What is vaping?

One of the hottest topics lately, vaping and its effects on health have been discussed all over the world for the last 5 years. Number of vapers is growing, popularity of e-cigarettes is on top now and many people are questioning themselves - so what is vaping and is it really safe?

Did you know that in 2014 the word "vape" was selected as The Oxford Dictionaries Word of The Year? This happened due to increasing usage of e-cigarettes. Technically vaping means the act of inhaling and exhaling the vapor, which is produced by e-cigarette or vaporizer. All vaping devices are powered by battery. They heat up a coil, which is situated atomizer and transforms e-juice (or vape juice) into vapor. Vaping is considered a safer, healthier and environment friendly method than traditional smoking.

Vaping devices differ from the regular cigarettes by the following features:

• They do not contain any tobacco
• They are reusable
• They do not produce any smoke or ash
• They are battery powered

Why do people vape? Well, most of the vapers are ex or current smokers. Some of them are trying to quit smoking, and others use their e-cigarettes when they want to get their nicotine, but the situation or place does not allow them to smoke. People, who have been trying to give up cigarettes for years, consider vaping life and health improving. There are also some vapers who have never smoked, but it is a very small percentage.

There have been burning discussions on the vaping side effects and safety of vape juice. Recently Public Health England concluded that electronic cigarettes are around 95% less harmful than smoking. Vaping does not involve any combustion of dead plant, so it does not cause any physical harm. Though smoking and vaping look similar, they are completely different things. When smoking a cigarette, we inhale smoke from tobacco plant set on fire, and inhaling any kind of smoke is dangerous.

Vaping is considered by some people dangerous mainly because of the e-juice, which contains different chemical flavorings. E-juice consists of following principal ingredients: water, Propylene glycol, Vegetable Glycerin, flavorings and nicotine. Diacetyl, one of a group of chemicals, is used in flavourings. This chemical can cause a serious damage to lungs, including the bronchiolitis obliterans, a serious inversible disease that lead to lung transplantation. The cigarettes contain diacetyl too, though, and in a way higher quantities that e-liquid. Doesn't this show that anyway smoking causes more danger and harm?

Vaping opponents also say that the food flavorings contained in e-liquid, are dangerous too, as they contain a lot of chemicals we know not so much about. Food flavourings are considered "generally recognized as safe" for ingestion. But we do not know a lot about inhaling them. There is a little research published about inhaling food flavorings, because the concept began just a few years ago. We don't know if any flavourings are dangerous when inhaled for a long time.

As far as we can tell, there is no evidence that vaping can cause some serious health danger. Basing on World Health Organisation estimations, over a billion people will die this century because of smoking. So, should we counter vaping for its unproven dangers or accept it for its obvious and proven benefits and help smokers reduce the risks they put their lives in?