As a long time JAC vaper, loyal member of staff and research aficionado, my finger's always on the pulse of vaping news. I follow tweets, read newspaper articles, scour blogs online, take part in heated discussions, join forum debates and am regularly stopped in my tracks by things that make me go 'aaaaargh'.
At times frustration gives way to hilarity at the general nonsense published, so I thought I'd share my top 5 'Vaping Statements that Make Me Go Aargh'.
Here they are:
"It's still smoking"
Has there ever been a more misunderstood statement? No tobacco, no combustion, no smoke. It's vaping, people. You don't smoke an e-cig, you vape it. Just wanted to be clear about that.
Now for a wee bit on the science. E-liquid contains on average 16 ingredients, while traditional cigarettes are known to produce 3,000-4,000 chemicals, 60+ of which are known carcinogens.
"The Government study, the formaldehyde, the heavy metals, the…"
Yikes, I'm scared. In fact I'm terrified, I must put my e-cig down immediately and never touch it again. No wait – here comes sense to slap me in the face.
With every new 'research' article that's released, within 24 hours there are a thousand disproving it. In the case of the formaldehyde argument, even the researchers themselves claimed they were misquoted and admitted their research was presented as an extreme case, and could not be applied to real world vaping habits. This is not the first time this has happened.
What is more dangerous – real cigarettes (my old habit) or electronic cigarettes (my new habit)?
We've known for the past 50 years at least, that traditional cigarettes are harmful to our health. It's the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the UK.
Lesson – don't believe everything you read. And don't read opinion as fact.
"E-cigarettes will re-normalise smoking"
Let me put this simply; e-cigarettes will only normalise e-cigarettes – not re-normalise smoking.
Vaping is vaping, smoking is smoking. They are two completely different verbs, the Oxford dictionary even says so.
No study has found the claim to be true – in fact the very opposite. See 82% of JAC customers surveyed no longer smoke traditional cigarettes now that they vape.
Evidence - There's certainly evidence that e-cigs have contributed to a reduction in smoking rates, and is this not their goal? E-cigarettes have been on the market for 10 years now. In that time we've seen a greater decline in smoking rates, than previously.
Safe - Following on from my last point, I'm just going to leave this here: The Ultimate List of E-Cig Studies: Are E-Cigs Actually Safe?
At JAC our ultimate goal is to provide a quality, reliable product, that's safe and gives great performance. We go above and beyond to achieve this. As always, make sure you purchase from a reputable supplier that has all the legal safety certifications. To find out more visit JAC Vapour – Safety Info.
To bastardise the words of George Orwell, ‘Certified good, uncertified bad'.
"It's better to use approved methods"
Ah yes, the approved ‘NRT' products with a 7% success rate. Let's turn that around – a 93% fail rate. Pretty high. Fab if NRT works for you, but clearly many don't find this to be the case.
There's plenty of quality research online discussing the efficacy of NRT products and programs. Here's one that compares NRT products to e-cigarettes.
Whatever floats your boat – but let's not preach to grown adult smokers. We should be able to use what works for us, with proportionate regulation. Thanks very much.