Vaping gets a really bad rep, especially in the media. In reality, most of it is exaggerated risks and hypothetical dangers that people assume, without actually consulting science and facts.
Many researchers argue that the potential positive effects of vaping on people’s health are largely ignored. They disagree with the popular message that “vaping is just as bad as smoking”. All of this back and forth is often confusing for the public and ends up giving people the wrong idea.
So, this article is here to bring a little clarity to the supposed dangers of vaping and if it affects your health at all.
A Better Alternative to Smoking
E-cigarettes contain a mixture of various ingredients, which are always clearly mentioned in the packaging. E-liquids that are used inside e-cigarettes usually contain sweeteners, water, nicotine, VG, and PG.
Although they’re not completely harmless, especially nicotine, none of them hold a candle to the 7000 estimated dangerous toxins present in cigarettes and cigarette smoke.
It’s safe to say that this fairly new trend is a great cessation tool that can help people quit smoking. Countless other cessation tools like nicotine gum and patches have only produced short-term results, often leading smokers to relapse. This is largely due to the fact that smoking is a completely different habit and a feeling that can’t be emulated by them.
But if you’re still not convinced, here are a few major reasons why vaping instead of smoking is so much better in every way.
Contains Less Harmful Chemicals
As stated previously, e-cigarettes don’t contain nearly as many harmful chemicals and carcinogens as tobacco cigarettes do. Some public health organizations even go as far as to say that vaping is at least 95% less harmful than smoking. They say this mainly because there’s no combustion and there’s no smoke.
The absence of combustion and smoke in vaping is what removes the risk of tar and carbon monoxide entering your body. Exposure to these toxins leads to most of the health diseases associated with smoking.
But can e-cigarette vaping affect blood pressure as people say it does? Many people believe that the nicotine present in it could have harmful effects like hypertension, but there has been no evidence to prove it so far.
Gives Control Over Nicotine Intake
Vaping gives its user complete control over the nicotine dosage that they consume. E-liquids contain varying amounts of nicotine, ranging from completely nicotine-free to extremely high levels of it.
Long-term smokers can find a lot of success in eliminating nicotine intake if they start with high nicotine levels and slowly move their way down to zero.
Fewer After-Effects
The vapor or aerosol that vapes produce doesn’t linger in the air for as long as cigarette smoke and certainly isn’t as harmful.
Unlike cigarette smoke, it doesn’t pollute the air or get absorbed by furniture and household items. It doesn’t even leave a strong after-smell.
Vaping and Young People
We know that vaping helps long-term smokers quit smoking tobacco cigarettes and significantly improves their health, but what about people that use vapes but have never smoked before?
This group largely includes teenagers and young adults, where vaping has recently become somewhat of a trend. For instance, in the UK, 15.8% of 11-17-year-old youths had tried vaping, which is a lot higher than the 11.2% that was recorded in 2021.
So it’s safe to say vaping is rapidly growing in popularity, but the fact is that vaping is also a lot safer. For the sake of an example, we can see that in the UK, e-cigarette products are tightly regulated for utmost safety and quality. Although this doesn’t make them entirely risk-free, it makes vaping carry only a small fraction of the danger that smoking cigarettes carry.
So, vaping is indirectly stopping many of the youth from getting addicted to smoking tobacco cigarettes and suffering from its adverse effects.
Passive Vaping
It’s a fact most people know that passive smoking, which is the involuntary act of breathing in the smoke from other people’s cigarettes, is extremely dangerous for bystanders. In many cases, it can even cause serious health problems like lung cancer, heart disease, and stroke. But is it the same with e-cigarette vapor?
Although there’s no clear-cut answer to that question since not enough research has been conducted regarding the matter, it is largely believed it causes no harm, or at least it is less harmful than passive smoking. This is because there has been no evidence to indicate that vaping can cause harm to people around the person vaping.
