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ArishMell · 70-79, M
[i]At present experience[/i], tobacco is clearly the more directly dangerous, but...
The drug component is nicotine and that might or might not be harmful apart from being heavily and expensively addictive.
Tobacco - cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco and chewing tobacco (and if any is made these days) snuff - is directly harmful and has been known as such for a very long time, largely because it contains carcinogens. Lung cancer is the main and best-known hazard but it can also cause oral and throat cancer.
Nicotine patch and vapour alternatives were designed to ease smokers off the habit; but the manufacturers now exploit the obvious commercial advantage of making non-smokers into nicotine addicts the easy way. So they peddle the stuff as somehow "safe" (is it?) and fashionable.
Worse, they also realised the best method is to create the addiction in children by parcelling the drug at high concentrations in sweet fruit flavours. Some even disguise them [i]as[/i] sweets - children cannot buy tobacco and substitutes in the shops but these "sweets" are sold through dubious Internet sources difficult to block.
In the UK tobacco-substitutes are becoming sold openly in brightly-lit, brightly-coloured, dedicated shops. The law that enforces regular shops to sell tobacco and tobacco substitutes from discreet behind-the-counter cabinets, was made well before anyone could envisage the "vape" shops' existence. Quite when the Government is going to catch up and close such businesses, is a good question. The Police and Trading Standards officers have just raided two in my town but so far they have not revealed what they were confiscating.
The nicotine in many vapour cigarettes is often in higher concentrations than in cigarettes, making the product more rapidly and strongly addictive.
Some vapour products made by the less scrupulous manufacturers are not only very rich in nicotine but are to very poor standard and often even contain all sorts of toxic impurities.
It may be that these nicotine products are just as harmful as tobacco, but in different ways - but anyway no-one needs use either class of product.
...
E-cigarettes have a further problem. Many are "disposable", wasting their materials including the lithium in their internal batteries, creating a fire hazard by those batteries, and often "disposed" of as mere litter. I believe some countries have already banned them.
......
So to answer your question... Safest to treat them both as harmful, though in different ways.
The drug component is nicotine and that might or might not be harmful apart from being heavily and expensively addictive.
Tobacco - cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco and chewing tobacco (and if any is made these days) snuff - is directly harmful and has been known as such for a very long time, largely because it contains carcinogens. Lung cancer is the main and best-known hazard but it can also cause oral and throat cancer.
Nicotine patch and vapour alternatives were designed to ease smokers off the habit; but the manufacturers now exploit the obvious commercial advantage of making non-smokers into nicotine addicts the easy way. So they peddle the stuff as somehow "safe" (is it?) and fashionable.
Worse, they also realised the best method is to create the addiction in children by parcelling the drug at high concentrations in sweet fruit flavours. Some even disguise them [i]as[/i] sweets - children cannot buy tobacco and substitutes in the shops but these "sweets" are sold through dubious Internet sources difficult to block.
In the UK tobacco-substitutes are becoming sold openly in brightly-lit, brightly-coloured, dedicated shops. The law that enforces regular shops to sell tobacco and tobacco substitutes from discreet behind-the-counter cabinets, was made well before anyone could envisage the "vape" shops' existence. Quite when the Government is going to catch up and close such businesses, is a good question. The Police and Trading Standards officers have just raided two in my town but so far they have not revealed what they were confiscating.
The nicotine in many vapour cigarettes is often in higher concentrations than in cigarettes, making the product more rapidly and strongly addictive.
Some vapour products made by the less scrupulous manufacturers are not only very rich in nicotine but are to very poor standard and often even contain all sorts of toxic impurities.
It may be that these nicotine products are just as harmful as tobacco, but in different ways - but anyway no-one needs use either class of product.
...
E-cigarettes have a further problem. Many are "disposable", wasting their materials including the lithium in their internal batteries, creating a fire hazard by those batteries, and often "disposed" of as mere litter. I believe some countries have already banned them.
......
So to answer your question... Safest to treat them both as harmful, though in different ways.
joe438 · 61-69, M
@ArishMell Some of the e-cigs also release burning material fumes into the vape, meaning you're breathing chemicals coming from the heated plastic and metal coatings in the device. I suspect the more expensive name brands don't have this problem but it's yet another reason to avoid the technology.
ArishMell · 70-79, M
@joe438 I didn't 'know that! Thank you for pointing it out.
I suppose a problem with these is that they have not yet been around for long enough for any, more subtle long-term effects to become identified. For example, even if the e-cigarettes structural materials were safe, what of the ingredients other than the nicotine?
I suppose a problem with these is that they have not yet been around for long enough for any, more subtle long-term effects to become identified. For example, even if the e-cigarettes structural materials were safe, what of the ingredients other than the nicotine?