Is Vaping a lot more safe than cigarettes?

[Isitanybetter]

I'm ignorant about this, but is vaping definitely much more safe than cigarette smoking? Are there any good recent studies?

I remember the "popcorn lung" side effect was debunked as not to do with vaping a few years ago, and it seemed like it was nowhere near as damaging as cigarettes. Is this still a general consensus?

Ideally no one would vape or smoke.

No one should take up vaping if they don't already smoke.

We don't have evidence over the long term safety of vaping.

But we do have evidence of the long term harm from smoking and the causative factors.

If you use vaping as a smoking cessation aid, cut down on the nicotine in it gradually and then slowly wean yourself off it, creating other rituals and breaks for yourself then it's very likely it will be safer than smoking.

If you end up using as a method of investing ingesting (edit) ever more nicotine (which has a negative impact on your immune system) then it's definitely likely to be bad for you - but potentially better than smoking.

That's my reading of the things I have read anyway.

Not everyone is using disposable vapes either - I think they're great for a day out but I wouldn't use them all the time!

But I use a prober rechargeable battery & a tank - eliquid that is very tightly controlled in the UK.

Evidence for your claim?

I vaped until I got pneumonia 3 weeks ago, I haven't gone back to it. The cravings are awful, I don't know what to do with my hands, I have tried a couple of times to have a puff, but it tastes absolutely vile.

Well done! Try a breath lace. I think they're about £30.

Is it worth thinking about things like easy origami to do when you want busy hands?

When I'm trying to replace a habit I often up my tea consumption - making a proper pot with milk in jug etc makes a nice ritual which often distracts me.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nicotine-vaping-in-england-2022-evidence-update/nicotine-vaping-in-england-2022-evidence-update-main-findings
this is nice clear report about where the evidence is at currently. TLDR: safer than cigarettes.

I vaped to give up smoking. I smoked for 20 years failed many times to give up. Tried the tablets, counselling etc. vaping replaced cigarettes. But I think I got addicted to vaping. I used a vape or more a day. Got cheap bigger ones from under a shop counter. Reckon I was vaping equivalent to 40 a day habit. It came to bed with me and I had to nip to toilets at work to vape.

it’s addictive. I went on holiday to Mexico and stopped as it’s illegal there. Now using gum.

Scientists cannot accurately judge long term effects of vaping yet..it hasn’t been around long enough. However, there’s already enough science and data to show that it is much , much safer than smoking cigarettes.

Unfortunately, vapes are also incredibly addictive and ‘“safer than cigarettes” doesn’t mean “good for you”. Nobody who doesn’t already smoke should start vaping. But for people who smoke, vaping is indisputably safer. The scientific evidence is pretty clear on that already.

The 600 puff vapes have 40mg of nicotine in them, so the equivalent to 40-50 cigarettes. But nicotine itself isn't very harmful.

The insane frequency that people seem to be vaping can't be helping, some teenagers don't seem to be able to put them down. It's like chain smoking

I attended some training recently by Public Health England on vaping. The overall message was that vaping legal vapes is less harmful than smoking. Vaping illegal, unregulated vapes is probably a lot more dangerous. But all vaping is harmful.

their summary was: ideally do neither but if you must do one then choose legal, regulated vapes.

Neither of them.

@RMNofTikTok
Do you know what else contains nickel, calcium and lead?

APPLES.

Oh, that is great to know and here was I thinking that heavy metals were bad for us. Silly me!

I don't know what part of the industry you are working for, but it would be better if you were honest about it. Smokers do not defend cigarettes and try to make out they are harmless.

In 2022, UK experts reviewed the international evidence and found that "in the short and medium-term, vaping poses a small fraction of the risks of smoking".

Of course they can only talk in terms of short and medium term as they don't have the long term data

I vape a fair amount. I like it and I don't want to stop.

It doesn't affect my asthma, it doesn't make me short of breath, it doesn't give me a cough. Most importantly to me, it doesn't smell like cigarettes.

Smoking affected me more, significantly. The amount of gack I used to cough up was vile. It absolutely impacted my performance during exercise. It was rough on my sex life. And it stank. My clothes used to smell like crap.

I think people really need to understand that nicotine is just really popular. People won't just stop having it. And that sometimes the best thing is the better of two evils. Yes, vaping has issues. But it has fewer.

I think my username is pretty self explanatory. But if you want the break down, I'm a RMN, a qualified stop smoking advisor. I don't do front line nursing anymore due to a disability. But as someone who spent years working in prison as a substance misuse nurse, I'd like to think I know a thing or 2 about inhaling drugs, including nicotine.

Do you need any more credentials? Inside leg measurement maybe?

DH and I were both smokers, me a lot less than him but overall, for twenty years plus for each of us.

We switched to vaping after doing some research and it was an easy swap but more importantly it has improved our health, wealth and we no longer stink. I realised the other day that I hadn't bought air freshener for months. We used to smoke in the garden but the smoke smell got everywhere.

I have threatened DS with cutting his hands off if he starts to smoke or vape though!

@RMNofTikTok

Ok, fair enough, but you are still a nurse and not a scientist and I think you are minimising the harm of vaping.

People need information. As a former nicotine addict myself, I know we don't give up smoking or vaping just because we are aware of the harm, but being ignorant of the harm is of no benefit to anyone.

I don't know the symptoms of cadmium poisoning but I know lead causes all kinds of disorders, including madness, so gaily dismissing the identification of "significant" amounts of lead as being ok because there is lead in apples, is highly irresponsible.

They’ve got 20mg of nicotine in them not 40.

I assume it's this story.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-67081855.amp

She started vaping when she was nine! I don't believe many children ever started smoking at nine.

I understand they're used for giving up smoking, but the rules around buying them need to be much much stricter.

I saw my dentist today about a bump on my tongue and yes I am a smoker occasionally. She did say that dentists are petrified about vaping ,absolutely no research and the consequences are worrying 🤷‍♀️

I'm an ACP, get it right.

How much lead is there in the average daily consumption of apples compared to the average vape use?

Can lead be inhaled through the lungs?

What dose of inhaled lead (if we can absorb it) is considered toxic?

How can they quantify that?

Does inhaled lead survive first pass?

What about the blood brain barrier, can it pass that?

What impact does inhaled lead have on the brain, if any?

What quantifies madness?

How do you measure madness?

How can you be sure the lead is the cause of madness?

How are you so certain about my own smoking status?

Vaping is extremely bad for your teeth, there's no doubt about it

@PolkadotsAndMoonbeams

Aha, so non compliant asthmatic develops a serious lung infection, and everyone assumes it's from vaping. No actual evidence the vapes caused that though, is there? I'm sure they didn't help. But people die every from asthma!