Over the past few decades, the damage that smoking can cause to the human body has become ever more obvious through medical research. This is what led, in the early noughties, to the introduction of e cigarettes, not only into the medical market but into that of popular culture. The e cigarette has quickly taken off and given ex-smokers another way to satisfy their cravings. Whether you’re looking for a new e cig liquid or you’ve just turned away from tobacco for the first time, below is everything you need to know about the comparative safety of vaping compared to smoking.
Heat not burn
You’ll hear the term “heat not burn” being thrown around quite a lot when it comes to vaping. This is a term which puts vaping in a positive light and essentially means that the device does not exhume the toxic chemicals of tobacco smoke. Heat not burn means that the liquid inside the vape device is heated till evaporated, instead of being placed in front of an open flame. This means that hardly any of the toxic chemicals related to fire, like carbon dioxide and monoxide are released, and that you can that no harmful chemicals will be released into the atmosphere.
What’s more, no direct contact with a flame makes heat not burn devices even less dangerous when it comes to home fires. Each year, there are around 2800 fires in the home caused by cigarettes, whilst vaping has to its name only one or two a year, through electrical fires from circuit overloads and battery explosions. We’ll talk about that a little more later.
What’s in an e liquid?
So vape devices are heat not burn. They’re safer than inhaling tobacco. But what is actually in the e liquid, and is it safe to inhale?
E liquid is made up of five essential ingredients. That is water, nicotine, flavourings, propylene glycol and vegetable glycerine. The only dangerous ingredient here is nicotine, which is both addictive and poisonous in large amounts. Propylene Glycol and vegetable glycerine might sound scary from their names, but are in fact organic compounds.
One flavouring chemical called diacetyl used in a few vape juices has been proven to be dangerous in large quantities, and many e liquid flavours have opted out of using it. That being said, diacetyl has only been known to be dangerous when victims are in prolonged and direct contact with it.
What are the dangers of nicotine?
Nicotine has been known to cause temporarily heightened blood pressure, causing a process named vasoconstriction. This means that the gums and blood vessels around the mouth, when exposed to nicotine, temporarily constrict and is partly why you might feel lightheaded when vaping. Of course, nicotine is also highly addictive and should not be used in vape juice if you are not already a user.
Safe handling of vape juice
Vape liquid doesn’t come in child proof bottles for nothing. Drinking vape juice from the bottle has been known to cause illness and even death in animals and children. They may be attracted due to the sweet smell, but anyone with a low tolerance to nicotine does not want to be drinking concentrated solutions of it.
Knowing your vape circuits
As mentioned above, vaping has led to less danger in the home from cigarette fires. The one thing to keep in mind however, is that more complex vape mods such as unregulated mechanical mods, require you to build your own electrical circuit and pick your own battery. Without any experience of the ever important Ohm’s Law and the maximum wattage and voltage your devices circuit can take, you could end up with an overloaded, and sometimes exploding vape battery, which is not fun, especially if you like your teeth.