Smoking increases your chances of health risks as well as acquiring diseases. While smoking does not lead to immediate death, the act drastically affects health and wellness in the long run.
Life-long complications such as cancer, infertility, diabetes, and addiction are just a few of the numerous effects of smoking on your body. Consider the statistics:
- More Canadians die yearly from smoking-related complications than as a result of traffic-related accidents in Canada and the U.S. combined.
- For every 5 Canadians who have experimented with smoking, 3 are likely to end up addicted.
If you’re looking for an alternative to smoking, vaping might be just the way to go.
The classic vaping vs. smoking debate has been going on ever since vape was introduced into the market. Some market the e-cigarette as a revolutionary and “safer” alternative to more traditional cigarettes, others claim that they’re just as bad (if not worse) as tobacco.
While both the e-cigarette and good-ol’ tobacco can compromise health in their ways, one is safer than the other. Public health experts agree that vaping is less harmful than smoking.
Amid all the controversy surrounding vaping vs. smoking, it can be challenging to accept one clear winner. You probably have many questions: Does vaping reduce the risk of cancer? Can e-cigarettes cure smoking addiction?
Here’s what you need to know.
What Is Vaping Anyway?
Touted as one of the best alternatives to smoking, vaping eliminates vapor from an electronic vaping device. Vaping devices, usually called e-cigarettes (short for electronic cigarettes), vapes, or vaporizers, have cartridges where one can fill liquids. Often, “vape juice” contains nicotine, flavoring, and other chemicals.
How Is Vaping Safer Than Smoking?
- Fewer Chemicals
Vaping exposes users to far fewer chemicals compared to cigarette smoking. A marked difference between vaping vs. smoking is that the former does not use tobacco. A single regular tobacco cigarette contains over 7,000 toxic chemicals that can cause severe damage to your body. These toxins include tar, CO, and 68 other known carcinogens.Cigarette smoke adheres to surfaces, thus compromising the health of those exposed to second-hand smoking.As mentioned, e-cigars are entirely free from toxicants and carcinogens. However, most vaping juice still contains nicotine, and some e-cigarettes house formaldehyde and acrolein, both of which are considered carcinogenic.Nevertheless, harmful toxins in cigarette smoke are significantly reduced in the aerosol produced by e-cigarettes, mostly at levels below 1%. Making the switch from vaping vs. smoking should expose you to fewer chemicals. This alone makes a lasting impact on your health and safety. - Vaping Drastically Reduces The Risk Of Cancer.
Did you know that smoking is the single most preventable cause of cancer in Canada? A report by the National Safety Council estimates that over 45,000 Canadians die yearly from cigarette smoking. Most of these deaths are cancer-related. Unfortunately, there is little known about how much smoking it takes to cause cancer.What scientists and public health experts know that the risks are urgent. As mentioned earlier, traditional cigarettes are filled with carcinogens. The carcinogenic substances found in tobacco are known to increase one’s risk of developing various forms of cancer: lung cancer, throat cancer, leukemia, pancreatic cancer, cervical cancer, and more.Carcinogen levels in the body are substantially lower in vapers than in smokers. Since these carcinogens’ presence is reduced when vaping, there is reason to believe that e-cigarettes can reduce the risk of cancer. - Reduce The Risk Of Tobacco-related Diseases
Switching to vaping can reduce the risk of other tobacco-related diseases. Studies report a significant reduction in health risk exposure among smokers who switched to vaping. One such research suggests that switching to electronic cigarettes may lower blood pressure in smokers with elevated BP.There is emerging evidence that the vapor produced by vaping is far less detrimental compared to tobacco smoke. Making the switch to vaping could result in respiratory health gains. Patients who smoke and are diagnosed with asthma and allergy can benefit from the switch. Electronic cigarette use may ameliorate the living conditions of those who suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. - Less ThreateningLong-term risks of vaping are likely to be less threatening than smoking. While it should take another 10-20 years for experts to assess the long-term effects of vaping vs. smoking fully, the outlook seems promising. Based on the available data so far, the long-term risks of vaping are expected to be less notable.For every three smokers, two are likely to perish from long-term complications. For vapers, the numbers should be lower. Experts from the Royal College of Physicians believe that vaping’s long-term risks should be no more than 5% of smoking.Of course, further harms could emerge over time. There is a need to monitor the situation continually. Luckily, the vaping vs. smoking debate continues to spark interest among scientists and researchers.
- Helps Stop SmokingSome people claim that vaping can help stop smoking. Although the FDA has not approved vaping as a cessation method, some people find that vaping helps them stop smoking.There is some evidence to back up these claims. In 2018, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a report linking smoking cessation with vaping. The report provides “moderate evidence” that vaping can increase the likelihood a smoker will quit smoking.One thing to note: e-cigarettes may not be the best smoking cessation tool available. Several studies report that those who intend to use vapes to curb nicotine addiction ended up smoking tobacco. Kicking the nicotine is a complicated process. It is essential to recognize that while vaping is an alternative, there are other means to get help.
Conclusion
There’s still a big misconception when people talk about vaping vs. smoking. Despite all the conflicting claims, the fact remains that vapes aren’t as dangerous as smoking.
If you want to make safer choices in your lifestyle, you should consider vaping one of your options. Keep in mind: E-cigarettes can still introduce harmful substances into your body. But at the end of the vaping vs. smoking debate, the vape still is the better option between the two.
References
https://www.healthline.com/health/smoking/effects-on-body
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/1/23/16923070/nas-report-e-cigarettes-health-risks
https://www.lung.ca/lung-health/lung-info/lung-statistics/smoking-and-tobacco-statistics#_ftn1
https://www.lungcancercanada.ca/Lung-Cancer/Causes/Smoking.aspx
https://www.annallergy.org/article/S1081-1206(15)00697-3/fulltext
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4747988/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6113943/
https://www.nap.edu/catalog/24952/public-health-consequences-of-e-cigarettes