N
F
E
R
F E AT U R E S
H
SAFER IS SAFE
ENOUGH
Why has the media become so hung up on whether or not
vaping is safe? It’s far safer than smoking, which, for a smoking
alternative, is safe enough.
Words: Phoebe Fuller
You’d be hard pushed to fi nd anyone in this
industry who would advocate for non-smokers
to take up vaping. E-cigarettes are a necessary
alternative to combustibles for most of us, while
for others they have taken on a secondary appeal
as an interesting pastime.
The common thread among most vapers is
that they’re consuming nicotine in a way that is
undoubtedly safer than getting it from tobacco.
Yes, e-liquid does contain chemicals; but it’s a far
cry from the some 60 cancer-causing chemicals
found in cigarettes.
Let’s focus on the big one: tar. Tar is what happens
when tobacco smoke cools and condenses. It is
the sticky brown sludge that coats the lungs of a
smoker and eventually causes respiratory failure,
cancer or both. E-cigarettes do not produce tar
and therefore they don’t lead to tar build up in the
body.
E-cigarettes also do not produce carbon monoxide
and are free from the harmful chemicals and
compounds which are produced when cigarettes
are burned.
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Public Health England (PHE) have long attested
to vaping being 95 percent less harmful than
smoking and, in the midst of lung illnesses falsely
attributed to vaping in the US, they’ve remained
steadfast on that assertion.
But the key word here is ‘safer’ because no one -
not PHE, the NHS or any vaping association - has
declared vaping to be completely safe; only safer
than cigarettes. And, in the context of being better
for you than puffi ng on a product as harmful as a
cigarette, safer is safe enough.
However, Greg Conley, president of the American
Vaping Association, says that people are often
hardwired to ignore this distinction. He says: “In
general, many people think of risk as fi tting into
one of two boxes: safe or not safe. When people
think of having sex using a condom, wearing a
seatbelt or undertaking other harm-reduction
measures, they’ll assign it a value of ‘safe.’
“But when you add to that the fact that vaping
is primarily done with nicotine, a substance for
which people have rampant misperceptions, it
makes accurate and truthful understanding about