We know for a fact that smoking is not healthy. It turns your lungs black and causes a host of other ailments such as shortness of breath, wheezing, coughing, and it’s one habit that is hard to break for a large portion of the population.
More questions about vaping? Click here to keep reading our guides on vaping.
When vaping was just beginning to get popular there were a lot of people quick to say that vaping was more harmful than smoking (because they read it somewhere), that e-liquid contained formaldehyde (again, because they read it somewhere), and that vape pens were dangerous because they read about one that exploded. These are all falsehoods that were spread by the media and which none are true.
Here are a few facts about vaping:
- Formaldehyde is not, and never has been, used in e-liquid. When e-liquid is heated at high temperatures, trace amounts of aldehydes were detected but the amounts are very small and the temperatures used to test are not reached by normal vaping.
- Vape pens do not explode because they contain small internal batteries that do not get hot enough. The exploding batteries you read about were used in mechanical mods with a hybrid top cap, or the case of the boy who burned his leg after a battery exploded in his pocket. It was revealed that he was carrying a loose battery in his pocket that came in contact with his car keys and created a circuit causing the battery to engage. There are numerous reports like this.
- Vaping may not have been proven 100% safe yet, but it is a healthier option for those looking for an alternative to all the chemicals in tobacco. Perhaps best put as the lesser of two evils. Vaping is about harm reduction. The reason for switching to vaping is that you are avoiding those chemicals and creating a cleaner environment for you and your loved ones. Vaping is clean and there has never been any evidence of problems caused by second-hand vapor.
The Disease List Associated with Vaping and Cigarette: Can you guess which is worse?
Diseases Caused by Tobacco Use
- Coronary Heart Disease
- Lung Cancer
- Throat Cancer
- Stroke
- COPD, emphysema and chronic bronchitis
Diseases Caused by Vaping
- (“sound of crickets”) There are none.
- No Such Fact Sheet from CDC for Vaping
Many of the articles posted on educational sites like Medicinenet.com and WebMD.com make claims of studies about e-cigarettes containing carcinogens and other chemicals found in e-liquid. However, they often don’t publish a link to back up this claim. The ones that do include a link usually point to a news article making claims about another study. So, where is the research and data they supposedly based their opinions on? Where are these studies? Many of these experts never actually made these claims, and their inferences or opinions we’re repurposed and asserted as fact by the media.
Reasons to Switch to Vaping
Here are a few good reasons to switch to vaping if you are still on the fence about it.
I’m sure just about anyone can relate to some of these in one way or another. If you have been thinking of making the switch for your family or loved ones who are concerned about your health, maybe these benefits will help you decide.
- No more bad breath. One complaint that many spouses have is the smell that stays on your breath on in your hair or clothes after smoking a cigarette. You may see or hear cigarettes referred to as “stickies” due to the smell that lingers afterward. A smoker doesn’t notice it but others (non-smokers) do.
- No more yellowed fingers. Holding a cigarette while smoking leaves tar stains on your fingers and fingernails that take a while to fade away. This is often embarrassing as it is a telltale sign that you’re a smoker.
- No more smoker’s cough. After about a month without cigarettes, you will notice that you don’t cough like you used to. That is because the tar and other carcinogens in tobacco smoke irritate your throat and produce phlegm that coats the tiny hairs in your throat and lungs. That morning cough and any wheezing you may have had will have disappeared and you’ll breath better.
- Nicotine reduction. You can start out at the same amount you are used to (usually between 18 and 24 mg of nicotine for a heavy smoker) and work down to a lower level over time if you choose to. No one will tell you to have to eliminate nicotine or use certain products – it is entirely up to you.
- Spend less. Tobacco cigarettes are heavily taxed so you are probably used to paying on the average of $5 or more per pack of cigarettes. In California, they are almost $10 per pack. Over the course of a few years, a smoker will spend thousands of dollars on cigarettes, roughly about $155 per month (1 pack per day @ $5 per pack) or more depending on how many packs per day consumed. Vaping is about the
- Save money. Now consider the cost of vaping….you purchase a starter kit that includes an extra atomizer coil and replacement tank for $50 and a bottle of e-liquid for $15 – $20. With that, you can vape until that bottle runs out, which may be in a month depending on how often you vape. That daily cost disappears and the only cost of purchasing your vape gear is just to keep a steady supply of e-liquid. That $155 just went down to $20 per month. You now begin to see the logic.
- No leftover “butt”. Is it frustrating to finish a cigarette and have to look for a place to put it out? Not only that but have you thought about where all those cigarette butts end up? They are not biodegradable and don’t break down over time. They end up in landfills and sewer drains and all over the place. So by switching to vaping, you’ll be helping the environment by not contributing to the cigarette butt pollution.
- Missed moments. With vaping, you’ll never miss a part of a television show, movie or sporting event because you need to step out to smoke. Once you have been vaping awhile you will notice that your body has adjusted to the nicotine in the e-liquid and even if you can’t vape right away, there isn’t that urgency to vape like there is when you smoked. That is because a lot of that comes from the chemicals found in cigarettes and once those are out of your system your body reacts differently to nicotine and that “urgency” disappears.
- Your sense of smell and taste return to normal. You will be surprised at how different your food smells and tastes when you start vaping (and stop smoking). After about a month or so you’ll notice that flavors are more pronounced and you can smell things that you never noticed before, subtle fragrances or perfumes will be stronger as well.
- Choice of flavor. There are many choices when it comes to flavors. If you like tobacco or menthol flavors you will find all kinds of them in vape shops and online retailers. Likewise, there are fruit flavors, bakery sweet flavors, and even drink flavors to give you a wide-open choice when it comes to choosing flavors of e-liquid. If you have a sweet tooth you might like flavors such as vanilla cupcake, cinnamon roll, or banana bread. A fruit lover may like watermelon, peach or green apple, and there are coffee flavors like espresso and hazelnut as well. Heck, it might even help you curb your sugar consumption; double win if you’re quitting smoking.
- No more chemicals or second-hand smoke. The last and probably the best reason for switching is that you will be avoiding all those chemicals that are bombarding your system every day. There are over 4,000 chemicals in cigarette smoke that are not good for your body or your health. Also, second-hand smoke is not good for you either, so vaping eliminates that worry if you have little ones around that you are concerned about.
If you want to learn more, keep reading and check out the other sections for more information. Knowledge is power and educating yourself on better alternatives to tobacco is definitely worth the time.
