Vaping

Vaping

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Most people now know that smoking is pretty bad for you. The science has been clear on that for quite some time now (Eysenck, 2000; Ambrose & Barua, 2004). What with the emphysema, cancers, heart disease and all of that stuff. E-cigarettes (ECs) and vaping is an alternative that has been around since 2004, and have shown to be a significant decrease in health risks and a proven cessation method.

Vaping at a glance

Vaping, for those unfamiliar with the practice, isn't smoke. A user inhales vapour through a device that produces the vapour. It's an aerosol created by heating up the e-liquid inside the device. The e-liquid is much safer than tobacco smoking, with a much smaller list of chemicals, mainly a mixture of vegetable glycerin and propylene glycol, flavourings and the optional nicotine. The nicotine can be added anywhere from 0mg up to 18mg (DIY juices can be higher). There is a myriad of flavours to choose from too, around 7,000 or so. If you're a fan of fruity flavours, bakery/pastry/cakey flavours or even tobacco flavours.

Chemicals

The nicotine is the important part of any individual wanting to use vaping to quit smoking. It's the nicotine that is the addictive part of the cigarettes in the first place. But, any juice can be bought free of nicotine too. It can be a good idea to start with nicotine to ease the cravings left by a lack of cigarette and slowly phase it out entirely. Nicotine however in any form is still highly toxic to ingest. Don't drink the e-liquid. The levels of nicotine are safe to inhale, however.

The other important distinction to make between tobacco and vaping is the lack of tar, benzene, acetone, acetaldehyde and, well, smoke. Here is a helpful link to show a few differences between the two.

Whereas the ingredients used in e-juices are generally considered to be safe. Propylene glycol is a chemical used for asthma inhalers, pharmaceuticals and (not surprisingly) theatrical fog machines. It is a low toxicity compound and has been shown to be generally safe when inhaled in the short term in humans (Wieslander, Norbäck, & Lindgren, 2001). Anything else in vaping is in such trace amounts that they're fairly harmless.

Diacetyl's molecular structure

Oh and what about "popcorn lung"? Bronchiolitis obliterans has been linked to workers in microwave popcorn manufacturing, using the butter flavouring diacetyl (Kovacic & Cooksy, 2010). However, these are high-level exposure events and there is little evidence to suggest vaping can cause this. Diacetyl is no longer used as an e-juice flavouring and vaping can even help lung conditions when switching from smoking, like pneumonia (Campagna, Amaradio, Sands, & Polosa, 2016) and asthma (Polosa, Morjaria, Caponnetto, Caruso, Strano, Battaglia, & Russo, 2014).

Social Acceptance

Another big difference between smoking and vaping is the second-hand product. With cigarettes, second-hand smoke is notoriously harmful to others and is linked to numerous health problems (Öberg, Jaakkola, Woodward, Peruga, & Prüss-Ustün, 2011). Whereas the vapour produced by an EC is seemingly harmless (Birstyn, 2014). Most of the nicotine is absorbed during vaping, so none is released on exhale for others around you.

Health effects aside, vaping just smells better too. Cigarettes stink. Very few people would prefer the smell of a cigarette over the smell of a biscuit or fruity melons or candy floss.

There is also a huge community of vapers out there too. A lot of supportive, friendly people that are only too willing to give you advice or share their tips with you. Vaping has such a huge culture with such an extensive range of products. Anything from a small vape pen to the regulated mods with home built coils or the cigarette look-alike EC to the custom built mech-mod,  and everything in between, there is such a huge range to choose from.

Conclusion

Because vaping has only been around for a little over a decade, there are no long-term studies on their safety. But the short-term research that there is, seems to be fairly positive in that ECs are a safer alternative and an effective cessation device. As with most things in science, more research is required.

The evidence that is available shows that vaping is an effective alternative to smoking and much safer and enjoyable.

References

Ambrose, J. A., & Barua, R. S. (2004). The pathophysiology of cigarette smoking and cardiovascular disease: an update. Journal of the American college of cardiology, 43(10), 1731-1737.

Burstyn, I. (2014). Peering through the mist: systematic review of what the chemistry of contaminants in electronic cigarettes tells us about health risks. BMC public health, 14(1), 18.

Campagna, D., Amaradio, M. D., Sands, M. F., & Polosa, R. (2016). Respiratory infections and pneumonia: potential benefits of switching from smoking to vaping. Pneumonia, 8(1), 4.

Eysenck, H. J. (2000). Smoking, health and personality. United States: Transaction Publishers.

Kovacic, P., & Cooksy, A. L., 2010. Electron transfer as a potential cause of diacetyl toxicity in popcorn lung disease. In Reviews of environmental contamination and toxicology (pp. 133-148). Springer New York.

Öberg, M., Jaakkola, M. S., Woodward, A., Peruga, A., & Prüss-Ustün, A. (2011). Worldwide burden of disease from exposure to second-hand smoke: a retrospective analysis of data from 192 countries. The Lancet, 377(9760), 139-146.

Polosa, R., Morjaria, J., Caponnetto, P., Caruso, M., Strano, S., Battaglia, E., & Russo, C. (2014). Effect of smoking abstinence and reduction in asthmatic smokers switching to electronic cigarettes: evidence for harm reversal. International journal of environmental research and public health, 11(5), 4965-4977.

Wieslander, G., Norbäck, D., Lindgren, T., (2001). Experimental exposure to propylene glycol mist in aviation emergency training: acute ocular and respiratory effects. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 58. 649-655.