Which Is More Harmful, E-Cigarettes or Cigarettes? A PHE Comparison Test Gives the Answer

The UK Public Health England (PHE) recently released the results of a comparison test between e-cigarettes and traditional cigarettes. The video records the destructive harm caused by smoking, and the comparison results indicate that smokers should switch to safer e-cigarettes to avoid or reduce this harm.

This experiment is part of PHE's health hazard campaign, which encourages smokers to try quitting smoking this January. The experiment was led by health experts Dr. Lion Shahab and Dr. Rosemary Leonard, and the results show that traditional smokers inhale a large amount of carcinogenic chemicals and tar compared to non-smokers or e-cigarette users.

The experiment simulated smoking by injecting tobacco smoke, e-cigarette vapor, and normal air into three bell jars filled with cotton, with the cotton representing the lungs. Each bell jar was connected to a diaphragm pump to provide continuous and equal suction of the three different gases.

At the end of the experiment, the cotton in the jar receiving tobacco smoke, the inside of the jar, and the tube leading to the pump were all brown. In contrast, the jar receiving e-cigarette vapor showed little change in the cotton color, with only some water vapor. The jar receiving natural air remained unchanged, with a small amount of water vapor.

PHE's Director of Health Improvement, Professor John Newton, stated that this experiment clearly demonstrates the stark contrast between the effects of e-cigarettes and traditional cigarettes. “We need to assure smokers that switching to e-cigarettes is less harmful than smoking. This experiment effectively proves this, highlighting the destructive harm caused by cigarettes and helping everyone see that the risks of e-cigarettes are much lower,” he said.

Similarly, Kang Cheng Yi Pin has conducted a similar experiment comparing the smoke produced by Kang Cheng Yi Pin e-cigarettes and traditional cigarettes, yielding the same results: the cotton exposed to tobacco smoke quickly turned brown, while the cotton exposed to e-cigarette vapor remained moist but showed no significant color change.

Many people still mistakenly believe that e-cigarettes and cigarettes pose the same level of harm. If thousands of smokers are delayed in quitting due to incorrect concerns about the safety of e-cigarettes, it would be a tragedy. PHE expects that at least 500,000 smokers in the UK will try to quit smoking in the new year, and PHE hopes more people will recognize the benefits of e-cigarettes and encourages them to use e-cigarettes as a tool to create personal quitting plans to increase their chances of success.