Once looked upon as a fad product, the electronic cigarette has now gained major acceptance in the cigarette alternatives world. But is the electronic cigarette safe? The question can only be answered by first reviewing the relevant facts.
What Makes Smoking So Dangerous
Smoking tobacco products is known to be a health hazard because of the chemicals in the smoke. Cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide, tar, nicotine, and a number of known carcinogens. These things increase the risks of cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Moreover, the second hand smoke is even more deadly than the original smoke. This is because smoke particles better adhere to lung tissues when they are cooled down.
What is in the Electronic Cigarette Vapor
Most electronic cigarettes generate a smoke-like vapor through an atomizer, which heats a solution into vapor and delivers it to the user. The solution, which is completely formulated by man, contains a number of substances. These substances include water, glycerin (food additive), nicotine, and flavors. The number of substances in this nicotine solution is far fewer than the chemicals present in regular tobacco smoke, which has more than 3,000 distinct and harmful components. But is electronic cigarette safe to use? Let’s have the nicotine talk first.
Nicotine – Health Hazards and Addictiveness
Nicotine is often associated with lung cancer. However, there is no scientific evidence that nicotine is carcinogenic (cancer-causing). In fact, it is the other chemicals in tobacco smoke that lead to lung cancer. Nicotine, however, is associated with increased risks of cardiovascular disease.
Nicotine is only mildly addictive by itself. Nevertheless, smokers find cigarettes hard to quit because both the 3,000+ chemicals and the physical habit play a role in developing dependency. Electronic cigarettes, on the other hand, knock it down to only nicotine and the physical act of smoking itself. For this reason, it is possible that e-cigarettes do not carry the same addictiveness as their counterparts.
Conclusion – Is Electronic Cigarette Safe?
I believe answer to this question should be a relative one. Because the electronic cigarette does not contain thousands of unwanted chemicals and carcinogens, it is absolutely safer than regular cigarettes. Users of this product are often chronic smokers who are looking for a healthier alternative to cigarettes. For them, this switch is frequently described as life-changing.
Some opponents may argue that electronic cigarettes only give people an excuse to continue smoking. They could be right, if the product steers smokers away from quitting to settling for the next best (worse) thing. However, given the fact that a majority of chronic smokers simply accept their fate and continue to use cigarettes, the electronic cigarette is a much, much safer and attractive alternative. The product mimics the appearance and the nicotine level of a real cigarette and gives the user the option of reducing health risks without actually quitting.
Some cigarette companies maintain that electronic cigarettes are unsafe. This is downright stupid because they are dismissing a much safer product in order to promote inhalation of their infamous and undisputed poison – tobacco smoke.
Quitting, however, will always remain the best thing to do. For this reason, ethical electronic cigarette makers do not market their products as smoke cessation tools. E-cigarette users are, after all, still smoking. Also, because electronic cigarettes contain nicotine, pregnant women and people who do not already smoke should never go near one.