People buried their heads in the sand when the dangers of smoking were first realised, it appears they are going to do the same about vaping.
That is a gross oversimplification though: the risks may have been known to the tobacco companies decades ago but tobacco was heavily promoted via advertising and was portrayed as being a social norm for much of the 20th century, and many of us here will remember the TV commercials and recall that tobacco was treated as a core tax revenue stream - tobacco is addictive, and in effect people were encouraged to become addicts without realising the risks, and for addicts, once addicted, it isn't just as simple as making a choice not to smoke.
Now we know better, and we've removed advertising tobacco advertising and we legally disallow smoking in places where it was once seen as acceptable - but the legacy of addiction remains, and vaping does seem to have a role as a less dangerous alternative.
