Guest Column: Is Vaping Safe?

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by DAN REIDER

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In the 1980s, approximately 30% of the US adult population smoked cigarettes. The number is now down to around 11%. One main reason for this is that younger adults smoking cigarettes, those under 30 years of age, has dropped from 35% in 2000 to now around 6%. On the surface, this appears to be very good news. So, are those younger adults now smoking far less than in past years?

Well, not exactly. Almost 20% of these young adults, or approximately 6 million, are now regularly smoking e-cigarettes, vaping. Vaping has been touted by some, mainly manufacturers of vape products, that vaping is much better for you than cigarette smoking with minimal health risks. In addition, the industry touts that vaping can serve as a means to quit smoking if you are still smoking cigarettes. 

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A NEW GENERATION OF CIGARETTES

E-cigarettes have been around now for 20+ years. E-cigarettes were first introduced by a Chinese pharmacist, Hon Lik in 2003. The first e-cigarette was manufactured in Shenyang, China in 2004 and was called a “Ruyan”. Since that time, many studies have been done to determine the health risks, if any, associated with vaping. While various studies have confirmed some of the health risks expressed by health professionals, not all health risks associated with vaping have been confirmed with that same level of certainty as of this date. Many of those who vape choose to not believe any of the results- either those confirmed by many health professionals to be health risks or those still requiring more research. 

For many decades, from the early 1900s through the 60s, there was not much public concern regarding smoking. Smokers were everywhere- in restaurants, bars, office buildings, busses, trains, sports arenas (outdoor and indoor) and really almost anyplace you went maybe with the exception of schools, doctors’ offices, hospitals and other health facilities. Almost every day, wherever you went, you would see someone with a cigarette, pipe or cigar burning. After World War II, more of the health institutions and health researchers began to study the possible health consequences of smoking and even secondhand smoke.

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As more of these studies were done, the research began to uncover the long-term effects of smoking when at some point the government realized it had a responsibility to let the public know how bad smoking was for one’s health. TV and radio commercials began showing up warning people, especially the younger generation, of the risks that they would face if they began to smoke or continued to smoke. Cigarette advertisements were removed from all radio and TV ads. At some point, health insurance companies began to significantly increase the cost of health insurance coverage for smokers. And after many years, the number of smokers began to decline to the levels we see today.

Electronic cigarettes, e-cigarettes or vapes, vaporize a liquid that cools into tiny droplets and air. While this liquid is extracted from tobacco, it does not contain as many chemicals as tobacco. Regular cigarette tobacco contains more than 7,000 chemicals, many of which are toxic. And many of those same chemicals remain in the liquid being vaped. 

According to the Cleveland Clinic, vape liquid can contain nicotine, propylene glycol, and glycerin but can also include acetaldehyde and formaldehyde (cancer causing), acrolein, diacetyl and diethylene glycol (lung disease) and heavy metals such as nickel, tin, lead, and cadmium. Vaping can cause inflammation and irritation to the lungs leading to scarring and narrowing of the tubes bringing air into and out of the lungs.

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RELATED | HIDDEN DANGERS OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA

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Health.com lists chemicals absorbed by the body when vaping to include nicotine, VOC’s, formaldehyde, nickel, chromium and cadmium as well as very fine particulate matter. They state that the VOC’s and nicotine can lead to increased heart rates and blood pressure. Inhaling the fine particles deep into the lungs can lead to chronic bronchitis, pneumonia, COPD and asthma.

The Mayo Clinic lists many of the same chemicals in vaping as is being reported in the various studies but also claims that vaping can have 20x the amount of nicotine found in a single cigarette. Nicotine, in addition to being very addictive, can negatively affect concentration, learning, memory and brain development. And, after becoming dependent on the nicotine, when trying to stop vaping, the withdrawal symptoms include very high levels of anxiety, insomnia, depression and other emotional or physiological issues.

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A COSTLY AND DEADLY HABIT

Aside from the toll that e-cigarettes take on one’s health, the health insurance industry, in general, now charge a premium for health insurance for those who vape. According to Healthcare Inside, when signing up or renewing healthcare insurance, you will now be asked if you smoke or vape. The question about whether one smokes or not has been around for a long time, but the vaping question just started showing up several years ago. Premiums can be 50% or higher for those who smoke or vape as compared to those who do neither. Insurers consider you a smoker if you use any tobacco produce 4 times or more a week. And if you do not answer that questions honestly, you can be charged with insurance fraud.

However, there are seven states plus Washington DC, that prohibits insurers from charging a premium rate for people who vape. In three other states (Arkansas, Colorado, Kentucky) the surcharge for vapers must be kept under 50%. In the other 40 states, the insurers can charge whatever premium they want. As hard as it might be for some of us to understand, there are actually a few insurance companies who sell themselves as “smoke friendly” where smokers are not charged any premium. This is particularly hard to understand as the medical costs for smokers tend to be far greater over the life of the smoker as compared to the non-smoker. For the insurance companies which do not charge any premium this would seem to indicate that the profit margins of those companies are so huge that the higher medical costs of the smokers is easily absorbed by the premiums paid by others.

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SO, WHAT’S NEXT FOR THIS GENERATION OF VAPERS?

As was done fifty or so years ago, we tried to save many lives from the health problems associated with smoking cigarettes. Do we now do the same for those who will or are now vaping? Cigarettes and other tobacco products were never made illegal so there would never be any push to make vapes illegal. However, should we not be helping particularly the young people to better understand the health impact from vaping?

While increased health insurance costs may send a message, the premiums come nowhere close to covering a vaper’s long-term medical costs and those costs will be in part paid for by non-smokers in that insurance program. One short term hospital stay for a smoker often costs more that the lifelong premiums paid by the smoker. And while costs should not be the main motivation to help people understand the consequences of vaping, it is the long-term reduction of the quality of life for those who continue to vape just as it was and is with those still smoking cigarettes.

As we did more than 50 years ago with our campaign to get people to stop or not start smoking, should we not be doing the same to get people to understand better the harm being done by vaping?

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…

Dan Reider was a consulting mechanical engineer for more than 30 years designing primarily educational and healthcare facilities. He is currently working as a Project Manager for the Construction and Planning Department at the University of South Carolina.

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