So, there have been a lot of articles and misinformation regarding vaping, e-cigarettes, or whatever other term fits the editor’s fancy. The short version of what this process involves is heating a liquid or juice to make it evaporate and then inhaling that vapor. That’s it. This is similar to a vaporizer that someone might use to treat respiratory issues. The main difference between the two applications being that one delivers medicine and one can deliver nicotine. Also the vapers, people who vape, tend to have portable devices rather than a breathing treatment system like an asthma or other respiratory treatment which is usually immobile.

There should be a few things said about recent clickbait fear mongering articles that people love to bring up if they find you are a vaper. These are provided in bullet and answer form for your convenience.

• You’re inhaling antifreeze! – Well, no. There is an ingredient in juice that is also present in antifreeze. It is also in a number of foods you eat. Calm down.
• Kids and pets are killing themselves! – Perhaps. Overdosing on Drano will kill you too. It’s about being responsible with drugs, chemicals, even foods.
• Those e-cigs blow up! – Well, so do 9-volt batteries if you aren’t careful. If someone combines an improper battery and vaporizer, yes, it can explode.
• Kids are taking this up! – They have sex too. I don’t think kids should vape, but I’d rather they do this than cigarettes or weed. It’s a fad and will fade like they do.
• Those things put out formaldehyde, etc. – The study that showed this result superheated the liquid to a point you couldn’t inhale it. If you superheat macaroni and cheese it might put out some nasty stuff too.
• Do you even know what’s in that thing? – To a detailed level, no. It could be acid for all I know. However reputable juice mixers have their ingredients listed on the side and have a great incentive to be honest – money. Juice is incredibly cheap to make, especially on scale. If someone puts out questionable product word gets around and they don’t make money. People like money. Most juice contains very few things: Propylene Glycol, Vegetable Glycerin, food-grade flavorings, nicotine, and maybe citric acid. The citric acid is in extremely small amounts and adds tartness. It’s also in your foods.

So if you have any reason in you at all you should be able to tell that the latest fad of vaping is not likely to do much harm to anyone. No, there have not been long term studies regarding the effects of vaping versus smoking cigarettes. Personally the very short list of ingredients and fact that I can now breathe easily means that I will keep vaping for the foreseeable future. Maybe I’ll grow a third arm. I can tell you for sure that smoking cigarettes will likely give you cancer, lung disease, heart disease, emphysema, and a host of other horrible things. I’ll take my chances on the new deal that I know what it contains.