Happy 2021 or whatever year you’re reading this article! Have you made your New Year’s resolution? Doing the vaping thing but committing yourself to quit? We believe in you! Contrary to what the e-cigarette industry wants you to believe, vaping is not a “healthy” alternative to tobacco smoking. The more the experts find out about this habit, the worse it seems to be. In order to help you give up vaping, take a look at these 8 facts about e-cigarettes.
1. They are easy to throw away
Since e-cigarettes are battery-powered, you can reuse them if they are recharged and properly maintained. Much like your fancy iPhone or iPad, e-cigarette devices come with USB and car charges. Of course, we think that the best solution is to never charge your device so that it can’t be used. Then once you start to realize there are better things to do with your life than shortening it through vaping, you’ll just pitch the stupid thing altogether into the nearest garbage can. It’s such a simple thing to do!
2. They are cheaper than cigarettes but are still more expensive than you can afford
Addicts who smoke a pack a day spend in the neighborhood of $1000 per year to maintain their dangerous habit. By contrast, if you buy an e-cigarette device and cartridges, you’ll end up spending $600, or the equivalent of a PS4 and a handful of games. Don’t you agree that buying video game consoles and video games is a far better idea than blowing that money on vaping? We think so too!
3. You’re still ingesting nicotine
Don’t be fooled by anybody who tells you that e-cigarettes are a non-addictive alternative to traditional cigarettes. They’ve still got nicotine in them, along with delicious flavors such as bubble gum and watermelon, totally not designed to appeal to kids. After all, the manufacturers still want you and future generations of smokers to be hooked so that you’ll keep buying more of their products. The amount of nicotine varies, with some containing as much as a regular, deadly cigarette and others that serve more like a light, deadly cigarette.
4. For a long time, e-cigarettes were unregulated
Even though e-cigarettes have been on the market since 2003, they went unregulated in the US until 2016. Shockingly, for more than a decade neither health experts nor regulatory agencies truly knew whether they are safe or not. Among other things, the manufacturers lacked transparency. In particular, they refused to disclose all of the ingredients contained in the liquid. Furthermore, the amount of nicotine listed on the cartridge label didn’t always correspond to the actual amount contained within. Even if you bought cartridges from the same manufacturer, the precise amount of nicotine varied wildly from cartridge to cartridge. Things are finally starting to change – for instance, in 2018 the FDA started to prohibit cartridge packaging from resembling food or beverage products.
5. Second hand vaping is a thing
You’re certainly aware of the negative effects of second-hand smoking. According to the US Center for Disease Control, from 1964 through 2014, more than 2.5 million people died as a result of second-hand smoke. You should also know that second-hand vaping is also a problem. While the number of people that you kill through vaping might not total in the millions, the only way to make certain of this is by doing the courteous thing and not vape around non-vapors. Or better yet, not taking up the habit in the first place.
6. Poisonous? You bet!
As you certainly know, traditional cigarettes contain around 7,000 chemicals, around 70 of which can cause cancer. So if you smoke e-cigarettes, problem solved, right? Hell no. That liquid nicotine that we’ve been talking about is highly toxic. If you were to slurp a tablespoon of that stuff – which we don’t recommend since we prefer our readers alive – it would be enough to kill you. And a child who consumes a mere teaspoon of liquid nicotine? Done-zo. More than half of all emergency calls related to e-cigarette poisoning involved children under the age of 5. Furthermore, while in 2010 the percentage of emergency calls to poison control as a result of traditional and e-cigarettes was 99.7% and 0.3% respectively, by 2014, a full 41.7% of those calls were related to e-cigarettes.
7. Vaping is often banned in non-smoking areas
While e-cigarettes are technically smokeless, that hasn’t stopped a lot of countries – including Mexico, Canada, Australia, and Israel – from banning their use in public places. Likewise, awesome cities such as Chicago, LA, and New York also forbid vaping in public places aside from the shops where they are purchased or vaping lounges.
8. Vaping damages your lung
According to our friends at the Center of Disease Control, 90% of all lung cancer deaths are connected to smoking. While vaping might not involve inhaling the same amount of toxic chemicals, studies have started to show that your lungs might not be out of the clear. E-cigarette users experience diminished lung function and even cellular changes that could lead to cancer. Yet another good reason to give up the habit or not start at all.
