Smoking vs Vaping video needs debunking itself

A new video has emerged online by AsapSCIENCE that has attempted to lift the smoke clouding the mystery of how healthy vaping actually is. The video has created quite a stir, attracting over 1 million views since being uploaded yesterday.

The educational video first illustrates how smoking affects your health and explains how the combustion and the smoke inhalation from a cigarette is harmful. Then the commentator moves on to e cigarettes and this is where some of the information is not as clear. We think the video has good intentions and had the opportunity to help the wider population and their understanding of e cigarettes, but reveals nothing new and ignores recent research about e cigarettes that could have made this video great.

AsapSCIENCE make a good point about vaping not being around long enough to know the real effects of continuous vapour inhalation on lung health. We agree that this is something that requires further research and, we’re glad to say it is currently being explored by the likes of Queen Mary University.

However, the claim that e cigarettes are not an effective quit smoking solution is one that does not sit well. Last week, The American Cancer Society asked a very simple question on their Facebook Page “how did you quit smoking?”. This post has received over 3500 comments and counting. And 95% of responses include vaper’s posting their stories of how vaping got them to quit for good. That’s over 3000 solid testimonials of people and their journeys who stopped smoking using vaping. This is not the first time we’ve heard positive reviews of e cigarettes as a stop smoking solution, the Quit programme in Leicester are leading the way after a successful pilot scheme testing e cigarettes to help smokers with schizophrenia to quit. A report published by ASH last year also showed that there was evidence in support of e cigarettes as effective in helping smokers quit. So the myth-busting video seems to be in need of some debunking itself.

There was another point about Diacetyl, which is an ingredient included in some e liquids. Now, the use of this chemical has reduced dramatically ever since research last year showed that it caused a disease known as popcorn lung. None of Vapourlites’ e liquids include Diacetyl for that very reason and the research was widely publicised at the time, so many vapour and e cigarette users are aware of Diacteyl and only choose e liquids that are Diacetyl-free. This point is a none mover in the e cigarette community and serves only to depreciate the value of an industry trying to clean up its image.

Following the video, Esquire posted an article as part of its coverage and they used the headline “Vaping Is Better Than Smoking, But It Will Probably Kill You”. Wait what? Well hang on a second there Esquire, what substantiating bit of evidence do you have to support that kind of claim? If you do, we’d love to hear about it, in fact, we’re sure the vaping community and the rest of the world would need to know that kind of news. Or as we predict, this is yet another baiting headline to bash vaping with no substance to back it up, but if not, please get in touch.