No doubt: cigarettes are harmful to your health. E-cigarettes, better known as vaporizers, have been developed as a reduced-harm alternative to cigarette smoking. But can these tools really offer a better alternative to smoking cigarettes?
Vaping vs. Smoking: Which one is Safer?
Much of the emphasis has been on the security of the system itself and its e-liquid when addressing vaping. Yet vaporizers are intended to be a reduced-harm alternative to cigarettes, not completely safe and risk-free smoking.
These were meant to provide a safer alternative to gas cigarettes.
Unfortunately, there are only a few studies where cigarettes and vaping are related directly. Nonetheless, the evidence we have indicates that vaping is significantly safer than smoking, by contrast.
Public Health England, in fact, has reported that vaping is 95% safer than smoking.
E-Cigarettes Effects on the Lungs and Oral Health
Smoking cigarettes are harmful to the lungs. Over the long term, smoking can lead to emphysema, oesophageal cancer, chronic bronchitis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) .
Cigarette smoke contains thousands of chemicals, some known as carcinogens. The smoke also includes particulate matter, such as bits of paper or burnt tobacco, which is trapped deep in the lungs.
On the other hand, vaporizers are not known to produce sufficiently large amounts of carcinogens to be considered a serious hazard. There are also no solid molecules in smoke.
Vaping removes many of the risks of burning tobacco. There’s no need to think about carbon monoxide or tar, because there’s no combustion involved.
This doesn’t mean that vaping is risk-free. Propylene glycol, the main ingredient in e-liquids, as well as flavorings and vegetable glycerine, has some doubts. Flavorings are a combination of chemicals, some of which may be worse for the health of the lung than others.
Some e-liquids also contain diketones, such as diacetyl, a class of chemicals thought to be responsible for popcorn lung disease (the nickname for bronchiolitis obliterans). Diketones are also present in cigarettes-100-750 times the amounts found in e-liquids.
Smoking cigarettes leads to a number of cancers of the nose, throat and esophagus as well as dental and parodontal disease. Little is aware of the oral health effects of vaping.
Vaporizers have been reported to burst in the user’s mouth and cause damage. Nevertheless, new technologies and new models of vaporizers have reduced the risk of an atomizer touching the teeth of the consumer. Explosions of batteries are still likely, although the probability is lower because of improvements in design.
Smoking cigarettes is no doubt detrimental to your health. Smoking’s adverse effects are well known and well-documented. So far, no evidence has been found that vaping has the same health effects as smoking. E-cigarettes are largely considered to be a safer alternative to adult cigarettes, although not entirely free.
