(K-LOVE Closer Look) – Electronic cigarettes or “vaping” hit the American marketplace in 2006. In the short time since, the habit promoted as a safe alternative to traditional smoking has become equally controversial. With vaping flavors like bubble gum and cotton candy, e-cigarettes have become a favorite among teenagers. An uptick in nicotine addiction, a dramatic surge in teen use and recent reports of lung disease linked to e-cigs spurs health officials to ask – is vaping better than smoking?
Is vaping safer than traditional cigarettes?
“People thought so initially,” explains Linda Richter, Dir. of the Policy of Research and Analysis for the Center on Addiction, but she says evidence now points to most people becoming ‘dual users’ – smoking cigarettes where they can and vaping in places smoking is not allowed. Instead of breaking their dependence, dual users in essence double their intake of nicotine and toxic vaping chemicals.
“Vaping is not an FDA approved alternative to smoking cessation,” warns Dr. Michael Blaha, Dir. Clinical Research at the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease. He recommends nicotine replacement medications over e-cigarettes because while vaping has helped some smokers quit, he also finds most simply add vaping to their existing nicotine addiction.
Moreover, vaping has been recently linked in news reports to respiratory illness, lengthy hospitalization and even patient deaths. Dr. Blaha confirms “evidence from our lab that vaping is associated with greater incidents of asthma and other chronic lung diseases… and e-cigarette users report more cardiovascular disease than non-users.”
But what about people who buy e-cigarettes without nicotine?
Richter says, first, don’t believe everything the package tells you. “Just about all vaping products contain nicotine…research shows over 99%, even those that say that they do not.”
She insists this is especially true with vapes that are small, discreet, tech-looking and particularly popular with teenagers. “One pod or cartridge has the equivalent nicotine of one pack of cigarettes or more.”
Even if the e-cigs product is truly nicotine free, Dr. Blaha is not impressed.
“Nicotine isn’t really the main thing that causes health effects,’ he explains. The e-cigarette vapor itself includes “trace heavy metal exposure, the solvents used, the flavors used and of course the tobacco metabolites.”
Richter concedes vaping may be what she calls, “less unhealthy” than smoking cigarettes, but cites emerging evidence of harmful effects on your heart and lungs -- “some of which are the same as cigarettes and some of which are different -- because the chemicals are different.”
What are the dangers for teens who vape?
“A whole generation of kids are now hooked on these products and hooked on nicotine,” Richter worries. “We also know the effects are stronger for teenagers and young adults on their attention and their memory and their ability to learn, emotional regulation… all these things are developing in the teenage brain and when you add an addictive substance to the mix you’re messing with the person’s ability to develop in the most optimal way.”
Dr. Blaha agrees and sees the surge in teenage vaping as the number one problem with e-cigarettes. He concedes that some adults could argue vaping helped them quit cigarettes, but it’s kids and young developing minds who are adopting the habit at a record pace. “That’s what’s scary,” he says. “Young people who’ve never smoked are using these products…so we’re exposing teenagers, young folks, young adults to e-cigarette vapor that might be causing long-term harm at a young, vulnerable age.”
