Smoking is Bad but is Vaping Better?
People who vape see it as a good alternative to smoking. They come up with impressive reasons to why it is the best way to get nicotine into the body which is a good drug to help improve attention, concentration, endurance, reaction time, and memory while heping to remove anxiety and stress and given a well relaxed mood.
They are also very quick to tell people how it can help lose weight as it may reduce hunger just by putting that whistle like or electric pencil like substance in the mouth and getting the feeling. We are told that vaping is far less harmful than smoking which delivers harmful and toxic particles along smoke into the lungs causing lung damage and other health problems. While vaping looks good, we cannot lie that nicotine is very addicitive, infact one of the most addictive compounds, so do we still say vapong is good?
In a world were vaping is becoming a popular thing with about 20% of children in the UK trying it at leadt once and 9% of students in the US vaping regularly, we need to understand vaping and its effects so we do not start a problem for future generations.
Made up of a metalic coil that heats up a liquid tank filled with liquid containing propylene glycol and glycerol which vaporized when smoked. The ingredient is common in candy, paint, cosmetics, and plastic but these are not the only ingredients in a vape as we remember that it contains nicotine, and also contains flavors like eugenol, a-nonalactone, menthol, 2-isobuthylthiazole and so on.
We might asume that we are producing vapors when we vape but in reality we are producing aerosols mixed with air. These aerosols allow us to taste plesant tastes when we inhale, and these aerosols go into the lungs. As it enters the lungs, it reaches the alveoli and then into the bloodstream then to the body including the brain.
Because the vaping industry is less regulated, a lot od Ingredients are added to vapes, and while a lot of the compounds in vapes are safe to eat and put on skin, we cannot say the same with inhaling them. For instance, while cinammon oil is safe, cinnamaldehyde when inhaled can cause genetic damage. Benzaldehyde which is found in apples can cause irratation in the respiratory tract when inhalded but is found in almond or apple flavor vapes.
The chemicals you inhale when heated might not be the same chemica when it cools off. While some chemicals like propylene glycol and glycerol are very harmful when heated extremely. Along with this, we can also have metalic particles like calcium, aluminum, boron, copper, lead, and zinc to be inhaled which are very toxic leading to irritation of the lungs and shortness of breath. Metals like Nickel are carcinogenic when inhaled into the body.
Because vaping hasn’t been around for up to 15 years, we cannot say what its long term effect would be, also, people who vape are previously smokers who smoke traditional cigarettes before. Research has shown that vaping is less harmful to smoking but people who smoke suffer from a number health effects such as shortness of breath, excessive mucus production, coughing, chest pain, wheezing, and throat pain. It can also cause stress, increasing blood pressure and heart rate, which can lead to the clogging of the blood vessels.
It took 8 years to be able to notice health effects associated with vaping in the short run but we need to understand that our lungs were not meant to house particles and whatever goes in doesn’t find its way out which is why people’s lings are dark after inhaling a lot of compounds and these activities including vaping that transfers chemical compounds into the lungs activates the immune system.
Oxidative stress is also another effect of vaping on the short run and oxidative stress can lead to diseases like stroke, lung and heart diseases and cancer but we are not completely certain because vaping is still relatively new. It will take a while to be able to find answers to these things but one thing is certain for sure, smoking is not advisable also, having aerosols in your lungs is a bad idea so while i will not say vaping is bad in the long run, scientists are still investigating vaping.
REFERRNCE
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10572882/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6018192/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095254616301284#s0105
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/2/1009
https://www.nhs.uk/better-health/quit-smoking/vaping-to-quit-smoking/vaping-myths-and-the-facts/
https://www.thelancet.com/pb/assets/raw/Lancet/infographics/tobacco/Tobacco_infographics_global.pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8807119/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7803909/
https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S2589-5370%2822%2900353-4
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https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanepe/article/PIIS2666-7762%2824%2900091-7/fulltext
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK507184/
