That e-cigarettes can cause negative health consequences that had not been seen with conventional cigarettes was recently taken to the extreme. One man in the US died when a vape pen blew up, with parts of the pen fracturing his skull in what was believed to be the first US death from a vape pen explosion. He also suffered burns over 80 percent of his body in the subsequent fire. Again in the US, a woman required a breathing machine after chemicals in the e-cigarettes she was smoking led to lung damage and inflammation.
These incidents are, to be sure, rare. In the main, e-cigarettes are safer than conventional cigarettes, although their health consequences are still unknown because it is still too early to tell. Still, e-cigarettes cannot possibly be worse than traditional smoking because conventional cigarettes are one of the deadliest products available to consumers, responsible for nearly one in five deaths, at least in the US. At the same time, one cannot go so far as to say that e-cigarettes are safe or that switching from traditional cigarettes to vaping will save lives.
One of the most critical questions about e-cigarettes is whether they can help smokers quit traditional cigarettes. While vaping was promoted as a way to give up smoking, e-cigarettes apparently lead teenagers to smoke tobacco. E-cigarettes may increase the odds of smokers quitting but that’s not certain. The evidence suggests that most e-cigarette users are traditional smokers who continue to smoke in parallel with using the devices.
Another key question about the introduction of e-cigarettes to the market has been what impact they will have on youth. While e-cigarettes might have the benefit of helping adults quit smoking, they may also promote smoking among youth and young adults. As a consequence, some companies are taking direct aim at teenagers by tailoring and marketing e-cigarettes and vaping products to younger users. Different flavors are likely to attract some younger users to e-cigarettes. What is known is that vaping increases the likelihood that young people will smoke. There is strong evidence that e-cigarettes may act as a gateway to traditional cigarettes among youth.
E-cigarettes are appealing to kids; millions are trying them. One in five eighth-graders that currently use tobacco products got there by starting with e-cigarettes. There are warnings on the labels of some vape liquids containing nicotine that are pretty clear. But a general lack of knowledge about e-cigarettes is problematic. Young people might at times wonder about what they are inhaling into their lungs, but because they don’t really know too much about the process, they have not been too concerned about it.
It was assumed that using e-cigarettes would become more popular after tighter restrictions were introduced around real cigarettes. However, vaping has been outlawed in many indoor public spaces, like in the US state of New York. A new rule that came into force last year banned vaping in places, including restaurants and offices. It means that the practice is being treated the same as smoking normal cigarettes.
We don’t yet know what effect e-cigarettes have on pregnancy or long-term cancer risk and cardiovascular outcomes. So despite conclusive evidence that e-cigarettes can explode and burn people, and that the liquids in e-cigarettes can be fatally poisonous, people believe that there’s nothing in e-cigarettes that is dangerous. In fact, when compared to conventional cigarettes, e-cigarettes appear to be safer, even if they lead some people to take up smoking. Health experts say e-cigarettes are at least 95 percent less harmful than smoking and have helped many people give up the habit. E-cigarettes may have a net public health benefit — at least in the short run.
