Is Vaping Bad for you?

Technology has a way of making things that kill us kill us slower. First we were smoking unfiltered tobacco through pipes and then we slowly started filtering trying to make it cleaner. Now we have a way to smoke that doesn’t involve smoke at all. Vaping has become the popular new alternative to smoking. It’s given many people what they believe to be a healthier and cleaner option. Not only is it cleaner but it has a wider variety of premium e-liquid flavours and let’s face it vape kits and vape mods are a lot brighter looking than lighters. There are also so many more flavours and a lot more versatility in what you can do with it. However we cannot ignore that vaping is a relatively new trend and yet to be put under the thorough examination of science.  This has us ask 2 important questions:

Is vaping more harmful than smoking?

How harmful is vaping?

We’ve all heard how smoking causes cancer amongst other health problems, but does vaping do this as well? If you have any nicotine in your e-cig or vaporizer then you’re still risking your health with each puff of vapour leading to many problems that smoker’s would have such as higher risk for heart conditions and addiction. For anyone vaping to quit smoking nicotine e-cigs may not be of benefit to you. No nicotine on the other hand is still cloudy on the effects of propylene glycol and glycerine. These chemicals have not yet been proven to be any harm to the lungs when inhaled. However for all those who enjoy a bit of salt on their fries there are some ingredients in flavourings can pose extra health risks. These chemicals like diacetyl and acetyl propionyl can have serious effects on your lung. Exposure to diacetyl which is used to make buttery flavours has been shown to affect lab rats in a way resembling bronchiolitis obliterans commonly referred to as popcorn lungs. While buttered popcorn lungs may sound tasty they are a legitimate potential health concern for people using flavoured e-cigs. While the risk is low if you're concerned with your health it wouldn't hurt to read and look up the ingredients on your e-liquid flavourings. The effects of these e-juice flavourings however are typically nowhere near the effects of smoke. In general not enough research has been done to say anything conclusive about most vapour.

While vaping seems like a far better option than smoking that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its own drawbacks. There are a lot of flavouring chemicals (as mentioned before) that can negatively affect the lungs and the immune system. However chemicals aren’t your only problem. Heating the liquid for your vaporizer produces ultrafine particles (tiny solids that can penetrate and damage your lungs and bloodstream) and formaldehyde; which causes carcinogen (on a dry puff). These harmful substances can cause inflammation in your lungs causing lung disease in time. Vaping is new and these are some of the discovered effects of usage. More studies need to be done before one can say what all the negative health effects of vaping are but for now scientists say that vaping is less harmful than smoking. If you are ingesting rather than inhaling a lot of these risks can be nearly removed a lot of chemicals that are toxic to inhale like diacetyl are harmless when ingested (they’re commonly used as food flavourings).

Vaping can negatively impact your health but is less harmful than traditional smoking. If you’re trying to use it to quit smoking you’re risking less if you use gum. Though vaping can have a negative impact on your health a lot of things do and compared to even smoking and drinking it is extremely low risk. Even so I’m fairly sure we all know nothing fun comes without risk and this is another case of it. While smoking made collecting lighters interesting vaping itself is a lot more interesting as there are so many cool mods and flavours and we all want to chill every now and then and rather than sitting down for a beer or a smoke taking a puff of water in your favourite flavour can be much more fun. So sit back take a puff and just enjoy the ways technology have given us to relax.