Effects of Smoking – E-Cigarettes Versus Tobacco Cigarettes

E-cigarettes are the new up and coming product.  What is so special about E-cigarettes?  I was curious so I did some research and this is what I found out.  E-cigarettes smoke like real cigarettes with none of the disgusting side effects.  E-cigarettes are becoming the alternative to smoking real cigarettes.

Did you know that there are 599 additives in a tobacco cigarette, and that is not the worst part.  The burning of these additives changes their chemical compounds.  The burning of a cigarette while smoking produces over 4,000 chemical compounds, of which many are toxic and/or carcinogenic.  Not to mention the smoke that you inhale, which contains carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrogen cyanide, and ammonia, all of which are devastating to your health.  43 known carcinogens are in the smoke that you breathe and share with others around you.

The E-cigarette has no tobacco, smoke, or combustion involved in its operation; therefore, no burned chemicals.  E-cigarettes contain 20 ingredients, which are used in our food, health, and beauty products.  They have about the same amount of TSNAs (tobacco specific nitrosamines) as in FDA approved Nicotine Replacement Therapy products.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO):

·         Every 8 seconds someone dies from tobacco use.  Smoking related diseases kill 1 in 10 adults globally, or cause 4 million deaths.  By the year 2030, if current trends continue, smoking will kill 1 in 6 people.

·         About 12 times more British people have died from smoking than from World War II.  Staggering.

·         Cigarettes cause more than 1 in 5 American deaths.

·         Half of the long-term smokers will die from tobacco and every cigarette that you smoke cuts at least 5 minutes off of your life expectancy.  That is about the time it takes for you to smoke it.

·         Smoking is the single largest preventable cause of death and premature death.  It is a prime factor in heart disease, stroke, and chronic lung disease.  It can also cause cancer, which affects many parts of the body.

·         At least ¼ of all deaths from heart diseases and about ¾ of the world’s chronic bronchitis are related to smoking.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death and was among the first diseases causally linked to smoking.  Lung cancer is obviously one of the major diseases attributed to smoking.  But, did you know that smoking also causes cancer of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, bladder, stomach, and even the cervix, kidneys, and pancreas.  It’s true.

One of the big benefits of vaping (what they call smoking an E-cigarette) instead of smoking tobacco cigarettes is that the idea is to lower these statistics and lessen the devastating health effects of smoking tobacco.  Vaping an E-cigarette will not eliminate these statistics, but the hope is that the use of this product will lessen the damages caused because of fewer detrimental chemicals in the E-cigarette.

Vaping E-cigarettes does eliminate the need for nasty, stinky, tar sticky, ashtrays lying around.  They do not cause bad cigarette breath.  No cigarette smelling clothes.  No smoky smelling cars.  No cigarette butts to dispose of “properly”. 

And, obviously, one of the biggest benefits is no second-hand smoke, so no more being ostracized from the public.  This product is not as offensive as cigarettes and may become an acceptable alternative to smoking tobacco cigarettes in public.  And, of course my biggest hope is that by using this product, smokers will be able to wean themselves off cigarettes completely and reap all of the benefits of quitting.

KimberlyAnn