Everything you need to know about vaping

Is it really a safe alternative?

While early patent records show the first e-cigarette came on the scene in the 1920s, it wasn’t until around 2010 that vaping became much more mainstream. Initially pegged as a safer option than traditional tobacco cigarettes, vaping has become popular not only with people looking to quit but also with a younger generation that had no interest in smoking cigarettes.

With the range of flavors, signature dense cloud of fragrant smoke, and lack of stigmatized tobacco odor, vaping has a much broader appeal and has essentially done for a younger generation what the Marlboro Man did for impressionable minds in the 1950s – fool people into thinking that smoking is cool. So while vaping is pitched as a safe (or safer) alternative to traditional cigarettes that we now know are the leading cause of preventable death, is this true? Let’s dig deeper into the world of vaping…

What exactly is vaping?

Vaping involves using a device to heat a liquid (typically containing nicotine) that turns into a vapor that’s inhaled. The difference is that although the liquid is heated, it isn’t burnt like a traditional cigarette.

While all vaping devices contain three key components – a battery, atomizer, and e-liquid – they come in various forms. From vape pens to e-cigarettes to Pod Mods, vaping devices have evolved to suit different lifestyles and become accessories in their own right.

Who’s doing it?

While vaping was originally pitched as a safer alternative to smoking for adults, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reports that teens in the U.S are more likely than adults to vape. In 2018, more than 3.6 million middle and high school kids in the U.S had vaped in the last thirty days. Meanwhile, only about 2.7% of adults in 2017 were current e-cigarette users. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has also stated that “the United States has never seen an epidemic of substance use arise as quickly as our current epidemic of youth use of e-cigarettes.” Sadly, it’s looking like vaping is attracting a new generation of people to get hooked on nicotine who wouldn’t otherwise smoke. This is in large part due to marketing and the appeal of vaping over traditional cigarettes:

• Many teens believe vaping is less harmful.
• Vaping is more affordable than traditional cigarettes.
• Vape cartridges are often formulated with flavorings that appeal to younger users, like apple pie and cotton candy.
• Tobacco companies spent more than $8.6 billion on aggressive marketing in 2017 alone – that’s almost $1 million every hour.

Fortunately, the FDA is cracking down on companies that market to younger generations, by regulating the sale of flavored cartridge-based e-cigarettes that appeal to children.

Is vaping safer?

Perhaps the biggest debate around traditional smoking versus vaping is whether vaping is in fact a safer alternative. While many scientists claim they are less dangerous than traditional cigarettes, they are still not a healthy or safe alternative. Here’s why:

• Vaping devices have been known to explode – possibly one of the most shocking and lesser-known risks of vaping is the ability of devices to explode. In a 2017 report from the U.S Fire Administration, officials reported that “the shape and construction of electronic cigarettes can make them (more likely than other products with lithium-ion batteries) behave like flaming rockets when a battery fails.”
• Liquid nicotine is poisonous – the liquid used for vaping is especially dangerous to young children and reports of poisoning are on the rise. Given the liquids are marketed in fun flavors and packaging, they’re likely to appeal to kids, which is a big problem.
• Vaping is highly addictive – with nicotine being the primary ingredient (just like in regular cigarettes) vaping is highly addictive. There’s an assumption that there’s less nicotine ingested when vaping, but some products contain higher nicotine levels than your average pack of cigarettes.
• With nicotine comes health problems – nicotine is toxic and raises blood pressure, causes adrenaline spikes and as a result, increases your likelihood of having a heart attack.
• There are still so many unknowns – given vaping hasn’t been around all that long, the long-term health effects are still very much unknown. Extensive studies are still in their infancy and the impact on our bodies from the chemicals that make up the vapor are not fully understood.

Can vaping help you quit smoking?

With nearly 7 in 10 smokers saying they want to stop, quitting smoking is high on the life resolutions list. While e-cigarettes were originally marketed as a quit smoking device, the FDA hasn’t found substitutes like vaping to be safe or effective in helping smokers quit. It’s thought that some smokers are simply using both – vaping in situations where they can’t smoke (like restaurants) and saving the traditional cigarettes for outdoors or at home.

Vaping is just a different way of smoking

Overall, vaping isn’t the magic quit smoking bullet it was once hoped to be. It’s a growing concern that it’s renormalizing smoking which had previously been in decline among U.S adults. Smoking remains the number one cause of preventable death, and with the long-term health effects of vaping still not understood, it’s not a safe or healthy alternative.

For advice on quitting smoking, head to the American Lung Association resource hub here or speak to your doctor today.