If you read or watch the news at all, you've probably seen plenty of stories about how dangerous vaping is. Unfortunately, that's all bullshit propaganda. It's not a conspiracy theory, they really are lying to you. If you do any amount of research on your own, you will find that everything we can tell so far says that vaping is likely relatively safe and even if it's not, is nowhere near as dangerous as smoking. We haven't been studying vaping for an incredibly long time, but it seems relatively safe.
If you never thought that news organizations were in corporate pockets, or that they spewed forth propaganda, the bullshit around vaping might just be the absolute proof. What excuse do they have? If they were even remotely doing their job, they wouldn't spew forth the nonsense that they do, that is often deliberately misleading.
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Photo by TBEC Review aka Vaping360 23 January 2015 (source)
Popcorn Lung
"Popcorn lung" is a bullshit term created by the media for "bronchiolitis obliterans", which is an obstruction of the airways caused by inflammation due to inhaling toxic fumes. It has been associated with diacetyl, a chemical used in artificial butter flavors, and found in a fuckton of other things. Some eliquid flavors might have diacetyl, but most probably don't. In fact, after the media started spouting crap about diacetyl and vaping, many companies had their eliquids tested, and some pulled flavors that had diacetyl. A quick web search brings up a study from 2015 showing that "Average Diacetyl Exposure from Vaping is 750 Times Lower than from Smoking"
Saying that vaping may cause "popcorn lung" is irresponsible journalism, and bullshit fear-mongering. Yet many still did.
Snopes even has a page on this bullshit.
Vaping is NOT Smoking
Vaping can produce smells that can annoy people, just like someone with too much perfume, but it's not smoking. It doesn't produce tar. It's not the same thing. As far as people know, it doesn't cause cancer. Nicotine doesn't cause cancer. Cancer is caused by the combustion of tobacco. With vaping there is no combustion. It's called a vape because it produces vapor, not smoke. This is not "water" vapor as some people say, but a combination of vegetable glycerin (VG), propylene glycol (PG) and artificial flavors, usually in a PG base. Propylene glycol is used in millions of products, and if it was dangerous at all, in any way, we would likely know by now. It was inhaled with medicines before vapes were even invented. Fog machines often use glycol or glycerin bases for their "fog juice". Basically, we'd probably know by not if it were really dangerous.
Formaldehyde
Quite a number of news articles have reported on vaping supposedly containing formaldehyde. This is referencing a study that was done in the shittiest of ways. Long story short is that technically it's possible...at temperatures that no one vapes at. You would likely catch your cotton on fire. They turned their vaporizers up to max and vaped them with their machine well past the point that a normal person would stop, because of the whole tasting charcoal. If you're extremely paranoid about it though, keep your vape on a low wattage and replace your coil when it starts to taste bad.
Again, irresponsible journalists fear mongering.
Exploding batteries
This one is probably the most truthful. Make sure you buy from Mooch's list of recommended batteries and follow proper battery safety. Don't buy shitty Chinese import mods from no-name companies that have built-in batteries and don't use mechanical mods unless you know what you're doing. Even then mech mods are dangerous.
You see, lithium is a very dangerous chemical. It burns VERY hot. This is why it makes such good batteries. It's also why they have a chance of catching fire, especially while charging or under load.
Cheap shitty batteries have a higher chance of a manufacturing defect. Because vapes use such high current through a heating wire, they drain the batteries a lot quicker than most things, so they're probably even more likely to have catastrophic failure than say a laptop or cellphone, and we've all heard about the various times that they've caught fire.
If you're a responsible user, you'll probably never have an issue. But you know, if your battery explodes your face off, I take no responsibility. Not sure it's much more likely that vape explodes than your cell phone or laptop burning up when you charge it, but whatever.
Enough with the lies and bullshit that the media tells you though. This is about what they don't tell you! Other than the truth, there are a number of things.
Many tanks leak
A lot of tanks will leak if you put them on their side, or upside down. This might happen if it's in your pocket. I didn't find a tank that I could trust fully to take with me until I started using the OBS Engine Nano. I love it. It doesn't leak and I don't have to worry about getting two coils perfectly the same. The flavor is also better than most I've tried.
Vaping probably won't save you money
You'll probably spend like $50 on your mod, once you ditch the e-cigs and almost $50 on each tank/atomizer. You'll likely have to buy quite a few of those before you find one that you really like. Eliquid is really fucking expensive as well. Eliquid manufacturers pump up the price to insane levels because they know that stupid ex-smokers will pay for it.
Most eliquid tastes horrible
You know when they say that an e-liquid is "premium"? Yeah, that only refers to the price. Most of it sucks. I was a member of ZampleBox for quite a while, and I can tell you that the number of shitty e-liquids for expensive as fuck prices is astounding. Now, thanks to asshole politicians, it's not even legal to get free samples in America. This means that you can't try before you buy. So you won't know if an e-liquid sucks before you buy it. This means you're gonna end up with lots of $15-25 bottles of absolute shit.
YouTubers lie
You know that nice YouTuber that you're watching to get info on the latest gadgets and e-liquid to buy so you don't end up wasting your money? Yeah, they're probably full of shit. Just buy a few of the products that they claim are great. You'll likely find that they're leaky pieces of shit that spit hot liquid onto your tongue. See, YouTubers get paid by affiliate programs. These often require them to register new users and have them buy shit. When you buy that fancy new mod and tank for $150, the YouTuber gets a percentage. They actually get paid every time that customer buys something, depending on the program. Multiply that buy thousands of users, and every time they lie and say some tank is good when it's a piece of shit, they get paid quite a chunk of cash. Some also get a chunk from the companies just for making the vid.
If you buy a product that a YouTuber raves about and it sucks, unfollow them. They're making money manipulating their followers. They're a piece of shit and you shouldn't trust anything they say.
The Bottom Line
Vaping is a lot better than smoking. You don't stink anymore and you might have a chance to not die of lung cancer if you quit. It's not cheap but neither is the hospital. You should quit smoking if you do right now. Just know that it's gonna take you a while and a lot of money to find a good vape and e-liquid that you like.
This is a good content sir. maybe you can post this on steemstem.
Yeah, if I hadn't done it as a freewrite and had organized a bunch of references, rather than doing more of it off the top of my head, with the occasional google for something to link to.
Thanks for sharing this, very interesting. I don't smoke or vape, but my partner is a smoker and I have been urging him to start vaping. I want to find a good vaper for him to use... I have to admit that the fear mongering did get to me a bit, but only because I knew so little about it. Articles like this really help. Thanks for this!
Yeah, there's quite a bit to learn, but it's worth it. Even if just because you don't smell as bad.
Smok makes some good starter kits. The tanks with them aren't necessarily for beginners, but they'll likely last you more than a year and aren't too expensive. You also don't need to wrap your own coils. If you go to a vape shop, one of their kits is probably what they'll try to sell you. They're better than Kanger. Their coils are expensive though.
If you find a good shop, they might be able to give you some good advice on what's available over there. The tanks you guys have are totally different.
I'd say just get him a good starter kit that will last a while and a few e-juices. He'll probably find it's a lot easier to quit than he would ever have thought.
Thanks for the advice! We'll definitely check out Smok, as well as get him to actually visit a couple of shops. I agree, I'm sure that once he starts he'll find it easier to quit cigarettes/roll ups than he thought.
If he smokes loose tobacco, that's even better. He might need to start at a higher nicotine than some others, but because of the lack of additives, it's a lot easier to quit. I smoked rollies myself. When I switched to vaping I started with 18 mg but was able to quickly move down lower and lower and only had a craving very rarely. Some find 18 mg a bit high but 18-24 mg in a normal vape pen is equivalent of a filterless cigarette. If he gets a sub ohm tank, he should be able to start a bit lower. I'd suggest probably starting at 12 mg and trying to slowly switch to 6, then 3. Some shops only sell 3 mg these days, because most vapers have worked their way down to that, or even 0 mg.
Happy you found something that works for you and is helping you break the habbit. I smoke weed so maybe the vaping is different, I find when I would vape I would experience something I can only discribe as wet lung. Breathing would become more wheezy sounding and I would cough in the day. I really gave vaping a try for like 5 months but it makes me feel like shit, the coughing and wheezing made me feel like I was a real smoker.
Now I do tinktures or pheonix tears if I feel guilty about smoking.
After my experience I am rather weary of vaping. The way my lungs and body felt after that season of vaping really made me question vaping as a healthy alternative. I can take the bad smells but what I can't take is the wheeze and body feelS
Well, when compared to cigarettes, we know for certain it's safer. That doesn't necessarily mean that habitual use won't have any effects. We also know it doesn't cause lung damage. I myself have experienced some coughing occasionally from it, but it's nowhere near cigarette levels. And sometimes I get a dry buildup in the mornings that I have to sort of clear. I think it's probably the VG that gives me the phlem. Might all be caused by the artificial flavors though. PG makes my throat all scratchy, so I go with max VG.
With THC, they use PEG 400 in addition to extract it. They use a combination of polyethylene glycol 400 and propylene glycol for the extraction, then probably mix it with VG to dilute it a bit. I've heard that the PEG smells like burnt plastic alone. It's supposedly safe though. The reason they have to use PEG 400 is because the THC is an oil. I'm not sure if vaping it might have a different effect. When you burn it, the oil is combusted. It might be putting more solid oil in your lungs, which is harder for your body to break down. I don't know if they're ever going to study the effects of vaping THC oils though.
We get it; you vape. :D
I liked this one, it was well-written and I agree with the subject matter. As you probably know, I really hate the government trying to find reasons to regulate things, and that popcorn lung bullshit has been debunked several times but they just keep on re-bunking it.
The world's governments could learn a thing or two about harm reduction. Are e-cigarettes 100% safe? No; few things are... but they're a hell of a lot safer than cigarettes.
I finally have some proof to tell my boss that she needs to stop smoking and better starts vaping instead! She always stinks (if she starts vaping, she would smell a lot better and I would like it again to be around her), and as a dog it would be horrible to lose my boss due to lung cancer or other things. The only thing is that I have to find a way how I'm going to tell this to her ... -woof-