Vaping: What Are The Pros and Cons?

Despite the fact that most humanity’s inventions lead to global progress and are widely popular among the end user, electronic cigarettes still entail many disputes even decades after the day of their Invention. Obviously, there is a conflict of interest between Big Tobacco and Big Vaping, which initiates unsavoury reputation and myths around the vape products and industry in general. But are e-cigs as bad as they tell us? And what are the pros and cons of vaping? Let’s find out together.

What is Vaping?

Electronic cigarettes – the innovative way of nicotine cravings’ satisfaction. These battery-powered devices have cartridges filled with a liquid (also called e-liquid) which typically contains Propylene Glycol (PG), Vegetable Glycerine (VG), plus flavours and the option of nicotine.

• Propylene glycol creates a throat sensation similar to smoking.
• A higher ratio vegetable glycerine gives more vapour.
• Different flavours are added for personal preference.
• Nicotine is optional, and comes in different levels of strength starting from 0mg option (no nicotine at all).

The liquid is heated into a vapor that is inhaled by a consumer (also called vaper). People are temped to turn to e-cigarettes (or vape devices in other words) as a way to ease transaction from traditional tobacco cigarettes to not smoking at all. While ones use vaping as a quit tool, the others join vape community and make e-cigarettes an ntrinsic part of their lives.

What Are Pros of Vaping?

1. No Smell Of Smoke.

One of the discernible advantages of vaping is that it doesn’t produce stinking smoke, that eats up into clothes, hands, hair, furniture, etc. Moreover, smokers themselves smell like an ashtray. Vaping allows to completely avoid this unpleasant odour, offering a pleasant gentle smell of mint or fruit. It’s always a pleasure to kiss a vaper.

2. It’s Less Dangerous Than Smoking.

Public Health England (PHE) maintains that vaping is 95% less harmful than tobacco cigarettes based on their extensive research. They released a short video of an experiment, which reveals the amount of tar accumulated in lungs of a heavy smoker comparing with lungs of a person who vapes. What does lead to circumstances like that?

Tobacco cigarette contains 7,000 poisonous chemicals, 60 of them are known to be cancer causing (carcinogenic). All of them including tar are released during the combustion process. And now let’s compare a usual e-cigarette that contains only 4 ingredients already mentioned above: Propylene Glycol, Vegetable Glycerin, Flavourings and Nicotine. You may think that nicotine is exactly that dangerous element that leads to many diseases. It is not quite correct. Nicotine is highly addictive chemical. Fortunately, when it comes to e-cigarettes, adding nicotine is optional and many e-liquids are nicotine-free.

Furthermore, vaping has totally different way of getting to the lungs: there is no combustion process.

3. Tons of Flavours to Choose.

It’s never going to be boring choosing an e-liquid for vaping due to endless assortment of e-juice flavours: starting from fruit flavors and ending with dessert or tobacco blends. Moreover, new flavours are being created all the time, so you’ll never run out of new ones to try.

4. Control Over Vapour Output.

Most of vaping devices have control over the volume of vapour they can produce. Low-powered devices create small vapour, whereas the high-powered mods and kits are more suitable for making dense clouds. A little tune by the power output, airflow, and coil type will raise or reduce vapour production. Plus, the PG/VG ratio influence the clouds amount as well.

5. Control Over Nicotine.

Unlike tobacco cigarettes, e-liquids come in different nicotine strengths, varying from nicotine-free to high-strength nicotine level. It’s important to pick up the right level at the very beginning of the vape journey, decreasing it gradually and reaching the cherished zero nicotine level. This way people can avoid excessive irritability and other consequences, that may appear when quitting smoking.

6. Easy To Buy and Use.

The vaping industry improves day by day: a plenty of vape shops have appeared lately, new vape devices, e-juices, pods, tanks and accessories are daily released.

Typically, the price range varies and makes electronic cigarettes available for every taste and budget. There are all-in-one vape kits that can cost less than £10, while a starting price for a juice can be only £0.20. Online stores often run vape sale, so most of the vaping stuff can be bought at bargain prices.

What Are the Cons of Vaping?

1. Potential Side Effects.

It’s uncommon, but there are some side effects that people connect with vaping. Dry mouth, sore throat, headache, coughing, nausea and chest pain – this is a number of potential discomfort vaping may cause. It’s worth to mention that all the above side effects can actually happen from giving up smoking and sudden nicotine cessation.

2. Scary Headlines.

The number of myths and scary headlines around vaping industry are booming. Let’s shed some light on the most popular ones and see whether they true or not:

• Vaping can cause popcorn lungs. While this headline appears here and there, there’s been no reported cases with popcorn lung effect got by people who use e-cigarettes.
• E-cigarettes explode. There were some cases indeed when it might seem like an e-cigarette exploded, but in fact the batteries did. It could happen because of wrong charging of the device or using a damaged battery. This is why it’s crucial to charge the battery only with an original charger and unplug fully charged battery. Also, before using a battery, it is vital to make sure it is not damaged, has no scratches or dint. The best is to store vape batteries in plastic cases avoiding moving them around in the pocket with metal things like coins and keys.
• E-liquids contain antifreeze. Propylene Glycol (PG) that makes part of e-liquids is also used in antifreeze production, but it does not mean that e-juices contain antifreeze itself. Propylene Glycol is an organic compound that is used in food industry, and can be found in many cosmetic products and pharmacology as well.

When reading the headlines like these, the common sense should always prevail.

3. Stamp Of Tobacco Cigarettes.

Not all people treat e-cigs loyally. Most non-smokers confuse vapour clouds with tobacco smoke. They might be concerned about the vapour effect on their health. However, the latest medical research shows that the second hand vapour is much less harmful for health than tobacco smoke.