E-cigarettes are incredibly popular. But there’s been a lot of debate as to whether the device is a healthy solution to the smoking epidemic or if it’s the opposite: a huge looming threat to public health.
Vox.com did the dirty work and sorted through dozens of studies, articles and reviews and interviewed a handful of researchers and health experts. We encourage you to read the entire article (link below) for specific details on the studies, but here’s their bottom line:
If you’re a chronic smoker looking for a nicotine fix and trying to decide between smoking and vaping, most experts would agree there’s a compelling case that e-cigarettes are less harmful.
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But a nonsmoker, or an ex-smoker, should think twice before taking up the habit. Even if e-cigarettes are safer than regular cigarettes, that doesn’t mean they’re totally safe. At this point, we just don’t know. There have been no published long-term studies on the health of e-cigarette users, so the impact of vaping on the body over many years or decades is completely unknown.
The article states that many of the studies out there are limited in scope and flawed. It turns out that in as many as one-third of e-cigarette studies, the authors have declared a conflict of interest, which raises questions about bias.
All this to say that scientists don’t yet know the long-term health effects of e-cigarettes—whether they actually help people quit smoking, and how they’ll affect the use of other nicotine products.
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So if you’re a chronic smoker, e-cigarettes could be a less destructive way to get your nicotine fix. If you don’t currently smoke at all, it’s probably best to stay away from vaping because we still have no idea about its long-term health impact.
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Curated Articles from: The Vox and ScienceDirect
