What Are Some Common Misconceptions About Vaping?

Question

Answer

1. Vaping ingredients are safer than traditional cigarettes.

• This is simply NOT true!! Some ingredients include:
• Nicotine – a highly addictive substance that negatively affects adolescent brain development
• Propylene glycol – a common additive in food; also used to make things like antifreeze, paint solvent, and artificial smoke in fog machines
• Acrolein – a herbicide primarily used to kill weeds, can cause irreversible lung damage
• Diacetyl – a chemical linked to a lung disease called bronchiolitis obliterans aka "popcorn lung"
• Diethylene glycol – a toxic chemical used in antifreeze that is linked to lung disease
• Ultrafine particles that can be inhaled deep into the lungs
• Diacetyl is an organic compound that is often added to food such a popcorn to give it a buttery flavor.
• When inhaled Diacetyl is known to cause bronchiolitis obliterans or “popcorn lung”.
• Many e-cigs are flavored to make them more appealing to the user.
• Allen (2016) found 51 different types of e-cigarette flavorings were tested, of which 75% contained diacetyl.

I wanted to cover some common misconceptions about vaping. In the beginning, vaping was thought to be safer than traditional cigarettes. Some people even believe that e-cigs are a step down from traditional cigarette use or a way of weaning yourself. There is some truth to that if you are actually monitoring your nicotine content and actually weaning yourself off of nicotine. However, in the majority of cases, it is just a substitute.

2. Vaping clouds are less harmful than traditional second-hand smoke.

• There is no amount of second-hand exposure that is safe.
• However, the amount of toxins available for passive inhalation are reduced with vapes as compared to traditional cigarettes (Avino, 2018).
• Another misconception is that vaping clouds are less harmful than traditional secondhand smoke.

Many think that vaping smoke is just water vapor or no different than steam. They think it is not going to hurt them. This is not necessarily true. There is no amount of secondhand smoke that is considered safe, whether it be from the traditional tobacco or a vape cloud. None of it is free of toxins. A study by Avino in 2018 compared traditional cigarette smokers to those who vape. The results showed that vaping does have a lot fewer toxins than traditional cigarettes.

However, that is only for the majority of the toxins. There were a couple of chemicals that had a higher occurrence in the vape cloud than in traditional cigarettes. Thus, it is not that the toxins and chemicals are not present, but some are significantly decreased and a few are higher. You also have to consider that emission doses are variable with e-cigs. What I mean by emission doses is how fast are you smoking, how big of a drag/breath, or how long are you smoking? And, how much are you going to exhale? There are so many variables there that it would be nearly impossible for us to pinpoint that. Vaping is only safer if they do little puffs. It is almost impossible to say that any amount is free of concern.

This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the course, Tobacco Management and Smoking Cessation, presented by Jessica Fino, EdD, RRT.