Mar
16
Introduction
The debate between vaping being better than smoking rages on, not without contradictions, though. So, in this article, we will explore why the vape pen is mightier than the cigarette.
We will use various parameters to make the comparison.
Vaping versus cigarette smoking
1. Chemical composition
Cigarettes have around 600 additives. When they burn, they become 4,000 compounds. Here is a breakdown of some of these chemical compounds:
- Ammonia – a household cleaner
- Arsenic – used in rat poison
- Butane – a gas usually used in lighter fluid
- Cadmium – used in batteries
- DDT – a banned insecticide
- Lead
- Methoprene – an insecticide
- Maltitol – used as a sweetener for people with diabetes
- Fungicides and pesticides
- Benzene – causes Leukemia, used to make dyes and synthetic rubber
- Nickel – makes you susceptible to lung infections
These are just a few of the compounds. What this shows is that cigarettes are basically poison to the body.
On the other hand, vape pens heat waxes, dry herbs or oils. These materials are heated to the point of vaporization. They do not get to the materials’ ignition temperature. The vapor is made of almost entirely of the materials burned. For the vaporizer pen to be effective, the concentrates (oils and wax) need to be liquid enough. If they are not, the concentrate will burn and produce smoke. Vaporizers do not produce any smoke. It, therefore, contains no tar or other carcinogenic substances found in cigarette smoke.
2. Effects on the respiratory system
As aforementioned, the vapor from the vape pen is largely made up of the ingredients of the material being vaporized. When you smoke a cigarette, the active ingredient is destroyed leaving you to inhale the above discussed toxic byproducts. This smoke causes lung and several other disorders. In a recent study, daily cigarette smokers who began vaping showed significant improvements in their lung health. They experienced less shortness of breath and coughed up less phlegm.
3. Smell
Smoking cigarettes leaves you with a smell everywhere, from the clothes, your hair, house, and fingers. Everything you own just seems to have that cigar smell. Using cologne to douse the smell just makes it worse. Vaping does not produce any smell. You will not also have to deal with cigar burns on your surfaces like in the car or on the carpet.
4. Customization
Some vape pens allow you to limit the number of draws. This way, you inhale a limited amount of vapor (therefore the ingredients vaporized). It is very difficult to control the number of cigarettes that you can take in a day, especially, if you are already addicted to nicotine.
5. Other health effects
In a recent research to show how vaping and smoking affect human tissue, cells were exposed to vapor from a vaporizer every 3 days, between 1 and 8 weeks. Another set of cells was exposed to cigarette smoke. The latter died within 24 hours. The former survived longer. The dose of vapor used was equivalent …