Myths About Vaping Which Need To Be Fact Checked

As such a young industry, research is still underway into the facts and falsehoods of vaping

So where do you start when there is so much media hype. With many news outlets having focused on vaping as one of the hot topics of the last decade in regard to healthcare and burgeoning new industries, it’s not surprising to find so many facts and figures misleading or being misused. Much like any other oft-researched technology, vaping has its own myths that, without further analysis could be deemed true and therefore damage the reputation of vaping.

Vaping is just as bad as smoking

The reason that this myth is often thrown around in discussion is a fundamental misunderstanding of what chemicals make up the vaping industry. Whilst vaping does have several ingredients which are fervently debated time and time again, it should also be noted that tobacco smoke contains around 400 known toxic chemicals. 40 of these are even known to be carcinogens. So, what is inside e liquid which gets people so worked up? First off is propylene glycol and vegetable glycerine, the organic compound in which the nicotine and flavouring of premium e liquids are carried. The second ingredient is the nicotine, which is a known addictive substance and shared ingredient with tobacco. When you scratch under the surface however, nicotine is not one of the most dangerous components of cigarette smoke, and without the nicotine in vape juice, the new technology would be nowhere near as strongly heralded as a smoking cessation tool.

Popcorn Lung

The other ingredient which is often brought up as one of the reasons why vape devices are dangerous is the alleged use of diacetyl in the juice. This has been known in the past to have caused “popcorn lung” or bronchiolitis obliterans, a debilitating lung condition. The concern came after an American popcorn factory worker became ill after exposure to the chemical, one of the main flavouring ingredients in the production of butter flavoured popcorn. After it emerged that vape liquids used this agent within its flavourings, there was a legitimate cause for concern. When it came down to it though, the levels of diacetyl in vape liquids were minimal, and popcorn lung was only formed from the direct exposure from those who worked with the chemical. Nevertheless, there were still traces within vape juice as far back as the late noughties, so many of the better companies, or at least ones you find in good vape stores, began to remove diacetyl from the ingredients they used.

My device might explode!

Some people may remember the Euston Station bomb scare of summer 2017. The loud bang which caused a mass panic at rush hour turned out to be an exploding vape device. There is a danger of short circuiting and overloading an unregulated mods system, especially if used by those who don’t know how to build a circuit in a mechanical mod, but that is exactly why high end DIY devices are best left to the vape veterans among us.