Vapes and e-cigarettes have been in the media recently due to the increasing number of deaths reportedly linked to vaping. Following the deaths, countries such as India and states in America have now started to ban the products. Since the outbreak, many health experts have come forward with claims that despite the reports from the media, smoking cigarettes is 95% more harmful to the body than smoking an e-cigarette.
Smoking is the leading cause of death in the UK, with around 25,000 deaths a year in the UK due to heart and circulatory diseases. Cigarettes contain tar which when absorbed by the lungs can cause cells to die. As well as tar, smoking increases the level of carbon monoxide in the body, and increased levels ofcarbon monoxide reduce the amount of oxygen that is carried around the body. Cigarettes are also known to contain over 2000 chemicals, from arsenic to methane to even ethanol.
E- Cigarettes
E-Cigarettes only contain three chemicals, nicotine, propylene glycol, and glycerine and sometimes flavourings for flavoured e-cigarettes. This means that smoking using an e-cigarette has less of an impact on the lungs, compared to smoking. E-cigarettes do not contain tar, which means that they are much less harmful than using cigarettes, and not all vape juices come with nicotine, meaning that they are thought to be less addictive.
Public Health England also released a statement, explaining that “there is no situation where it would be better for your health to continue smoking rather than switching completely to vaping” followed by a video showing the visual effects of smoking on the lungs as opposed to smoking cigarettes.
E-cigarette ban
After several deaths in the USA reportedly linked to vaping and e-cigarettes, President Trump, proposed a federal ban on flavoured e-cigarettes. New York was the first state to enact the ban. Following the media backlash, India also banned the use of e-cigarettes despite a growing number of health organisations confirming that the effects of e-cigarettes are 95% safer than cigarettes.
With governments banning the use of E cigarettes, there are fears that the number of people turning to cigarettes could be more damaging to the population, therefore increasing the risk of more harmful diseases and conditions such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases.