IS VAPING BETTER THAN SMOKING?

The question of whether vaping is safer than smoking regular cigarettes is one of the most searched questions when it comes to e-cigarettes. It seems the information that is being published by some mainstream media outlets tend to propagate misinformation and sensationalist headlines which puts vaping in a negative light.

Yet the information from leading medical and research groups all suggests that when comparing smoking cigarettes over the long term to vaping, vaping is a dramatically safer alternative to smoking. A recent study by Public Health England reiterated that “electronic cigarettes are at least 95% less harmful than smoking traditional cigarettes”.

“There are over 6 million smokers in England and smoking is still the leading cause of premature death and disease particularly among the most disadvantaged in our society. Helping more smokers quit is vital if we’re to achieve the government’s vision of a smoke-free society by 2030, and vaping has a role to play. Vaping has helped many thousands of smokers quit to date. But many thousands more could benefit if they were not put off by the persistent, worsening and inaccurate beliefs the public hold about vaping. Smokers should be reassured by today’s authoritative and detailed report which shows that the UK’s e-cigarette regulations are effective and vaping remains a safer alternative to smoking. I urge smokers to have confidence in our regulatory system and not be put off by alarmist headlines about the risk of vaping which are not backed up by the evidence.”

It’s Deborah’s view, along with many other leading health experts, fears that the ongoing fearmongering publicised by the negative media headlines are not only wildly inaccurate, but also severely damaging to the reduction of smoking rates in youg people and adults across the UK.

SOME EVIDENCE SUPPORTING VAPING FROM CANCER RESEARCH

It’s a widely supported fact that smoking cigarettes is the largest cause of preventable death in the world. Beyond the risk of heart attacks, strokes, respiratory diseases like COPD and emphysema and diabetes, cigarettes are the leading cause of many cancers.

“Globally, tobacco causes eight million deaths per year. That’s one death every five seconds.”

As we know, cigarettes are highly addictive and one of the hardest things to do is to break free from smoking. Over the last 10 years, many smokers have been able to stop smoking cigarettes by switching to e-cigarettes. Now e-cigarettes do still contain nicotine, so the addiction to nicotine is still there, but e-cigarettes don’t have the 4,000 chemicals or 50 known carcinogens that are found in traditional tobacco products.

Using e-cigarettes to quit smoking tobacco or reducing a nicotine addiction is proactively supported by Cancer Research UK saying that “the evidence so far points towards them (e-cigarettes) being a far less harmful alternative to tobacco”.

The study proved that swapping cigarettes for e-cigarettes meant the user is not exposed to the same levels of toxins, chemicals and carcinogens that are known to lead to the development of various cancers. The importance of reducing the exposure of these toxins and chemicals in any product is vitally important to reduce the cases of cancers in the UK.

It is important to note that Cancer Research UK believes that any regulated and safe products like e-cigarettes or other nicotine replacement therapies which help as many people to quit smoking will have a positive addition in reducing the risk of cancers caused by cigarettes. They do state that the best thing to do would be to quit completely if you can, but if using a quit smoking aid like NTR or e-cigarettes helps you to cut out tobacco completely, then encouraging vaping should be embraced. This recommendation is based on the caveat that vaping products must be regulated and controlled to ensure the safety of the products and ensuring access by children and those under 18 years old is restricted.

“There is growing evidence to show that e-cigarettes can help people cut down or stop smoking” state CRUK. A study they refer to found that e-cigarettes may have helped an extra 50,000 adult smokers in the UK to quit in 2017.

Other studies by NHS Stop Smoking Service found that people who used e-cigarette in their quit attempts with no further support were 74% more successful than trying cold turkey. That same study from 2014 found that those quitters who tried over-the-counter nicotine replacement therapies with no further support were no more likely to quit compared to someone going cold turkey. This study suggests that e-cigarettes may have an even more important role in helping people quit smoking compared to traditional NRT treatments.

There is a misconception that it is the nicotine in cigarettes that cause all of the problems with smoking related diseases. It’s so important to clear this misunderstanding up once and for all. Nicotine is highly addictive – true. That is why people get hooked on cigarettes in the first place and then continue to smoke. For some people, that addition to nicotine and cigarette can last for decades. However, nicotine on its own DOES NOT cause smoking-related diseases like lung cancer, lung injuries, strokes, heart attacks, diabetes, COPD, emphysema or other cancers. It is the 4,000 chemicals, toxins and carcinogens found in cigarettes and tobacco products that cause the smoking-related diseases associated with smoking.

If you take the nicotine on its own, or in a much cleaner delivery system like an e-cigarette, then nicotine is not dangerous in acceptable quantities. That is why doctors and quit smoking specialists prescribe NRT or the use of e-cigarettes as a safe and effective way to quit smoking.

According to Cancer Research UK’s website “Unlike tobacco smoke, there’s not good evidence to suggest that second-hand e-cigarette vapour is dangerous to others”. Understanding that normal cigarettes harm not only the smoker but also impacts other people due to 2nd and 3rd hand smoke and toxins they release.

According to the NHS and from the studies on 2nd hand vapour from e-cigarettes, there is negligible amounts of nicotine released into the environment once someone exhales the vapour. As well, there is little to no impact on others as vaping doesn’t produce the same harmful chemicals and toxins that traditional tobacco products do. The toxins that are exhaled when smoking a cigarette can have serious health implications to the family, friends and even the family’s pets.

This is another misconception about vaping. Those media outlets who love to propagate the negative headlines about e-cigarettes like to scare the masses with stories about vapes exploding. There has been a very limited number of cases where a larger vape battery has malfunctioned but this is no more prevalent than a mobile phone battery breaking down. The main reason for a faulty vape battery is using the wrong charger or mains adaptor.

With the prevalence of cheap knock off mobile phone wall chargers that are available online or on market stalls around the UK, there has been a rise in electrical shorts in many devices – from phones, cameras, TV’s and even a limited amount of vape batteries. Many of these knock off wall chargers may not have passed the stringent electrical safety standards nor designed for the use any electrical devices making them unsafe to use. This is the same with power bars. Perhaps it is the lack of electrical outlets in the modern home or the fact that we have way more electric devices in our lives.

We are asked this question a lot by people who want to quit smoking and switch to vaping. There is no evidence that vaping while you continue to smoke cigarettes is any worse than smoking traditional tobacco products on their own. It may take some time to reduce the number of cigarettes you smoke a day when you first start vaping. E-Cigarettes are designed to help replace the need to smoke a cigarette, so when you are in that transition period, as long as you are making a conscious effort to gradually reduce the number of cigarettes you smoke, using both can help you succeed. It’s the same as using a Nicotine Replacement Therapy aid like patches

The NHS Stop Smoking Services available to adult smokers around the UK is one of the most successful methods of quitting smoking. Lead by a highly trained Stop Smoking practitioner and a structured step by step process with behavioural support and the use NRT or e-cigarettes has been a proven formula to quitting. Some Stop Smoking Services actually will provide a free e-cigarette starter kit to help you with your quitting efforts.

According to Cancer Research UK, “e-cigarettes are almost certainly far less harmful than smoking”. So using an e-cigarette to help you quit smoking is encouraged by CRUK and other health bodies.

Using an e-cigarette or “cigalike” is very similar to smoking a normal cigarette but with a few slight changes. With an e-cigarette, you will want to take slower and slightly longer draws instead of a shorter draw you would with a normal cigarette. Taking it a bit slower gives the atomizer (the heating device) a chance to warm up. It can take a second for the e-liquid to be vapourized into a smoke-like vapour.

According to Cancer Research UK, “e-cigarettes are almost certainly far less harmful than smoking”. So using an e-cigarette to help you quit smoking is encouraged by CRUK and other health bodies.

Over the years, the UK’s government health body Public Health England (PHE) have recognised the important role that e-cigarettes and vaping have had on the reduction of the smoking prevalence in UK adult smokers. They recently released a study that overwhelming supports that vaping is safer than smoking traditional cigarettes.

In the report, PHE state “e-cigarettes are at least 95% less harmful than traditional cigarettes”.

In this guide, we highlighted a lot of substantial information from 2 of the leading health bodies in the UK – Cancer Research UK and Public Health England. Both are highly active in reducing the prevalence of smoking rates in the UK to improve the health and wellbeing of people living in the UK.

Beyond a shadow of a doubt and based on the evidence provided, vaping is better than smoking hands down. Make the