. Niantic had the solution of a popup agreeing you weren't driving, which has likely popped up during a moment of inattention causing an accident already. I was telling this to a friend I was on vacation with and at that moment, her son up ahead didn't see the last stair because he was playing Pokémon go, and fell flat on his face crac
  • What happened to those funky things we call digital displays and buttons? So now you have to pull out your smart phone to make adjustments to your pen?

      I bet the real reason is to gather telemetry data. Maybe sell it to your insurance company.

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