When the Smoke Clears: Vaping VS Smoking

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Which Is Less Harmful?

With all of the technology now available, it is no surprise that vaping is gathering a large following. People all over the world are looking for a way to keep up their habit of smoking, hopefully with less degree of harm. Is this possible? There are all sorts of propaganda about how one is better than the other, with both sides having scientific research to support them. Is vaping the new smoking?

What’s smokin’?

First, let’s look at what each is: Smoking is your traditional tobacco cigarette that you can purchase from any gas station or grocery store in a packaged box that simply involves lighting and smoking it. We’ve all seen them since childhood or even had our own experience growing up. They’re traditional and have all sorts of negative media associated with their use, especially on children.

Just vapour?

The first e-cigarette was developed as recently as 2003. That’s a little over ten years and is only now just starting to burst into popularity. Vaping is where you purchase a special holder – which can be personalised – and get a certain kind of tobacco blend that is available in most locations that sell normal cigarettes. And with its different sizes, shapes, designs and flavours, vaping is attracting legions of fans, especially teenagers, by the day. Vaping is said to be “better” than smoking because when the person exhales after taking in the tobacco through the “holder” (resembling a cigarette), it is purely steam or vapour (thus the name).

There is apparently no second hand smoke danger with vaping (as of time of writing), making it a great option for those who are looking to keep those around them safe from second-hand smoke, and also a sound alternative for one on the road to quit smoking. However, vaping is still relatively new and there’s not enough evidence or data to compare it with smoking.

The dangers of both

The dangers of smoking traditional nicotine cigarettes are particularly obvious. They have all sorts of harmful chemicals in them from the varying amounts of nicotine in them, along with other chemicals that form a toxic concoction. The main danger in traditional cigarettes is that they require a lighter and actually burn as you smoke them. This means that you are quite literally sucking on something that is on fire.

Then, there is vaping. Vaping or e-cigarettes don’t actually light up on fire, but a device that heat up the inserted cartridge which causes the nicotine solution to make its way up to your lips. For this reason, it’s said to be safer because it doesn’t actually catch on fire. One of the main dangers of vaping, however, is that no one really knows what is in the cartridges you end up purchasing. Yes, you might know the ingredients that are listed, but not anything that is hidden (Some may argue cigarettes are the same too). The nicotine amount varies dramatically per brand and cartridge, making no purchase a sure thing. Traditional cigarettes, while they vary from brand to brand, are strictly regulated in terms of what is put in them. They have rules and guidelines to control them, in a way.

E-cigarettes mean that you are indirectly gambling without knowing what you are putting into your lungs.

Traditional cigarettes were frowned upon because the hazardous smoke they expel was known to cause lung cancer (to both the smoker and people around them) – the leading cause of death among smokers all over the world. This led the world to accept the fact that vaping could be more beneficial with its lack of cancer causing chemicals that are found in cigarettes, until now.

Long-term effects

Long term effects are another concern that scientists have with vaping. They are concerned that it hasn’t been around long enough to see any potentially long term effects it could have either second or first hand. With traditional cigarettes, we know what we are getting when we light one up around children or in a car. The unknown results of vaping also led many scientists to worry about the potential side effects of smoking around children. As far as we know, vapour is the only thing being released for those around us to inhale, but there is no way to really be sure of what you are putting into the environment around you.

Is vaping cool?

On same note, vaping seems to be more intriguing to teens and children, who like the fact that they can get flavoured cartridges and enjoy a different nicotine experience, with cool design holders. For this reason, teens and children are now more at risk at starting vaping, as they don’t see it as something harmful. If your child is turning to vaping, it will be much harder for the parent to detect, as vaping leaves no residue in smell or stain, meaning, parents need to be more vigilant to detect it.

Can vaping help smokers to quit?

Some addiction counselors believe that vaping is a great way to get smokers to start to quit smoking. It presents a safer method that the counselor – in some places – can control the access to nicotine. The hope is, in future, there will be a programme that revolves around e-cigarettes to reduce the level of nicotine in each cartridge until the smoker slowly stops. They think that this would be a great way to cure a lifelong smoker of their addiction.

Other counselors believe that vaping just makes the addiction stronger, and a harder habit to break, trading those addicted to nicotine off to a more treacherous and potentially dangerous drug in the body that is still unknown. Why not leave them with the cigarettes that they are familiar with and wean them off with traditional methods rather than stepping into the unknown? As mentioned earlier, the main danger with e-cigarettes is that they are not being regulated by any agency which means that each kind can vary in strength and therefore, safety. Scientists worry that children and teens are more interested in vaping than smoking, especially because they always tend to be more susceptible to the dangers of smoking than adults.

What seems to be becoming a trend now – in children and adults – is smoking e-cigarettes just for the fun of it. They like the colour or the flavour and they want to fit in with their other smoking peers. So, they turn to e-cigarettes because they see all of the research in favour of the safety of vaping and think it’s a good way to be involved in a tribe.

Eco-friendly vaping

Vaping has become popular to those in the eco-friendly world too, reaching people who it never could before. Those who are lifetime smokers find that vaping is more attractive because you can find many devices that are rechargeable, meaning you can buy one that you like personally and then simply buy new cartridges – and in a way ‘save the earth.’ With this addition, more people are switching from the dangerous cigarettes to the new and exciting e-cigarettes. After all, a new technology should be much safer right?

A Conclusion? Hardly.

The nugget of this entire argument is that we are trading out a danger that we know (cigarettes) for one that we don’t know (e-cigarettes). Let’s take a quick look on what we understand so far:

Cigarettes give 90% of users lung cancer and can negatively affect children and other loved ones with second hand smoke.
Cigarettes are accessible to kids and get them hooked instantly, making them smokers for the rest of their lives.
E-cigarettes have unknown long term effects on kids and second hand smoking.
They come with varying flavours and types that are not regulated by any government agency.
Kids and teens are more likely to turn to vaping because they find the flavours and personalised e-cigarette holders as something cool and intriguing.

So, on one hand, you have the devil you know, and on the other hand you have the devil you don’t know.

A habit catering to your budget

Cigarettes are definitely dangerous and easily afforded, even with their high cost nowadays. E-cigarettes are costly with start up, but you can choose the kind you need to meet your personalised budget and make it work for you.

Some researchers say that e-cigarettes could help lifetime smokers to quit with eLiquid that is guaranteed to reduce the amount of nicotine they ingest. Others say that vaping is just another gateway drug into the world of nicotine.

The thing to remember is that comparing these two is hard. Smoking has been around for years, providing us with generations of results thoroughly analysed. There are concrete results from traditional cigarettes that may indicate what the outcome would be if vaping is not stopped on its track soon. Scientists can’t possibly be expected to predict the long term effects of vaping because there has to be a couple of generations – at least – of research and results to look at to determine its adverse effect.
In this way, comparing vaping and smoking, while important, is hard to do because it’s like comparing apples and oranges. There are many similarities between smoking and vaping, but just as many – if not more – differences that make it hard to look at them both side by side. The trick to understand the vaping vs smoking dilemma is to remember that there is no wrong or right answer, at least for time being. Don’t discount one or the other, both have benefits and drawbacks that make them great options for those out there looking for a change.