The Pros and Cons of Vaping

Who remembers the Marlboro Man? It’s strange to think that cigarettes were once seen as such a healthy habit that doctors used to prescribe them for throat conditions and weight loss. Thanks to the power of marketing, they were perceived as the epitome of smart and sexy. The rich and beautiful would be seen to be smoking everywhere they went—the implication being that an artily-placed cigarette added to their sophisticated image. 

Today, of course, we know differently. Smokers are a drain on NHS resources, costing £12.6 billion a year, and the UK Government is working hard towards making Britain smoke-free by 2030—which is just a few years away. But despite prolonged and energetic campaigning by the government and various charities, there are still 78,000 deaths every year in the UK from smoking-related causes.

Vaping is officially the most effective way to quit smoking, but as with any growing industry, it has its share of detractors, scammers, and scary tabloid headlines.

So, if you’ve been weighing up if vaping is the way to go for you, here are some honest and objective pros and cons you may want to consider.

Benefits of Vaping

Vaping has a lot of benefits, from better health and easier breathing to cost savings and more versatility. Read on for more about the benefits of making the switch to vaping.

It’s Safer than Smoking

E-cigarettes are significantly less harmful than tobacco. According to Public Health England, an independent review found vaping to be at least 95% less harmful than cigarettes. This is echoed by all major health bodies in the UK, including the NHS and Cancer Research UK.

However, if you’ve never been a smoker, you shouldn’t vape. Vaping isn’t risk-free for non-smokers.

It’s the Most Successful Smoking Cessation Aid

Vaping is currently the most effective way to quit smoking, with higher success rates than other nicotine replacement therapies (NRT), including nicotine patches and gums.

E-cigarettes have helped many thousands of people to stop smoking and the evidence in favour of them is increasing. And when support is given to vapers, the potential to stop is even better. There’s even a chance that e-cigarettes will soon be available from the NHS on prescription. 

It’s Cheaper than Smoking

Working out how much you could potentially save by switching to vaping depends on the brand of cigarettes you smoke, how many you smoke per day, and which type of vape you’re going to switch to. Still, on average, most vapers save hundreds—if not thousands—of pounds per year by switching to vaping. 

If you smoke a pack of cigarettes a day at the average price of £15.67, you’ll be spending roughly £5,720 per year on your habit. For hand-rolled cigarettes, it’s about £2,701 per year.

For a heavy smoker who switches to a low-cost starter vape kit, the average cost is under £400 per year (this includes the cost of replacement parts and e-liquids). So, on top of the health benefits, you could be saving thousands a year by making the switch.

You Can Control Your Nicotine Intake

You’ll typically absorb between 1mg to 1.5mg of nicotine from a single tobacco cigarette. When you switch to vaping, you should try to match the amount you were getting from cigarettes in your vape—but over time, you can tailor your nicotine strength and lower it once you feel ready.

E-liquids come in nicotine strengths ranging from 3mg per ml of liquid (0.3%) all the way up to 20mg per ml of liquid (2%). You can even transition to a nicotine-free eliquid once the cravings start to cede!

Thousands of Vape Flavours to Choose From

There are thousands of e-liquid flavours to choose from, so even the most discerning palates can find something to their liking, be it a classic tobacco eliquid or a decadent dessert vape flavour. You can stick to one particular flavour “profile” e.g. fruit, candy, cocktails, or you can mix it up with thousands of potential combinations. 

You’ll never get bored of the endless flavour combinations available. Say goodbye to sad, burnt taste buds and hello to the delicious world of vaping.

No Lingering Smells

Unlike cigarettes, cigars, and pipes, e-cigs do not produce the unpleasant smells that cling to your hands, your clothes, your furniture, your car, or anywhere else you’ve been smoking.

While a cloud of vapour may hang in the air and briefly make your local bus stop smell like a tropical paradise, it doesn’t linger in the way that smoke does. The vapour from an e-cig dissipates in seconds, leaving nothing behind.

There’s No Such Thing As Second-Hand Vaping

You’ve heard of second-hand smoking—also known as passive smoking—but did you know that vaping doesn’t carry the same risk?

A study measuring nicotine residue comparing the houses of smokers vs vapers found levels from vaping were 169 times lower than from smoking. The study concluded that there were no risks from “passive vaping”—people vaping around you. Even the NHS’ official guidance says so, though they recommend not vaping around infants and children as more studies are carried out.

Disadvantages of Vaping

Despite its many upsides, vaping does have some disadvantages, including social stigma, technological barriers, and of course, addiction.

Social Stigma

Let’s face it: vaping gets a bad rap. We’ve got obnoxious vape bros and teenagers vaping on public transit to thank for that. In the past several years, the public’s perceptions of harm from vaping have skewed toward the negative, with more and more people each year (smokers included) wrongfully believing that vaping is as bad or worse than smoking.

Pair this with the image problem that vaping is currently facing—a youth epidemic and e-waste issues—and vapers feel like public enemy number one.

Still, you’ll feel like much less of a nuisance vaping in public (as opposed to smoking) when you’re leaving behind a transient, harmless plume of blue raspberry-scented vapour rather than a putrescent, carcinogenic cloud of smoke. Just keep it away from crowded areas and you’re golden—though you should be prepared for the occasional dirty look from a particularly self-righteous OAP.

Knowledge Barrier

Vaping, like many things, requires a bit of knowledge before you can dive in. From understanding what type of vape kit to buy to learning about your vaping style, vaping presents a barrier for smokers who are reluctant to make the switch. After all, it can’t possibly be easier than lighting a stick of tobacco on fire.

But once you’ve got the basics down, vaping is a breeze. Still, all of the choices, features, nicotine strengths, ratios, and resistances are enough to make a beginner’s head spin. We understand. If you’re new to vaping and you need help figuring out what tools you need to help you quit smoking, contact us for personalised advice from one of our trusted, expert customer service team members.

Upfront Cost

While indisputably cheaper in the long run, there are upfront costs involved with vaping that you won’t get with smoking, unless you typically buy cartons of cigarettes.

At first, you’ll need a vape kit, a supply of e-liquids, and whatever vape coils or pods your device is compatible with to get started.

Once you’ve got your set-up, though, you’ll start saving. And if the upfront cost of vaping is preventing you from making the switch, try starting with disposable vapes, which require no refills and retail for about a fiver each.

Nicotine Addiction

When you switch from smoking to vaping, you’re not curing your nicotine addiction; you’re substituting one nicotine delivery system for another (much safer) one. A number of smokers have said that the reason they haven’t tried vaping is because they feel that it’s just substituting one addiction for another—which isn’t wholly wrong, but one of these addictions is much safer than the other. It’s like saying you wouldn’t swap a narcotic addiction for a caffeine addiction.

Many people believe that it’s the nicotine that’s responsible for causing the cancer, heart disease, and lung conditions associated with smoking, but it’s not. Nicotine is not known to cause any of the devastating health effects of smoking.

Nicotine is, however, the thing that keeps you lighting up cigarette after cigarette. Nicotine may not be harmful on its own—it’s considered as harmful as a cup of coffee—but it is the source of addiction in cigarettes, and with vaping, you’ll be continuing that addiction, albeit in a much less risky way.

Conclusion

You will need to add up the pros and cons of switching to e-cigarettes for yourself to decide if the health benefits, improvements in your finances and social acceptability of e-cigarettes float your boat or not. If you’re making the transition from smoking then you can always contact our customer support team and we’ll be happy to talk you through your options.