Don’t doubt it; possibly the best option for successfully quitting tobacco-laden cigarettes is to slowly wean yourself off them by taking up vaping. Smoking and vaping are not the same thing (and shouldn’t be considered as such at all), but there are one or two crossovers. So why aren’t you making the switch today?
Side-by-side: smoking and vaping
Comparing and contrasting smoking and vaping underlines and makes clear how different to one another they truly are. To start with, smoking necessitates tobacco combustion, which results in the generation of smoke that’s then dragged through the mouth and enters into the lungs. Comprising around 600 additives, conventional cigarettes’ combustion sees all these additives drive chemical reactions, thus creating up to 4,000 different compounds, 20 of which are undoubtedly carcinogenic and highly hazardous to a smoker’s health.
In addition to containing nicotine then (the chemical whose strong addictive quality ensures smokers require the ‘hit’ that coming back for more can only provide), cigarettes when lit create the likes of arsenic, ammonia, benzene, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide. Yes, really. No wonder tobacco smoke is one of the major causes of cancer, lung disease and heart disease.
By contrast then, vaping e-cigs and/ or mods is so much less hazardous to the human body than cigarettes’ tobacco smoke because the vape juice, when heated and turned to vapour by the vaping device, contains none of the extremely harmful toxins of tobacco. What chemicals are involved in the act of vaping, though? Well, you’re talking the likes of acetaldehyde, nitrosamines, propylene glycol (otherwise known as vegetable oil), vegetable glycerol and, of course (why vaping serves as such a great substitute for smoking for those looking to kick the habit), nicotine.
No question then, the difference between smoking and vaping (and one’s harmfulness to the body and the other’s relative harm-free effect on the body) is stark to see when you lay them out next to each other like this. Indeed, thanks to the fact that, yes, although it still contains nicotine, e-juice produces none of the toxic, carcinogenic chemicals when heated that tobacco does when it’s burned in a cigarette. Indeed, it’s for exactly that reason that British scientists have recently declared that, according to their expert results, vaping is 95 percent less harmful to the human body than smoking.
To that end then, making the switch from smoking to vaping means that smokers trying to quit won’t be faced with having to go cold turkey or anything like it, as e-liquid and, therefore, vapour definitely comprises nicotine. And, precisely because of this, it means – and statistics tend to back this up – that vaping can act as a practical, gradual and successful route to giving up smoking altogether. And, in actual fact, according to research conducted at the United States’ Georgetown University, were 6.6 million smokers to switch to vaping completely, they’d end up living for a combined 86.7 million more years!
Making the switch
It’s only fair to say that quitting smoking isn’t easy – even if you go the vaping the route. When it comes to vaping then, the challenge for would-be ex-smokers comes in the experience that vaping offers. Yes, it’s not really the same as that offered by conventional tobacco cigarettes, of course – and nor should it be – but if a smoker can ensure the nicotine levels of their e-liquid hits are high enough from the off, then vaping undoubtedly offers a very good avenue for them if they’re committed to trying to wean themselves off the ciggies.
And yet, of all the options available nowadays to those looking to quit, undeniably e-cigs do come closest to the smoker’s experience – there are even e-juices out there that attempt to replicate the taste of tobacco smoke (opting for such a vapour may well prove a win-win for those dipping their toe into the wonderful world of vaping for the very first time).
Moreover, there’s no getting away from it; vaping’s fun. It offers not just significant health benefits over smoking, but also fantastic, diverse flavours courtesy of the plethora of e-juices on the market (everything from ‘true’ tobacco to menthol and even to bubble gum) and the opportunity to experiment and turn a pleasant activity that may start out as a mere alternative to smoking into something far more; a pastime that already indulges the imagination and creativity of millions of vapers around the world, as they tailor their vaping experience to exactly what they desire via collecting and modifying their e-cig equipment. And, really, who can say fairer than that?