Vaping is often surrounded by confusion and misconceptions. While it can be a helpful tool for adults who want to quit smoking, it isn’t risk-free as we don’t yet know their long-term effect, but they are likely to be less harmful than smoking. Separating myth from fact is essential to making informed choices about your health. This blog breaks down the most common claims about vaping, helping you understand what’s true, what’s exaggerated and what you should know before deciding what’s right for you.
- Vaping is just as harmful as smoking
When you smoke a cigarette and tobacco is burning, thousands of chemicals are being released. These chemicals contribute to developing cancer, lung disease, heart disease, stroke and many more. There is no tobacco in the vape, so your exposure to such chemicals is greatly reduced, making vaping less harmful but not risk-free.
- Nicotine is very harmful to health
Nicotine is one of the substances released whilst smoking cigarette. It’s not harmful to your health, does not cause any diseases but it’s addictive. Nicotine is successfully and safely used in various products supporting stop smoking attempts, as it helps to manage and gradually reduce withdrawal symptoms.
- Vaping does not help people quit smoking
Vaping helps in two ways – it delivers nicotine, and it mimics smoking actions, such as hand-and-mouth movement, inhaling and exhaling. People who switch from smoking to vaping say how similar it is to smoking, which is extremely helpful during their quit attempt.
- Switching to a vape is just swapping one harmful addiction for another
Nicotine is the substance which smokers are addicted to, so by switching to vaping you are not switching to a new addiction. You’re continuing to take nicotine, but vaping allows you to take it in a healthier way. The main achievement is that you are not exposed to tobacco harm any longer.
- People use vapes more frequently than cigarettes – that must be worse
Smoking and vaping defer slightly in a way they deliver nicotine to your brain. Smoking gives you much quicker hit of nicotine, so you don’t need to use it as often (it’s more intense but less frequent). Vaping delivers nicotine much slower, so you need to use it more frequently (less intense but more frequent).
- Vaping causes ‘popcorn lung’
‘Popcorn lung’ was discovered among workers of an American popcorn factory because of high exposure to a chemical called diacetyl. In the past, diacetyl was found in some e-liquids which resulted in controversy that vaping causes ‘popcorn lung’. Diacetyl is present in cigarette smoke in hundreds time higher strength, but smoking was never linked to ‘popcorn lung’. Since 2016, diacetyl is banned in UK-regulated e-liquids.
- Exposure to vape aerosol is harmful to people around you.
Second-hand smoke can cause serious damages to others around smokers. However, we have no evidence showing that vaping is also harmful to bystanders as a result of reduced exposure to toxins.
Are you a smoker, looking for support to be smoke free? We can help through our free 12-week Be Smoke Free programme or the Swap to Stop scheme. Find out more here!