It used to be that vaping was viewed with suspicion, a kind of rogue activity that was only for people on the fringe, and something that was certainly not all that great for your health. That was only a few years ago, and in short, intervening time, everything has changed. Now, e-cigarettes and the growing variety of other vape gear available have not only become mainstream, but health authorities are actively encouraging people to start vaping.
They’re not suggesting you take up vaping as your latest hobby if you’ve no reason to — as in, if you’re not a smoker. Health services like the NHS in Britain only want people who are battling to give up unhealthy cigarettes to make the change to vaping, and as soon as possible. Why? The smoking figures are startling: in the UK, around 100,000 people die from tobacco-related illnesses each year; in the US, nearly half a million people lose their lives to such diseases; and globally, a shocking 7 million people die from smoking annually, close to 1 million of whom only inhaled secondhand smoke but still went on to develop a fatal disease.
So smoking is the largest preventable cause of death right around the world, and health authorities are doing all they can to try to get people to stub out for good — no easy task but one that’s at least made a whole lot easier with the humble e-cigarette. Smokers get the nicotine they want, which isn’t known to be all that harmful anyway — if at all — but, crucially, they avoid the chemical cocktail of thousands of toxins given off by burning tobacco, at least 70 of which are known to cause various cancers in the human body.
Not All Are On Board With Vaping
Just to be clear, not all health authorities are recommending their populations who smoke take up vaping instead. Many are seemingly happy to let millions of people smoke — while banning vaping altogether and even imposing fines and jail terms for anyone caught “in possession” of vape gear or e-liquid. Most of this is happening in countries in Southeast Asia and elsewhere — parts of the world that are still economically developing and remain a key market for tobacco companies — which are allowed to advertise their cigarettes, including to minors, while research into vaping is roundly ignored.
Such evidence says that vaping is almost — at least 95% — safer than smoking cigarettes, and that there are no long-term effects to human health from using e-cigarettes. That’s according to Public Health England (PHE), the top health authority in the country, which launched a new campaign earlier this year encouraging smokers to take up vaping as soon as possible so they can win their battle against tobacco.
“It would be tragic if thousands of smokers who could quit with the help of an e-cigarette are being put off due to false fears about safety,” said PHE’s director of health improvement, Professor John Newton. “We need to reassure smokers that switching to an e-cigarette would be much less harmful than smoking. This demonstration highlights the devastating harms caused by every cigarette and helps people see that vaping is likely to pose only a fraction of the risk.”
Stop, and Vape
Meanwhile, the NHS’ annual campaign to try to convince smokers to stub out, called Stoptober and held in October, has increasingly been backing e-cigarettes as a sure-fire path to quitting success. It says around 3 million people in the UK are currently using an e-cigarette, and many of them will have been former smokers who used vaping to quit.
“Thousands of people in England have already stopped smoking with the help of an e-cigarette,” last year’s campaign said. “Plus, those who combine an e-cigarette with help from their local Stop Smoking Service have a high chance of success. In 2017-18, two-thirds of smokers who did so managed to stop smoking.”
And with new research showing that e-cigarettes are almost twice as effective as other smoking-cessation aids, there’s never been a better time to easily give up smoking forever. If you’re wondering what is the best e cig brand for you, you can just head to a reputable online vape store and get exactly what you need.