E-cigarettes vs traditional cigarettes

2022-10-14

What is an electronic cigarette?
What is an electronic cigarette? Is it good or bad?

Can electronic cigarette really help to quit smoking?


In fact, e-cigarettes contain nicotine, which is harmful, but much better than cigarettes. They are substitutes for cigarettes belonging to smokers. If you have ever searched the introduction of e-cigarettes curiously, you may have seen some domestic merchants blowing e-cigarettes into medicines, claiming that e-cigarettes are "healthy and harmless" and "lung clearing and detoxification". You may have seen some other popular science articles in Chinese, recounting the dangers of electronic cigarettes, and some even claimed that "electronic cigarettes have a carcinogenic rate 7 times higher than cigarettes!" Is electronic smoke harmful? And is electronic cigarettes more harmful than traditional cigarettes? To answer these two questions, we should first briefly understand the structure of the electronic cigarette.
The electronic cigarette is usually divided into two parts: electronic atomizer and nicotine containing liquid (tobacco oil). These two parts are similar to the relationship between pen and ink, syringe and medicine. The principle of electronic cigarette is to atomize the tobacco oil to form nicotine smoke, and the smoker inhales the smoke into the body like smoking. This item is also called "vape" in English, sometimes also called electronic atomizer. Of course, sometimes, the electronic cigarette also refers to a low temperature flue-cured tobacco type electronic cigarette, also known as "IQOS", which will not be discussed here.

We first draw a conclusion that smoking electronic cigarettes is not completely harmless to health. The CDC's assessment on electronic cigarettes is that electronic cigarettes are a new thing, and the health effects of long-term use are unknown. Electronic cigarettes usually contain nicotine, which is harmful to the development of the fetus and the cognitive development of young people under 25 years old. Therefore, teenagers should never smoke electronic cigarettes. In addition to nicotine, the aerosols of electronic smoke are not completely harmless. They contain some small particles that may cause cancer, as well as some heavy metals and volatile mixtures. Some studies also show that electronic smoke can increase the risk of heart disease and cancer. However, although e-cigarettes are not as "completely harmless" as some businesses claim, compared with traditional cigarettes, e-cigarettes are much less harmful. If you cannot quit smoking, you can temporarily use e-cigarettes, but you must strictly quit smoking, which is the best for your health.

After weighing the advantages and disadvantages of public institutions in Britain and the United States, they tend to think that electronic cigarettes are better than cigarettes for smokers. In 2015, the Public Health Bureau of England (PHE) released a 113 page report, which analyzed various risks of electronic cigarettes in detail. The report concluded that electronic cigarettes are 95% safer than smoking. Policies should encourage smokers to use electronic cigarettes as a key smoking control strategy to reduce the harm caused by smoking. Note that it is to encourage "smokers", not everyone. Those who are addicted to smoking can use electronic cigarettes instead. Those who are not addicted to smoking are advised to quit smoking immediately. Despite being questioned by many parties, the Public Health Agency of England still insists that electronic cigarettes are 95% safer than smoking in 2018.
In February 2018, the American Cancer Society (ACS) also issued a position statement: although the long-term effects of using electronic cigarettes are not clear, it can be estimated that it is less harmful than ordinary cigarettes. The association definitely encourages people to try to use electronic cigarettes instead of traditional cigarettes. The association also suggested that clinicians recommend electronic cigarettes to smokers to replace traditional cigarettes. Of course, electronic cigarette is only a transitional state, and quitting smoking should always be the first choice.

If nicotine patches, nicotine chewing gum or nicotine sprays are used to deliver nicotine into the blood when quitting smoking, the withdrawal reaction of quitting smoking can be alleviated and the success rate of quitting smoking can be improved. In 1996, the World Health Organization (WHO) formally recommended nicotine replacement therapy to all countries. FDA also approved at least four legal nicotine substitutes to assist in smoking cessation. However, although e-cigarettes are similar to nicotine substitutes, the use of e-cigarettes is similar to smoking in behavior, so it cannot be simply considered that e-cigarettes can help to quit smoking. If you want to quit smoking, please strictly reduce the amount of smoking gradually, so as to reduce the intake of nicotine. You can quit smoking by slowly reducing nicotine.

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