Thinking of switching to vaping? Here are the beneficial contrasts that you can expect to find between vaping and cigarettes.
There are several difference between both how you use vapes and cigarettes and the effect that it has on your body. Vaping is widely regarded as up to 95% less harmful than cigarette smoking is. While a cigarette contains over 4,000 chemicals and even more when it is lit – a vape juice contains three or four flavourings suspended in vegetable glycerine or propylene glycol.
This article seeks to explore the many areas where vaping and smoking cigarettes differ. Hint: those areas include your lung health, your social status, and whether or not you are passing on your fumes to other people.
Health Impacts of Smoking vs. Vaping
There are disputes surrounding how vaping impacts your health exactly. While long term studies could be more plentiful, so far UK scientists have found vaping far less harmful than smoking. Although not risk-free, vaping removes thousands of chemicals from your lungs which you would otherwise inhale using cigarettes. Even with a filter, those dangerous particles can be cancer causing.
So far, there has been no connection between vaping and lung cancers. There is confusion surrounding this in the UK. This is because we have banned the use of diacetyl, which has been linked to lung cancers. This product may be present in non-UK e-cigarettes. Otherwise, studies into the impact of vaping on our health have found they cause far less damage than cigarettes.
Chemical Composition of Cigarettes vs. Vape Juice
Unfortunately, 4 in ten smokers wrongly believe that vaping is just as bad for them as smoking is. Organisations such as Action on Smoking and Health and Cancer Research UK actually encourage smokers to make the switch from smoking to vape devices due to the lessened exposure to chemicals.
When lit, a cigarette contains more than 7,000 active chemicals. Some of these are radioactive and almost all are bad for lung health. Tar, ammonia, carbon monoxide and cyanide are just a few ingredients you can find in your daily smoke.
Typical e-liquids, on the other hand, all contain similar things. The mixture starts with a portion of Vegetable Glycerine or Propylene Glycol. The manufacturer then adds nicotine – or not for nicotine free shortfill bottles. The other ingredients include water and flavourings.
Flavourings are often food grade which have undergone further testing as a vape safe flavour. There are usually no more than a few in each vape juice. You can work towards using nicotine free e-liquids to help you on the final step of the journey to becoming an ex-smoker.
When compared side-by-side, nothing competes with the 7,000 chemicals in each lit cigarette.
Addiction and Cessation
Since both cigarettes and vape juice include nicotine, you can become addicted to using either. It is nicotine which is the addictive substance which keeps smokers coming back for more. If you can wean yourself off that nicotine, you can finally quit both smoking and vaping.
Vape devices were first invented as a method of quitting smoking. Introducing a rechargeable battery pack, tank, and varying strengths of e-liquid has advanced vape kits ever since. To this day, they have helped hundreds of thousands – perhaps millions – of people around the world to quit smoking.
When you smoke, your cigarette brand has a certain strength of nicotine per cigarette. When you switch to vaping, you have more control over how much nicotine gets into your system.
You can choose a high nicotine content vape juice when you first stop smoking, then work your way down to a lower nicotine content over time. Eventually, this could make you nicotine free and no longer an smoker.
Second-Hand Exposure to Cigarettes vs. E-Liquids
A number of organisations support the answer that there is currently no proof to support the theory that second hand vaping cause damage to other’s respiratory systems. Perhaps this will change over time, but for now – a decade on from the first vape devices – even the UK government insist there is no evidence that vape products cause second hand smoke issues.
However, there has long been evidence that second hand smoking can cause harm to the health of the friends and family members in close proximity to those who smoke. Back in the 80s and 90s headlines were made when victims of second hand smoking started to come down with various smoking related diseases.
This proceeded a survey into the health and wellbeing of children who grew up in smoker’s households. The survey found that half of all children who grew up with smoker parents became smokers themselves. Worse, 40% or more of these children were exposed to second hand smoking symptoms.
Second hand tobacco smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals which can enter your lungs. Recent regulation changes now prevent smoking in the car when children are present and in other enclosed spaces.
Societal Perceptions and Regulations
The societal perceptions of smokers are not the same as they were in the 90s. Nowadays, smoking is seen as a dirty habit. The rates of those who start are down on what they were in past years, and this reflects what people think about smoking. It is no longer societally acceptable to pull out a cigarette and smoke indoors. If you are in the pub, at work, or visiting friends, they would expect you to ask permission first.
Vaping is less intrusive. Unless you use a sub ohm device and blow out huge clouds of smoke, then you are less likely to cause offence in public places. Vaping does not produce obnoxious chemicals which harm other people, and vape devices are just as tightly regulated in the UK as any cigarette ever was.
What are the Contrasts Between Vaping and Cigarette Smoking?
Vaping is far better for your health than smoking is. It involves less chemical exposure to the user, can help with smoking cessation in a better way than NRT can, and even prevents the dangers smokers present to their family members through second-hand smoking.
Making the switch from smoking to vaping could improve your quality of life and prevent the onset of smoking related diseases. It is never too late to quit, and a vape device could help.
Browse our full range of vape kits, pod kits, and e-juices to help you quit smoking today. It might be the best thing you ever do for both your pocket and your lungs.
