People like criticizing everything new. They can never admit that some novelty may be useful. All of us keep seeing a catch in new inventions. What about vaping? Is that a kind of obsession? For some people, vaping is the way to quit smoking and to get rid of nasty addiction. For others, it is a way to take on many health problems and become prone to such diseases as cancer and popcorn lungs. Where is the grain of truth? What are the real dangers of using an electronic cigarette?
NUMBER ONE => ADDICTION
You may disagree because e cigar (Vapingdaily suggests more info) is known as the means to quit nicotine addiction. Scientists proved that most people become either, hard vapers or double smokers after they try to quit this way. The thing is that almost any e-liquid contains nicotine. On the other hand, it is up to you whether you use non-nicotine e-liquid and what dosage of nicotine you use. It is very convenient to choose or even create your own e vapor and control its content.
Statistics claim that 1 Juul pod contains approximately the same amount of nicotine that we can find in 20 cigarettes, which is one pack. Nicotine itself causes addiction and some changes in your brain, which, in its turn, may lead to contingency.
The other important thing is that electronic cigarette may not use e-liquid, but weed. There are special weed vape pens, which you can use to smoke (or vape) marijuana. People often use them for medical cannabis, but the cases of addiction also take place.
NUMBER TWO => SECOND-HAND EFFECTS
All of us know that the main difference between regular and e-cigs is the absence of smoke. However, can you remember those moments when you pass vaping people and inhale that sweet favored e vapor? Mmm, you think… Caramel or chocolate. Also, this is the moment when you are on the hook. You start inhaling that vapor as a second-hand vaper. This pleasant at first sight haze contain a high level of harmful chemicals and heavy metals, such as lead, diacetyl, nicotine, etc. Many ‘tasty’ flavorings also contain such elements, which cause linked disease.
The other important thing is that nicotine from vapor haze can settle on your skin or physical objects, surfaces, and influence your health as well. Some people call it third-hand exposure.
NUMBER THREE => EXPLOSION OF THE DEVICE
Can you imagine what would have happened if your e-cig vaporizer explode? Recently, there was news about a man, who died because of the explosion of vape pen on BBC News. They did a small research on which e-cig is likely to explode. They say that in the UK there were cases when e-cigarettes had caused burns and fires, yet these cases were not often.
Experts claim that all those who died had used mechanical mods. The problem is that this kind of e-cigarette does not use internal circuitry to regulate the voltage. They also say that even those e-cigs, which have built-in safety can burn or explode if misused. Some users try to increase the amount of e vapor and do experiments with combining batteries, e-liquids, etc. They create systems, which generate more heat than allowed to the device and consequently, e-cig explodes merely. The most common reason of explosion is misbehavior with battery.
It is very important to charge e-cig only with the charger they come with and not to leave them to charge overnight. However, the main rule is that any modification of your device is forbidden. Sticking to this rule may save your life.
NUMBER FOUR => HARM TO THE ENVIRONMENT
Nowadays, almost everything that people do can harm our planet. This is the pity really. Vaping an e-cig as such brings not so much harm as if to compare to the production of each e-cig and the processing. The thing is that while producing, factories emit a vast number of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels, which are used to get some energy for production. Most e-cigs usually consist of a tank, atomizer (heating element), a microprocessor, a battery, and a mouthpiece. All these elements are made of either plastic or metal. Batteries usually are lithium-ion (Li-ion) or lithium-polymer (LiPo) cells.
While processing any e-cigarette, not all the elements can be destroyed. For up to ten years tiny pieces of plastic are stored in the ground and soil). This makes your land unproductive because of contaminated soil.
NUMBER FIVE => HEALTH RISKS
The most common health risk is problems with the respiratory system and the possibility of getting popcorn lungs, which medics call bronchiolitis obliterans. This happens to those who fall for flavorings, which contain diacetyl (usually they are coconut, caramel, vanilla and fruit ones). The first symptom is a long-termed severe dry cough.
The most dangerous health risk is the ability to develop cancer. Though e-cig contains no tars, which get into your blood, it may have flavors. Many flavors include a significant number of substances, some of which trigger cancer. Besides, vapes with high voltage may give you a more significant amount of toxic chemicals, e.g., formaldehyde. Experts proved that cinnamon flavor might cause inflammation of lung cells.
One of the deterrent problems caused by vaping might be an issue of reproduction. It does not matter whether you vape yourself or your spouse uses e-cig, e vapor may affect your reproductive system. It is essential to avoid vaping and second-hand vaping during pregnancy, because it also may trigger diseases in your baby’s organism.
What is also important – the fact that vaping doubles your risk of a heart attack. Vaping e-cigarette may affect your blood vessels. The consequences of this influence increase disposition toward a heart attack. There were a couple of surveys, which showed that the most harmful situation is when vaper also smokes (he is double-smoker), and this makes risks much higher.
The scariest fact is that we do not know the long-termed effects of vaping. The device exists only several years, and we cannot be sure about the possible consequences of using an e-cigarette in fifty or sixty years.
Now it is up to you whether you will use e-cigs or not. Remember that the number of advantages does not overweight the number of disadvantages. Vaping can seem cool, but the problems that it brings may be drastic. Take care of yourself and stay happy with what you do!
About the author: Christina Matthews, the journalist who studies the latest news in the health industry. Now she studies the effects of smoking and vaping on health and reasons of such its popularity.
