As part of Public Health England’s (PHE) Health Harms Campaign, a nauseating new video has been released detailing the grizzly effects that smoking tobacco has compared to that of the vapour from e cigarettes.
If you vape, you will undoubtedly be aware of the advantages that e cigarettes hold over their traditional tobacco-based counterparts – more money, an improved sense of health, less time spent out in the cold just to get your nicotine hit…the list goes on. Despite the tangible benefits on offer, of some 6 million smokers in England almost half (44%) wrongly believe that vaping is as harmful as smoking or that they are unaware of the significantly lower risk that vaping has on their health (22%).
The Damage Tobacco Has On Your Body
Representing a month’s worth of smoking and vaping, scientists Dr Lion Shahab and Dr Rosemary Leonard compare the smoke of a cigarette versus the vapour produced from an e cigarette while using cotton wool buds to represent what might happen inside our bodies. We all know that smoking is bad and as we are sure you will, of course, concur, the evidence from the experiment is frightful, to say the least.
Expectedly, the chamber of cotton buds subjected to the tobacco smoke is doused and covered in sticky black tar – far from a good thing to be taking place within our bodies.
In comparison, the chamber of cotton wool buds that were met with the vapour from the e-cigs appeared free from any such stain with an area in the middle of cotton wool buds being damp at best as the only kind resulting consequence.
Vaping is 95% Less Harmful than Smoking
While not completely risk-free, the video recently published by PHE is both a sobering and a startling visual representation that backs up their declaration in 2015 that e cigarettes are up to 95% less harmful than smoking tobacco and that vaping has the potential to help smokers become smoke-free.
Conducting the experiment, smoking cessation academic Dr Lion Shahab commented:
“Research we and others have conducted shows that vaping is much less harmful than smoking and that using e cigarettes on a long-term basis is relatively safe, similar to using licensed nicotine products, like nicotine patches or gum. Using e cigarettes or nicotine replacement such as patches or gum will boost your chances of quitting successfully.”
More Education On E cigarettes Needed
Despite an estimated 2.5 million vapers in England having successfully quit smoking with the help of e cigarettes, it is clear that more education and information is needed to help the 44% of smokers understand that vaping is a much less harmful alternative to the toxic and life-threatening habit of smoking cigarettes.
Director of Health Improvement at PHE, Professor John Newton said:
“It would be tragic if thousands of smokers who could quit with the help of an e cigarette are being put off due to false fears about safety. We need to reassure smokers that switching to an e cigarette would be much less harmful than smoking.”
From contracting ‘popcorn lung’ to vaporizers pulverising homes, myths and the false rumours that surround e cigs are a prevalent thing which can at times be something of a struggle to arrest, quell and quash. Various advertising limitations imposed on the e cigarette industry mean that it can be difficult to convey the positive impact that e cigarettes have on so many ex-smokers lives’, which in turn can make it difficult to convince the naysayers otherwise that vaping is a far less harmful habit.
Know someone that smokes? Forward them this blog, show them the video, and give them the low down on all things e cigs, e juice and more – they’ll thank you later when they’re a vaper.