How safe is vaping?

On the heels of another damning statistic against tobacco — it kills more than 7 million people each year, the World Health Organizationsaid recently— come questions about whether vaping is a healthier substitute.The idea that they could be stems from the fact that e-cigarettes and other vaping devices can supply nicotine without tobacco or other additives and byproducts, like smoke, that are in a traditional cigarette. A2014 survey of 19,000 e-cigarette users found that 88 percent believed e-cigarettes were at least safer than regular cigarettes and 11 percent believed e-cigarettes were harmless. More recently,a report published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that only 22 percent of adults believed secondhand vape aerosol caused “a lot of harm” to children.The public, it seems, has warmed up to vaping, but that doesn ’t mean the practice is safe, say two UCLA doctors.“The way a regular cigarette is constructed is very well-known, whereas these vaping products haven’t undergone the rigorous testing of other consumer products,” said Dr. Michael Ong, associate professor of medicine at theDavid Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and chair of the California Tobacco Education and Research Oversight Committee. “They’re so new that it hasn’t been clear how they should be regulated.”Vaping entails using a device that heats liquid and nicotine (or another substance) so the user can inhale the byproduct. Vaping devices come in the f...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news