Vaping has become very popular in recent years, so much so that you may start to see vape pens in movies and television shows instead of or even alongside cigarettes.
You may have even noticed people at work, in your neighborhood, or generally out and about in public vaping. With it becoming more present in our daily lives, it does raise a few questions: what is vaping, why do people vape, and what are the benefits and downfalls of it?
This article will explain all of this to help you better understand what vaping is. Vaping is very similar to smoking cigarettes, so we’ll be comparing the two throughout this article to make it easier to understand. Since the two are so alike, it’s important to understand where you can and can’t vape before doing so, similar to cigarettes.
Explaining Vaping
Vaping is very similar to smoking in a lot of ways. While a cigarette has to be lit with a match, you simply turn it on and a vaping liquid inside the device is heated into a vapor, and this vapor is then inhaled, where the chemicals, nicotine, flavors, and more enter the bloodstream. Some vapes are flavored with options ranging from candy to fruit to cereal. The devices that carry out this process go by many names, from e-cigarettes to vapes to vape pens and more.
While the term “e-cigarette” may seem strange now, it made sense when they were first introduced since the devices resembled cigarettes. Now, they either look like pods or USB flash drives. The liquid can be called e-liquid, e-juice, or simply juice. For the sake of simplicity, we’ll refer to the device as either vapes or vape pens and the liquid as juice.
One thing to keep in mind as you continue to read is that vaping is relatively new, which means there are still many unknowns about it and the potential benefits or drawbacks involved. As a result many sources will either contradict one another or be very clear about this fact. While this may result in this article becoming outdated, we will draw our claims from our various sources and will likely be vague in many places.
Understanding Why People Vape
There are a wide range of reasons why people start vaping, from curiosity or boredom to trying to quit smoking cigarettes. This latter reason may be the most popular. As mentioned above, vapes contain nicotine, and we already know that cigarettes do as well.
Nicotine is a stimulant and is part of the reason why people can get addicted to smoking. Smoking has a lot of harmful effects, from damaging your teeth and gums to potentially causing cancer, so it’s no surprise that many wish to quit. There are quite a few methods of doing so, with vaping becoming a more popular option. However, since vapes also contain nicotine as well as many other chemicals that haven’t all been identified, it’s very possible for smokers to end up switching to vaping completely or using both, switching from vaping to smoking and back again as they see fit.
There are many other reasons why one may begin to vape, such as seeing those around them doing it. If you do decide to start vaping for whatever reason, it’s important to consider the potential benefits and disadvantages of doing so. We’ll start by covering the benefits.
Looking at the Benefits
One big potential benefit of vaping is its perception. Many consider vaping to be safer than smoking, which is another reason why smokers may use vapes to help them quit. Whether vaping actually is safer than vaping or not depends on where you look.
One important thing that you need to keep in mind is that black-market vapes that contain THC are more dangerous than regular nicotine vaping and possibly smoking as well. This may be caused by the thickening agent these vapes used, which is known as vitamin E acetate.
Another potential benefit is the cost that vaping offers smokers, since vaping tends to be less expensive than cigarettes overall, for now at least. Part of the high price of cigarettes is caused by the taxes levied by the federal and state governments, which is, at least in part, to try and dissuade people from smoking. While there is some legislation for vaping, it has not reached this extent yet, though the harm vapes may cause will likely cause this reality to change at some point in the future.
Another factor for the price is that a cigarette is a one-use item, and while some vapes are also that way, many vape pens can be reused. This means you only need to purchase juice every now and then and may occasionally replace the pen itself.
Considering the Downsides
There are quite a few downsides of vaping that need to be discussed, and unfortunately, they’re all health risks. One of the most common health risks is popcorn lung. Popcorn lung, which is also called bronchiolitis obliteration, is when a chemical of some form causes inflammation in the lungs.
This inflammation causes coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath in the short term and leads to thickening and narrowing of the airways and scarring of the tiny air sacs in the lungs in the long term. Many of the negative effects of vaping affect teenagers, partially due to their age and partially due to its popularity among this age group.
One side effect they may suffer from down the line is becoming addicted to cigarettes. One more massive thing to consider is that vapes contain batteries, and they may explode or catch fire during a recharge cycle if the battery is defective or the device has been modified.
Is Vaping Right For You?
If you don’t already smoke cigarettes, vaping won’t really have any advantages for you and may actually cause serious harm. One major factor to keep in mind is that we don’t know all of the chemicals in vaping vapor, though some of the ones that have been found have been linked to cancer and other harmful conditions.
What you choose to do is ultimately your choice, we just want you to be aware of all of the risks of your choices so you can make the best ones for you and your health.
