They’re everywhere now-on the front of retail counters to all over the internet. E-cigarettes are advertised as the safer, more socially acceptable and convenient alternative to smoking. The use of e-cigarettes has increased not only among smokers but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also notes their greatly increased use by school-age children who were previously non-smokers. The aesthetics of e-cigarettes is something that encourages people to begin using these products, without thinking about the health impacts. Other alternative methods like nicotine gum, patches, and pouches (such as these) have been used to quit smoking, over the years, and it still remains unknown how impactful e-cigarettes can be to health and if they even provide the same service as older smoking remedies.
So how “healthy” are e-cigarettes, and do they pose a risk similar to traditional smoking?
E-cigarettes, which can come in the form of something like this Pockex Vape are usually battery-operated devices with both a mouthpiece and two interlocking tubes made of either metal or plastic. Models may have an LED light at the tip to simulate active smoking or indicate that the device is active. The first part contains the battery and the attached part a cartridge that has a heating element and a liquid. This liquid is usually a substance that contains and dissolves nicotine. Upon being inhaled, the nicotine liquid vaporizes into a mist. Some preparations don’t contain nicotine and may have flavored mists such as chocolate or cherry. Each cartridge has the capacity to simulate approximately one to two packs of cigarettes via puff volume.
The potential benefits of e-cigarettes to traditional smoking have some merit. First, they do not contain tobacco and, as a result, the number and intensity of smoking related diseases is decreased. They are also considered a socially acceptable means of inhaling nicotine without the high penetration of secondhand smoke distributed by traditional tobacco products. Many also promote the use of e-cigarettes as a means of smoking cessation.
The other side of the coin-particularly in insurance pricing but also in the general, overall health of e-cigarettes users-is that they are not without drawbacks.
First of all, most e-cigarettes deliver a potent dose of nicotine. Nicotine releases epinephrine, which charges the sympathetic nervous system. It raises heart rate, increases blood pressure, increases cardiac output and constricts blood vessels.
Second, the factors in play all combine to lead to conditions such as long term hypertension (high blood pressure) and secondarily to arrhythmias of the heart and congestive heart failure. There is also increased risk of stroke.
Third, and perhaps equally problematic, FDA studies of the more commonly available products show impurities in the solutions, such as tobacco-specific nitrosamines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Each of these is carcinogenic, although certainly less so than the levels that are found in cigarette smoking. The addictive substance in cigarettes is nicotine, and delivering it in an e-cigarette rather than a traditional product doesn’t erase that effect on the body.
Two other problems involve long term potential effects of the introduction of e-cigarettes. First, younger and younger people are being introduced to this product. Despite lower carcinogen potential, delivering blasts of nicotine and carcinogenic substances to teenage bodies produces potential long term damage at younger ages. This leads to nicotine dependence in previously non-smoking individuals. Second, the crossover between using e-cigarettes and using traditional cigarettes is quite high, and some of the tobacco risk is additive.
At present, e-cigarette users are treated as smokers, especially if their specimens contain measurable nicotine. While the FDA works to standardize and control specifications for a uniform public health standard for all the non-regulated products that exist, long term safety is still unknown, as is the potential to create new smokers among youths who are introduced to e-cigarettes as a “safe” alternative to tobacco products.
