As many know, being cool is not an easy lifestyle to pull off. And it looks like it may be getting tougher.
For several years, marketers have been touting the safety of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) over traditional cigarettes but recent studies are revealing details about what is in the firsthand and secondhand smoke coming from these devices. It turns out that many of the harmful chemicals and components found in cigarette smoke are still found in e-cigarette smoke – plus e-cigarette smoke has even added a few new ones!
Smoking and e-cigarette, also known as “vaping”, is big business right now. A multi-billion dollar business, actually. With money like that on the line, it is not surprising to see aggressive advertising and social media campaigns being aimed at the teen and young adult audiences, the primary markets for their products.
Appealing to the vanity and “hipness” factor of the young, vaping is hyped as the safe alternative to cigarette smoking. In reality, e-cigarette smoke still contains many of the known toxic chemicals and carcinogens that cigarette smoke contains, though sometimes in somewhat lower concentrations.
Spinning this inferred risk reduction to be a health advantage is actually a Health threat that exposes a great number of young people to considerable risk. This is a dubious promotional strategy at best and this type of marketing clearly indicates the financial gains at stake in this market. The promoters know where their concern lies and it is not with the Health of its customers.
On a physiological level, vaping does avoid some of the combustion byproducts of the traditional burning of tobacco leaves. These organic compounds have been thoroughly studied and are associated with known health risks (cancer, emphysema, etc.). With vaping, some of the organic carcinogens are missing but the e-cigarette smoke still has some other toxic elements, like chromium, that are not even found in regular cigarette smoke. It’s still a tough trade-off.
Add to this, increased levels of elements like nickel, and the continued presence of things like lead and zinc in vaping smoke, and it becomes apparent that the chemical makeup may be slightly altered but the consumer is still facing up to considerable risk.
A primary component of both vaping and traditional cigarettes is nicotine. While the history of the cultivation and use of tobacco goes back centuries, one of nicotine’s uses is that of an insecticide. So what I can use to kill bugs in my garden, I can inhale into my lungs. If ever a situation called for some common sense reasoning, this is it.
There are even scarier components to be found. Remember the smelly frogs or pigs we dissected in high school biology? That smell was primarily formaldehyde and it was used to preserve the dead tissues. Guess where else you can find formaldehyde? That’s right. Both cigarette and e-cigarette smoke. Are you starting to get the idea yet?
The newer research coming in is also finding that the smoke of vaping produces irritation of the lining of the lungs and is often inhaled deeper into the lungs than its cigarette smoke cousin. For those of us living in the often easily viewable air of Southern California, our Air Quality Management District regularly reminds us of the particulate matter in the air we breathe and warns us about dangers in breathing in those substances.
So with particulate matter from vaping irritating these sensitive tissues in the lungs, a number of less-than-desirable physiological reactions can develop. The simplified scenario plays out this way: as irritants are inhaled, the body produces an inflammatory response. Inflammation brings fluids to the irritation on the surface of the lungs, which reduces the ability of air to cross the membrane, which reduces the function of the lungs. (Think of this as an “internal waterboarding”. You start suffocating parts of the lungs.) The ability to move oxygen and carbon dioxide (the job of the lungs) is compromised and we begin to starve the body for oxygen and retain toxic carbon dioxide. Add to this the carcinogenic possibilities deeper in the lungs and we develop the notion that all of this is probably not such a great idea.
Anybody heard of asthma? Chronic bronchitis? Multiply the risk factors for these growing segments of our population when young people consider these vaping behaviors.
Besides all of this news, vaping is also being connected with lowering the immune response of the body, which makes the whole body more vulnerable to infection.
The bottom line is that vaping does not have the plusses that are advertised, it does not have advantages over cigarette smoking, and we are just beginning to understand what it does to our bodies. As with cigarette smoking, vaping is a habit best not started. If started, quit.
Just to anticipate a question that sometimes comes up when I talk about smoking cessation, I do know what it’s like to be a smoker. As a young person I was a Marlboro man myself because that brand made all the cool guys in the movies and on TV that much cooler. Don’t bother me with waking up with a hacking cough and getting winded walking up six steps, I was looking cool (I thought) like Sonny Crockett!
When I had to light up before my feet even hit the ground out of bed in the morning, I started to wonder if all of this coolness was worth it.
Cold turkey was my nicotine addiction recovery of choice. I admit that that was a tough road but a successful one.
So for the smokers out there, I do understand what it feels like and what is at stake. A great many of us have made it to the ranks of nonsmoking and you can too!
The really good news is that there are today a much greater number of supports to help you get through the process. (Please see the links below.)
Everything is possible, including getting your nonsmoking quality of Life back. I can still get winded but usually when I’m climbing a mountain on my bicycle. That has a satisfaction that never came from a cigarette.
“When someone puts an end to something, it doesn’t mean that he gave up, it means that thing is not taking him anywhere.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson
Smoking Cessation Support Links
http://www.nicotine-anonymous.org/
http://www.recovery.org/topics/about-the-smokers-anonymous-12-step-recovery-program/
References and additional reading on E-cigarettes
Arian Saffari, Nancy Daher, Ario Alberto Ruprecht, Cinzia De Marco, Paolo Pozzi, Roberto Boffi, samera H. Hamad, Martin Shafer, James Jay Schauer, Dane Westerdahl, Constantinos Sioutas. Particulate Metals and Organic Compounds from Electronic and Tobacco-containing Cigarettes: Comparison of Emission Rates and Secondhand Exposure. Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts, 2014; DOI: 10.1039/C4EM00415A
American Thoracic Society (ATS). (2014, May 19). E-cigarettes may boost resistance of drug-resistant pathogens. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 7, 2015 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140519084557.htm
RTI International. (2014, April 29). Electronic cigarettes may cause, worsen respiratory diseases, among youth. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 7, 2015 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140429104955.htm
American Society for Microbiology. (2014, May 18). Gum disease bacteria may cause heart disease. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 7, 2015 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140518164339.htm
B. Spring, A. C. Moller, L. A. Colangelo, J. Siddique, M. Roehrig, M. L. Daviglus, J. F. Polak, J. P. Reis, S. Sidney, K. Liu. Healthy Lifestyle Change and Subclinical Atherosclerosis in Young Adults: Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study. Circulation, 2014; DOI: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.113.005445
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc1413069
American Heart Association. (2014, November 16). Young heart health linked to better overall health in later years. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 7, 2015 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141116184115.htm
http://gizmodo.com/why-e-cigarettes-might-not-be-as-safe-as-you-think-1589485508
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