If you’re considering switching from tobacco smoking to vaping, you may want to perform a safety comparison. Most people use e-cigarettes to ease their transition. Also, vaping has become increasingly popular as more people consider it a healthier alternative to conventional smoking. But both vaping and smoking have risks and side effects. What’s more, scientists are yet to understand the long-term effects of vaping. However, some studies have shown that vaping could be a safe alternative to conventional smoking.
On the other hand, scientific research has proven that smoking is bad for health because burning tobacco produces toxins that cause many illnesses. Most people see immense health benefits when they quit smoking altogether. For some people, cutting down is a vital step to quitting altogether. Switching to vaping helps such people regulate the amount of nicotine they consume every day.
But vaping is not entirely harmless. Therefore, a person that hasn’t started smoking or vaping should avoid trying. The healthiest option is avoiding vaping or smoking. So, if you don’t smoke, don’t start vaping. And if you smoke, switch to vaping with quitting as your end goal. For instance, you can begin vaping products with low nicotine amounts and eventually switch to non nicotine vape (https://vapingdaily.com/nicotine-free-vapes/). Toxic and carcinogenic substances contained in regular cigarette smoke are avoided with this vape device, both by the smoker and those around him. So let’s take a closer look at the benefits of vaping and how it is better than tobacco smoking.
Assessing the Safety of Smoking
Traditional cigarettes comprise a tobacco blend rolled in paper. Cigarette manufacturers blend tobacco to ensure that their products provide a consistent taste because specific crops have varying flavors based on their growing conditions. A cigarette can have a biodegradable cellulose acetate filter on one end. Also, some cigarettes have chemical additives that alter their flavors, enhance their burning properties, and make nicotine highly addictive.
Conventional cigarettes are highly addictive with long-term health effects. Traditional smoking is the primary cause of preventable diseases and deaths globally. Some of the adverse health effects of conventional smoking include emphysema, heart disease, cancer, hypertension, and stroke. Frequent and extended smoking can cause early death.
According to the CDC, smoking causes:
- Over 480,000 deaths every year in the United States
- Damage to every body organ
- 90% of lung cancer deaths
- Increased death risk
- Around 80% of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease deaths
- Higher risk for health conditions like stroke and heart disease
Long-term smoking can also reduce sperm count, increase congenital disabilities or pregnancy loss, cause cataracts risk, immune system impaired function, general inflammation, and asthma attacks. What’s more, long-term smoking can cause artery and vein blockages.
Perhaps, many people want to start vaping without nicotine to protect their loved ones. Research has shown that secondhand smoke exposure can cause respiratory infections, cancer, and asthma. Studies have shown that secondhand smoke exposure causes health problems in children and infants, including severe and more frequent asthma attacks, ear infections, respiratory infections, and sudden infant death syndrome.
For this reason, a person with a smoking problem might want to switch to vaping to protect their loved ones from the effects of secondhand smoke exposure. But how does vaping differ from conventional smoking?
What Are the Differences Between Vaping and Tobacco Smoking?
Some people think that vaping and smoking tobacco are the same, but these concepts are different. Research indicates that smoking is a harmful habit. Some experts recommend vaping, especially for chronic smokers who want to quit the habit. Tobacco is not the only toxic compound in a traditional cigarette. Tobacco smoking becomes harmful when a person burns the substance.
Tobacco burning occurs when a person smokes a traditional cigarette because it causes incomplete combustion. A substance burns with limited oxygen supply during incomplete combustion, producing hazardous by-products. The smoke that comes from incomplete combustion has thousands of highly toxic compounds.
According to researchers, cigarette smoke has over 7,000 chemicals. So far, experts have studied only a few of these chemicals, citing 250 of them as the most toxic, with 70 of these having carcinogenic properties.
On the other hand, vaping doesn’t involve complete or incomplete combustion. Instead, vaping devices use in-built coils to heat the e-liquid elements creating a vapor or aerosol. If you use a nicotine-free vape, you won’t inhale the addictive nicotine, but you will mimic the sensation of smoking a traditional cigarette.
Essentially, the e-juice that you vaporize won’t become toxic if it doesn’t have harmful compounds. The FDA has approved some of the common ingredients that people use to vape, such as polyethylene glycol.
Vaping and tobacco smoking are different in their delivery methods. Smoking uses dried plant parts or concentrates that manufacturers use to make rolls, bongs, or pipes. However, vaping uses e-liquids or vape juices. These liquids have varying ingredient levels allowing users to control their consumption. A person gets a fixed nicotine amount with smoking, depending on how often they smoke. When vaping, the amount of nicotine you consume depends on your e-liquid choice.
Also, vaping is cheaper than smoking in the long run. Some people think cigarettes are more affordable than vaping devices. However, once you purchase a vaping device and e-liquid, you can use them for weeks without spending more money.
Long-term Consequences: Vaping and Tobacco Smoking
Neither vaping nor tobacco smoking is beneficial to your health. But the current evidence shows that vaping is potentially less harmful than tobacco smoking. Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean that vaping is entirely safe.
What Are the Point-by-Point Consequences of Vaping?
When a person vapes, they may put their health at risk because of the following:
- Vaping delivers dangerous chemicals like cancer-causing chemicals, diacetyl, volatile organic compounds, and heavy metals.
- E-cigarettes have large nicotine doses, slowing down brain development in children, fetuses, and children.
- E-liquid creates a dangerous vapor if children and adults inhale, swallow or get it on the skin.
- Vaping can normalize smoking due to its increasing popularity.
The CDC report indicates that vaping had caused 2,800 hospitalizations and deaths by early 2020. But CDC reports a decline in the number of symptoms that vapers have experienced since vitamin E acetate removal from vaping products.
What Are the Point-by-Point Consequences of Tobacco Smoking?
Experts have researched tobacco smoking for many years. That means many studies support the claims that tobacco smoking damages human health. According to experts, tobacco smoking causes:
- An increased death risk
- Damage to every body organ
- Over 480,000 deaths every year in the United States
- Around 80% of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease deaths
- 90% of lung cancer deaths
- Increased risk of health conditions like stroke and heart disease
Vaping and tobacco smoking can harm your health. Nevertheless, you can lower the harmful effects by investing in a quality non-nicotine vape pen.
Vaping vs. Smoking Weed
Vaping weed is better than smoking for several reasons.
- Vaping cannabis produces less smell
- Most vaporizers are easy to use and less messy
- Unlike joints and pipes, vaporizes waste less weed
- Cannabis concentrates can last longer than herbs, making vaping weed more affordable
- Vaporizing THC doesn’t produce secondhand smoke
- Vapor from the weed has a cleaner hit with fewer toxins
These are some reasons more people are switching to vaping from smoking. But a common approach is vaping as a way to quit smoking.
Will E-cigarettes Help You Quit Smoking?
Studies have shown that some people have used e-cigarettes to quit smoking altogether. That’s because these devices help you control your daily nicotine consumption. For instance, you can start reducing your daily nicotine intake and eventually switch to no nicotine vaping before kicking the habit. Nevertheless, insufficient research data proves that vaping can help you quit smoking.
Conclusion
Many experts agree that vaping is a safer alternative to traditional tobacco smoking. However, vaping is not entirely harmless. Therefore, individuals should use it to control their daily nicotine intake and eventually switch to the nicotine-free vape pen.