Is vaping really better than smoking?
As I sauntered down the street, I spotted two guys exhaling clouds of what appeared to be smoke. I expected to smell the disgusting scent of cigarettes as I passed by. Instead, I was greeted by the sweet smell of vanilla.
Had these guys discovered the first pack of cigarettes that didn’t reek of death? No, they hadn’t. In fact, they weren’t smoking cigarettes at all. They were vaping.
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Vaping is a modernized nicotine delivery system.
Vapor is inhaled using a vaporizer that holds an oily substance containing nicotine. This substance is referred to as e-liquid. The internal heating element, called a coil, heats the liquid to create vapour that users inhale and exhale; the vapour then dissipates into the air with no lingering smell.
You may be asking yourself, “Both smoking and vaping deliver nicotine — what’s the difference?”
Well, curious reader, smoking burns materials within the cigarette, freeing the carcinogens — substances that promote the formation of cancer — packed inside. During vaping, however, the liquid is heated instead of burned. The resulting puff is then water vapour, not smoke (hence the name).
E-liquids contain fewer chemicals than cigarettes, making vaping 95 per cent less harmful than smoking, according to a report by Public Health England. Cigarettes contain over 4,000 chemicals, including formaldehyde and tobacco. When tobacco is burned, tar is produced as a result, in addition to many other carcinogenic chemicals.
E-liquids only have five ingredients:
- Propylene glycol
- Glycerin
- Nicotine
- Water
- Flavouring
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States deemed these ingredients as “generally safe,” with many of them appearing in foods, medications, makeup products, and hair products across the market, according to Carrie Arnold in Environmental Health Perspectives. But that’s only if these products are either injected or used topically. There is little to no information on how these substances affect the body when vaped.
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Many people compare vaping to smoking shisha.
Shisha, however, is actually more similar to smoking than it is to vaping. In shisha, hot coals burn tobacco, which creates carbon monoxide. The smoke then passes through water before inhalation. According to a report by the World Health Organization, one hour of smoking shisha can be equivalent to smoking 100 cigarettes in terms of the amount of tar and carcinogenic chemicals entering the lungs.In addition to causing roughly 100 cases of carbon monoxide poisoning worldwide, according to Diane Callelo, New Jersey Poison Control Center executive and medical director at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School’s Department of Emergency Medicine, burning tobacco in a shisha bowl also produces tar, which is not filtered by the water. E-liquid, on the other hand, doesn’t contain any tobacco. Instead, it contains concentrated nicotine.
According to a study by Jan Czogala at the Medical University of Silesia, outside of nicotine exposure to by-standers, vaping doesn’t produce second-hand smoke. However, since vaping has only been around for about 11 years, the long-term health effects are still unknown.
Some information does exist regarding the by-products of these vaporized solvents.
The cloud produced by the heated coil collects ultrafine particulates from the heating element, including nickel, aluminum, and material from the e-liquid components. These particles can stick to the interior of the lungs, potentially leading to respiratory and cardiovascular issues later on. In addition to these ultrafine particles, formaldehyde is produced as the liquid heats up, but at a lower dosage than in cigarette smoke. Cigarettes release between 1.6 to 52 micrograms of formaldehyde, whereas 15 puffs of a vape create 0.2 to 5.2 micrograms of formaldehyde.
Despite limited knowledge available on vaping, the number of users continues to rise, especially among teenagers. Celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio and Katy Perry have popularized vaporizers. More than 12 per cent of Canadian high school students have tried vaping as of 2017, according to researchers Sunday Azgaba, Neil Bruce Baskerville, and Kristie Foley.
In stores, strict age controls regulate purchases of vaporizer and e-liquids; patrons must be at least 19 years of age. These controls almost disappear, however, with online retailers, where the age restrictions for vaping products can simply be bypassed by answering an age-related questionnaire that pops up upon first entry of the site.
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Vaping may offer potential benefits for people who are trying to quit smoking.
For one, e-liquid comes in a range of nicotine levels. Being able to reduce the amount of nicotine in the liquid may be an effective way to slowly wean off the addiction to nicotine. While results are mixed on the merit of vaping as a legitimate quitting aid, many studies report that approximately half of smokers who had switched to vaporizers had quit smoking after 12 months, and many had decreased the nicotine levels in their e-liquids. However, the amount by which nicotine concentrations were decreased is not outlined in the study.
Saving money may be another incentive to switch from smoking to vaping.
A moderate smoker can easily smoke up to 12 cigarettes a day. At $12 a pack, smokers spend about $2,184 on cigarettes annually. That’s not including the price of lighters, breaking cigarettes, and losing packs to water damage and forgetfulness.
Base model vaporizers cost approximately $50 while a standard 30 millilitre bottle of e-liquid costs $15 on the low end. A bottle of this size can typically last about a week and a half for someone who is vaping. This means that vaping costs about $570 annually.
Since vaping hasn’t been around long enough to uncover all of its benefits and drawbacks, current vapers are medical guinea pigs for research on the various health effects. Until more is known, vape at your own risk.
Photo courtesy of Italy Kabalo via CC0