A Few Words on E-Cigs, Vaping and Vaping Indoors

Vaping has taken a quite stiff beating in the public arena of late. The talk of a vaping ban in public areas in Wales as well as of a tax hike on related items in the EU have done little to help the image of vaping amongst the public. Surely it must be evil if we’re legislating against and taxing it!

These two discussions as well as much misinformation on the subject have led us to write this post to clear a few things. So, here are a few things people often get wrong about vaping.

Vaping and E-Cig

Most people thing of vaping and recollect the analogue cigarettes they see in petrol stations, many of which are made by tobacco companies. These e-cigs come with prefilled cartridges and these need to be replaced, have a quite limited flavour selection, produce limited amounts of vapour and have high nicotine levels. They are also the minority choice among those who quit smoking. However, the media tends to lump all products together into a generic e-cig category.

APVs or personal vaporisers are the middle ground product. Commonly known as ‘Vape pens’ these devices contain electronics that allow a number of variables to be moderated, including the vapour level.

Vape mods are the other alternative, these are mainly made by Chinese and US companies, as well as some in the Philippines. They can produce a lot of vapour, offer a lot of control and are also the top priced of the three products.

In essence, you pay for what you get when it comes to e-cigs and vaping. Though the law doesn’t tend to differentiate between the available products, as is clear from the three items above, there is a large amount of variation. From analogue cigarettes with their high levels of nicotine and low vapour content to the most expensive vape mods with low nicotine levels and high vapour levels, there is a significant difference between products.

Vapour is Safe for Indoors

We hear time and time again that “not enough studies have been done” to show vaping is a safe for indoor use.

Fortunately, there have been plenty of studies done, it’s just they’re not touted for one reason or another. In fact, here are two major studies:

• Levels of selected carcinogens and toxicants in vapor from electronic cigarettes 
• ·         Comparison of the effects of e-cigarette vapor and cigarette smoke on indoor air quality

If you don’t have the time to read either, let’s just summarise in saying that the first study found that the level of toxic substances in electronic cigarettes “was 9-450 times lower than that in cigarette smoke”. While, the second study showed that e-cigarettes produce “very small exposures relative to tobacco cigarettes”.

There are plenty more studies out there too that could be used to argue against the notion that vaping indoors isn’t safe.

Additionally, it’s also worth mentioning that vaping is far less toxic than cigarettes and far more effective than pharmaceutical cessation products at encouraging people to quit smoking. However, a lot of the papers and evidence we’ve linked to here will never see the light of day in the mainstream media. Why? Well that’s another question!