It’s time to cough up the truth about these toxic vapes.
Even though 85% of e-cigarette users said they took up vaping to quit, they were no more likely to give up cigarettes than people who skipped vaping, according to a 2013 study across four countries in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Reports show that taking up e-cigs makes smokers less likely to quit, with 70% turning into dual users.
A 2017 Harvard study analysed 24 different flavoured e-cigarette brands and found all had at least one aldehyde or flavouring chemical on the FEMA “High Priority Chemicals” or FDA Harmful and Potentially Harmful Constituents lists.
An outbreak of lung injuries associated with e-cigarette use, or vaping, that began in 2019 led to 2,807 hospitalisations and 68 deaths in less than a year.
One contributing factor to the outbreak was attributed to a chemical called ‘vitamin E acetate’ — the name acting as a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
We don’t know how the ingredients—propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, flavourings, and other additives—react or interact when they’re heated, aerosolised, and used 20 to 30 times a day more than their FDA approval intends.
A study from Johns Hopkins looked at 56 different e-cigs and found a significant number of the devices generated aerosols with potentially unsafe levels of lead, chromium, manganese, and/or nickel—chronic inhalation of which has been linked to lung, liver, immune, cardiovascular, and brain damage, even some cancers.
These metals are the result of the metal coils heating and leaking toxic substances.
To make matters worse, a common artificial sweetener, ethyl maltol, has been known to help transport heavy metals into cells — dramatically increasing the health hazards.
Vaping also exposes you to high levels of ultra-fine particles and other toxins that can increase your risk of non-cancer lung disease (and cardiovascular disease)—at rates similar to conventional cigarettes.
Inhaling ultra-fine particles activates platelets, causing them to stick to other free-floating platelets — contributing to the clotting risk factors.
A 2022 study found that vaping doubles the risk of erectile dysfunction in men aged 20 and older.
A study from 2020 analysed 1,221 men and found a 34% reduction in total sperm count compared to non-users (137 million vs. 91 million).
E-cigarettes contain endocrine disrupting compounds that can disrupt hormonal balance and reproductive function.
A study with a total of 71,940 participants found unfavourable birth outcomes increased by 62% among women who reported e-cigarette use during pregnancy versus women who did not.
Research conducted at the University of California San Francisco, found that smoking e-cigarettes daily doubled the risk of heart attack, while dual-users have a 5 times higher risk of heart attack compared to non-smokers.
Another study assessed the 10 top-selling U.S. brands and found endotoxins above the limit of detection in 23% of samples tested.
Research out of Poland suggests that acrolein, formaldehyde, and ultra-fine particles created when the e-liquid is heated, accelerate the hardening and narrowing of your arteries by over 1.6 times.
Research from a 2018 study in the British Medical Journal Thorax, found that vaping also lowers your ability to fight off an infection. The vapour harms alveolar macrophages, part of our main respiratory immune response that gets rid of infections, toxins, and allergens.
My personal take is that adult pacifiers are making our society weak. They outsource the responsibility to regulate our emotions and stress levels, disrupting our hormones and brain chemistry.
The excuse that vaping is better for society is weak. Each vape contains a lithium-ion battery: altogether, within the UK, enough lithium is thrown away in vapes to make 1,200 electric vehicle batteries each year.
E-cigarette use is only growing while we have very limited research available on its real health impacts — let alone long-term damage.
Don’t be society’s guinea pig.
Please share and expose the dirty little secrets on the dark side of vaping.