Beware Myths About Vaping: Don’t Fall for These 5 Big Lies
Don’t be fooled by the lies you’re hearing. Read up on the biggest myths about vaping and add some fuel to your next argument!
Why are there so many myths about vaping?
In today’s climate, media giants love to scare their readership with wild claims about vaping, primarily because it’s new and therefore newsworthy.
Dr Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, Managing Editor of the Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group and Senior Research Fellow at Oxford, said at the recent E-Cigarette Summit UK 2021 that very few news outlets continue to publish stories on the harms of tobacco use because it’s no longer exciting or newsworthy, while fears about vaping are new and therefore viable for the media industry to prey on.
The sad truth is that because there are no long-term studies on vaping, reporters are left to fill in the gaps.
And, of course, nothing brings in the readers quite like fear does.
But while the media continues to bash an industry created by ex-smokers to save current smokers from a tarry, breathless fate, evidence in favour of vaping mounts. Still, the masses aren’t seeing this: they’re still believing the myths about vaping.
In the same presentation, Dr Hartmann-Boyce also said that there’s a huge issue with the fact that the results of publicly-funded research about vaping aren’t reaching the very people whose tax money pays for it. We continue to see promising results with regard to vaping as a smoking cessation aid, but not everyone is on the bandwagon.
The myths about vaping never cease. When the recent outbreak of EVALI (E-Cigarette or Vaping Associated Lung Injury) happened in the US, the media was quick to blame vaping. Yet when medical professionals found that a single ingredient (an illegal additive which was used in black market THC E-Liquid cartridges, no less) was the cause of the outbreak, the media continued to blame vaping as a whole regardless.
Never mind the growing number of ex-smokers who have vaping to thank for their health.
Top 5 Myths About Vaping
Myth: Vaping is turning children into smokers.
Fact: A small number of teens are vaping, but smoking rates among the demographic are actually declining.
One of the biggest myths about vaping is being purported across the globe. Everyone’s favourite counterpoint to vaping is “THE YOUTHS!” Apparently, teens are vaping in droves, which is turning legions of children into smokers. There are so many jumps in logic here.
Not dissimilar to the “gateway drug” argument, this one may seem like a logical step, but there’s little evidence to back it up.
ASH—Action on Smoking and Health—has been monitoring both cigarette and vaping prevalence among underage populations since 2013. ASH concluded that while some teens in the UK are experimenting with vaping (particularly those who have already tried smoking or smoke regularly) regular vaping among youths remains low. Still, it’s something to monitor as vaping becomes more widely accepted.
Essentially, we shouldn’t be terrified that kids are becoming smokers after trying their friend’s Elf Bar. Kids can hardly eat broccoli, let alone smoke something that tastes like the cremated remains of a dog. This is likely one of the reasons that smoking rates among youths have continued to decline steadily.
We of course need to be mindful of vaping among young people, but many would argue (including ASH) that it comes with the increase of visibility worldwide. Kids have smoked cigarettes prematurely for decades, usually because they saw their parents, friends, or celebrity idols doing it. Now that more adult smokers are switching to vaping, visibility has risen and children are seeing these habits.
This is, of course, something we should continue to monitor. But for now, we shouldn’t be worried about teen vapers becoming smokers. We should instead be focusing on the significant opportunity for tobacco harm reduction that vaping presents to current smokers.
Myth: Nicotine is a harmful substance.
Fact: Nicotine is an addictive substance, but isn’t harmful on its own.
Misinformation about nicotine is one of the primary reasons there are so many myths about vaping. The UK government is currently trying to tackle this misinformation, while also keeping their huge tobacco product labels warning people about the dangers of nicotine.
And they wonder why so many people are so wildly misinformed.
Nicotine is merely the chemical that causes cigarettes to be addictive. It’s not a carcinogen (it doesn’t cause cancer), and it’s not linked to heart problems, lung problems, or any long-term health conditions. In reality, people have used nicotine by itself (in the form of NRT) safely for many years.
Scientists liken the effects of nicotine to those of caffeine. Both stimulants produce similar biochemical effects on heart rate, concentration, and alertness. There are no proven long-term adverse effects of nicotine when used on its own (as in, without the 7,000+ other chemicals in a cigarette).
Still, over half of people in the UK are misinformed about this fact, which is the reason why 58% of smokers still try to quit “cold turkey” despite this being the least effective method of quitting by far.
Nicotine isn’t the harmful chemical we were once told it is. It’s simply the piece of the puzzle that keeps you coming back for more. The danger with nicotine is its addictiveness, and when used without the thousands of other chemicals found in tobacco, it can be safe to use until your body is ready to stop.
Myth: Vaping drives up smoking rates.
Fact: Vaping is considered one of the best methods for quitting smoking.
Whoever says that vaping drives up smoking rates has undoubtedly missed the NHS’ pro-vaping message.
I won’t even humour this one.
There are people out there in the world right now who decided to take up “dual use” (as in, both smoking and vaping together) just to see what vaping was like, who then inadvertently quit smoking as a result. It’s happening every single day. Smokers are learning that they can scratch their nicotine itch without polluting their bodies with the thousands of other chemicals found in cigarettes.
Furthermore, recent studies suggest that vaping might even be a better smoking cessation aid than both classic NRT (nicotine patches and gum) and smoking cessation medications like varenicline. Experts suggest that this might be due to the fact that vaping replicates the physical act of smoking, which leads to greater feelings of fulfilment in the user. Vaping is habit-forming just like smoking is, though with infinitely fewer risks, so it can be used to replace a smoking habit with something far less harmful.
In reality, vaping doesn’t drive up smoking rates. It does the exact opposite, even in cases where the user wasn’t intending to quit smoking.
There really is no argument here when you take into account the statistics.
Myth: Nobody knows what’s in vape juice.
Fact: E-Liquids are rigorously tested and heavily regulated in the UK.
If you live in the UK and claim that “nobody knows what’s in vape juice,” I’d reply that “nobody knows how to read an ingredients list.”
Frankly, it would be both illegal and unethical to sell anything to be ingested (rather, inhaled) by a consumer without proper labelling. There are laws about that—go figure.
E-Liquids in the UK are more heavily regulated than they are in many other parts of the world, and that’s reflected on every single E-Liquid bottle sold in the UK.
Did you know that E-Liquids containing nicotine can’t even be sold in the UK without the proper tactile warning triangle for the vision impaired? Or that every E-Liquid bottle has a childproof cap and tamper-evident seal? Maybe you’ve noticed that juices containing nicotine only come in 10ml bottles. All of these little facets (which you may not have noticed before now) are part of the UK’s strict and comprehensive tobacco product regulation.
In reality, E-Liquids contain 3 or 4 ingredients, tops. They contain a base mixture of Vegetable Glycerin (VG) and/or Propylene Glycol (PG), flavourings, and nicotine, if applicable. That’s about it, except in the case of nic salts (where nicotine has an added acid, like benzoic acid), and shortfills, which don’t contain nicotine at all.
This is another one of those wild myths about vaping that has no basis in fact. If you want to know what’s in your E-Liquids, just read the bottle.
Myth: Vaping is worse for you than smoking, or it’s just as bad.
Fact: Vaping is at least 95% safer than smoking.
The winner of our Worst Myths About Vaping awards goes to… “Isn’t vaping worse for you than smoking?”
This is by far the most pervasive myth, and we can bust it wide open.
But we don’t have to. Cancer Research UK, the NHS, the UK government, and even the London Fire Brigade have already said it themselves.
Vaping is 95% safer than smoking. It doesn’t contain any of the chemicals found in cigarettes that are known to cause long-term health problems like cancer, heart disease, or COPD.
Yet so many people, including current smokers, believe the inverse.
While it would be foolhardy to suggest that vaping carries zero risks whatsoever, the risk of harm from vaping compared to smoking is exponentially less by a landslide.
If you’re looking for a main takeaway from this article, let it be this: while we don’t know the true long-term effects of vaping, we do know that smoking kills more than 8 million people every year. The known long-term risks of smoking far outweigh the unknown effects of vaping, as stated by medical professionals and researchers worldwide.
Summary: Don’t Believe the Myths About Vaping
We hope you’ve learned something new here, and even if you haven’t, hopefully we’ve added some new statistics to your arsenal for the next time you come in contact with someone who’s misinformed about vaping.
The truth is that these myths about vaping will continue to pervade our media landscape and our personal discourses until we can change the conversation altogether. As members of the vaping community, it’s our job to educate when we can.
Hopefully, by disproving these myths about vaping, we can show smokers that there’s a safe way out of their current lifestyle. The more smokers we can convert to vaping, the better off we’ll all be—physically, emotionally, and financially.
A smoke-free world starts with everyone getting on board and leaving these wild myths about vaping behind.
