Like it or not, today’s media is filled with opinion, speculation and debate over just how much misinformation there is in the world around us all. Millions of people around the world are rightly concerned about the issue – not least the rumours, myths and facts(?) surrounding the relatively recently appeared activity that’s vaping.
So, what should we do when we’re faced with this seemingly insurmountable wall of truths, untruths, claims, counter-claims, facts, non-facts and, overall, confusion about a serious topic like vaping? Well, there’s surely only one thing to do – investigate the topic yourself; dig deeply into what you ought to think you should/ want/ need to know; seek what sounds authentic and genuinely true to you. And don’t give up until you’re satisfied you’ve found it.
That said, to help you along with the swirling myths and outright lies out there about vaping, we’ve compiled this article to help you get going on the topic – but don’t stop once you’ve finished reading; get investigating yourself and satisfy your curiosity…!
Vaping’s a gateway to conventional smoking
It simply isn’t true. In reality, vaping’s one of the most effective ways in existence to try and quit smoking. Indeed, relatively recent research in this area discovered that fewer than 300 individuals who’d started vaping, having never smoked before, appeared to be smoking as a consequence. Putting that in context, in 2016 there were in excess of 2.8 million vapers just in Britain.
Nobody can prove vaping’s helped people quit smoking
Nonsense. Much evidence exists to the contrary. For instance, while US authorities and American scientists (compared to UK counterparts) may appear far from warm towards vaping and e-cigarettes, recently the highly regarded American Journal of Preventative Medicine published research findings that stated, after six months of vaping instead of smoking, 31 percent of the study participants didn’t return to normal tobacco cigarettes.
Watch out! E-cigarettes explode and catch fire!
Well, let’s face it; there’s a very small chance any lithium ion battery-carrying electronic device could explode and/ or catch fire, but in terms of e-cigs, the chance of it happening (if it’s used sensibly, responsibly and as suggested by the manufacturer, in conjunction with safe batteries) is so low, it’s practically nil. Indeed, about this, the US Fire Administration has said: “considering the vast number of products in the field that use lithium-ion batteries … it is clear that the failure rates are low”.
Smoking is less addictive than vaping
Now, just How much nicotine (the addictive ingredient which is in both tobacco and e-fluid, thus, what provides the ‘hit’ that smokers and vapers who are/ were smokers need) consumed during vaping totally depends on the amount of nicotine in the e-fluid. So, this means you can categorically make sure you reduce the nicotine amount – and so, the addictive potential – of your vaping as you progress. Indeed, it’s because of this that vaping’s so effective at helping smokers quit tobacco cigarettes.
Nobody entirely knows what’s in an e-cigarette
Wrong! If you buy an e-cig device or e-liquid from a respected manufacturer via revered seller (like a well-respected e cig online store), this certainly shouldn’t be true. As with all quality products, the outside packaging, beyond all else, of such devices, batteries and e-fluids ought to be marked on clearly – not least for their ingredients. Still, if you are unsure you may have come across something of a ‘cowboy product’, reject it and move on in your search for a creditable, quality product.
There’s a good chance vaping will give you cancer
As pointed out above, e-juices and the vapour they produce comprise none of the carcinogens of tobacco and its smoke; so, vaping simply cannot expose you (or, by extension, anyone around you) to any of these carcinogenic chemicals. Indeed, up to this point, there’s no academic/ scientific evidence in existence that proves vaping can cause cancer – so much so that it’s been declared by British scientists that vaping’s 95 percent less harmful to the body than consuming tobacco smoke.
All e-liquids comprise anti-freeze
Anti-freeze is toxic and so, consumption of it should be avoided at all costs. Despite this, the bizarre claim that e-fluids contain it seem to persist; especially bizarre because they don’t remotely at all and none of them would sell if they did! Now it is true that anti-freeze comprises a very toxic chemical compound named ethylene glycol, while a lot of e-juices contain a chemical that sounds similar (propylene glycol), but that’s all. In fact, propylene glycol crops up in many medications and even many foods too!