What Are the Health Risks of Vaping?

What are the health risks of vaping? At present, China is quietly becoming the country with the largest e-cigarette production volume. But for many people, understanding of e-cigarettes still remains limited to flashy smoke tricks, a wide range of flavors and models, and all kinds of marketing that claims they are a “quit-smoking miracle.”

But this so-called “quit-smoking miracle” not only cannot “clean your lungs,” it can also harm your health.

E-cigarettes are harmful too
 
First of all, the harm they do to teeth is comparable to smoking.

As we discussed before, smoking is closely related to the occurrence and progression of periodontal disease. Compared with non-smokers, smokers have a higher incidence of periodontal disease and more severe symptoms. The longer the smoking history and the more cigarettes smoked per day, the more serious the periodontal disease becomes.

Smoking also significantly increases the level of volatile sulfur compounds in the mouth. Heavy smoking can also cause hairy tongue, allowing food residue to accumulate, while reduced saliva secretion worsens bad breath.

If you use vaping devices, the above problems may become even worse.

Compared with tobacco, e-cigarettes not only contain toxic substances such as nicotine, but also chemical substances such as formaldehyde, as well as flavoring additives like diacetyl. Once inhaled into the body, these can also be dangerous and may even be carcinogenic.

Moreover, many people know that smoking is harmful to health, so they remind themselves to smoke less. But e-cigarettes, which are marketed as safe, can mislead you into thinking they are truly harmless, causing you to use them more freely and further damage your health.

The dangers of e-cigarettes may be even greater

Anyone who has used e-cigarettes knows that they work by electrically heating the e-liquid and atomizing it to create an effect similar to smoking a conventional cigarette. This e-liquid is contained in what we call a pod, and once it is used up, it needs to be replaced—essentially no different from finishing one pack of cigarettes and then taking out another one to carry on.

E-cigarettes usually come in many flavors. We call these flavored e-cigarettes, and because they need to create distinctive tastes, some chemical ingredients are naturally added. This type of flavored e-cigarette often contains a compound called diacetyl, which has been linked to a rare lung disease known as bronchiolitis obliterans and can cause permanent damage to the bronchioles, the smallest airways in the lungs.

Propylene glycol and glycerin are the main ingredients in e-liquid, and they are not generally considered dangerous on their own. However, once heated by the vaporizer, they can break down and turn into toxic compounds such as formaldehyde and acrolein. This is even more common in high-wattage vaping devices that produce large amounts of vapor.

One research institution compared traditional smokers with e-cigarette users by observing changes in the number of immune cells in their noses. It found that vaping suppressed 358 immune genes in the nose, while conventional smokers had 53 immune genes suppressed. In other words, the harm of e-cigarettes was said to be equivalent to 7 times that of cigarettes!
 
*The image above shows the change in an e-cigarette mouthpiece over 2 days of use, from clean to tar buildup.

If you pull out the mouthpiece of an e-cigarette device marketed as “healthy” or “lung-cleansing” and inspect it, you can see how it changes from clean to visibly coated with buildup.

Inside these e-cigarette mouthpieces—so popular among young people for looking cool—large amounts of tar containing chemical substances accumulate, and bacteria continue to ferment over time with extended use. This may be even more harmful than traditional filtered cigarettes!

The harm of e-cigarettes is hard to detect
 
Perhaps precisely because e-cigarettes carry labels such as “technology,” “cool,” and “fashionable,” people can easily let down their guard.

Some e-cigarette enthusiasts even use them in any place where smoking is prohibited, not realizing that these products may be even more harmful than conventional cigarettes.

Whether teenagers, adults, or the elderly, people can all be easily misled by these false ideas and start trying e-cigarettes. And we, who should be safeguarding our families' health, can also be fooled by the notion that “e-cigarettes are not cigarettes.”#p#Page Break#e#

Never let children choose e-cigarettes just because they seem fashionable or fun. Be sure to stop parents from using e-cigarettes under the excuse of “quitting smoking.” And when you see friends or colleagues using e-cigarettes, make sure to clearly explain the risks to them as well!

Quitting smoking is difficult, so some people hope to use e-cigarettes to gradually quit, but it does not work—e-cigarettes can also be addictive. If you want to quit smoking, you need to make up your mind and stick with it.

*Health is precious—don't let tobacco weigh you down.