The Truth About Vaping Safety

Vaping related deaths and illnesses have made headlines across the USA and UK in recent months and concerns have been raised about the overall safety of vaping. These are serious issues but there are specific causes of the recent spate of incidents in the USA and these don’t relate to vaping with iBreathe products which remains a safe and effective way to start stopping.

Here is an outline of the differences, plus our advice on how to use vaping as a pathway to giving up smoking.

Current UK Regulations

Regulations surrounding the ingredients used in vaping products in the UK and Europe are particularly strict, thanks to the European Commission’s Tobacco Products Directive, introduced in 2014 and enforced in 2017. To ensure  the highest levels of safety and quality, strict manufacturing and labelling requirements are in place, as are rules surrounding the detailed listing of all ingredients.

There are clear limits on the level of nicotine which e-cigarettes may contain and these regulations have helped to make vaping a safe activity. Since vaping started there has not been a single vaping related death in the UK, despite an estimated 3.6 million individuals using vaping products.

USA Deaths

The deaths reported in the USA have occurred as a result of the use of unregulated e-cigarette cartridges, containing chemicals such as THC,CBD and Vitamin E acetate oil. These products contain a huge number of contaminants and have been produced illegally. In the UK, cartridges bought from reputable suppliers such as iBreathe do not contain these chemicals. We cannot stress enough that cartridges should not be replaced with those bought from an unknown and unregulated supplier.

Clive Bates, a former director at the ASH (Action on Smoking and Health), when speaking to the Sunday Times, recently stated that the deaths seen in the USA have “nothing to do with regulated vaping. These deaths are caused by cannabis-based products made in backstreet factories, but they’re being used to intensify an already existing moral panic.”.

The NHS View on Stopping Smoking

In research and studies, e-cigarettes have consistently been found to be safer than tobacco cigarettes and are effective at helping smokers to quit. The NHS states that: “Many thousands of people in the UK have already stopped smoking with the help of an e-cigarette, and there is growing evidence that they can be effective. A major UK clinical trial found that, when combined with expert face-to-face support, people who used e-cigarettes to quit smoking were twice as likely to succeed as people who used other nicotine replacement products such as patches or gum.

“Using an e-cigarette can help you manage your nicotine cravings. To get the best out of it, make sure you’re using it as much as you need to and with the right strength of nicotine in your e-liquid. You won’t get the full benefit from vaping unless you stop smoking cigarettes completely. You can get advice from a specialist vape shop or your local stop smoking service.

“Getting expert help from your local stop smoking service gives you the best chance of quitting for good.”

20,000 People per Year Helped to Quit in the UK Recent figures indicate that as many as 20,000 Britons a year have been helped to quit smoking by using vaping products.

Public Health England (PHE) experts, writing in the peer reviewed medical journal, The Lancet, have stated that “the overall risk of harm is estimated at less than 5% of that from smoking tobacco; the risk of cancer has been calculated to be less than 1%.” The organisation therefore views e-cigarettes as considerably better for the body than traditional cigarettes.

In addition to this, PHE’s tobacco control lead, Martin Dockerell has suggested that e-cigarettes should be available in hospital shops and that smoking shelters should be replaced with vaping lounges, to facilitate the transition from tobacco cigarettes to vaping products. It has also been suggested by PHE that GPs should be allowed to prescribe vaping products on the NHS to help smokers quit.

The use of e-cigarettes is a legitimate pathway to reducing a smoker’s nicotine dependency and ultimately quitting smoking entirely. We do not, however, advocate that individuals who are not currently smokers take up vaping, iBreathe want to encourage smokers to use vaping as the most effective method of quitting smoking.

The Case for Using Vaping as a Pathway to Better Health A recent medical trial, the largest of its kind, has suggested that by replacing cigarettes with vaping products, smokers can dramatically improve the health of their hearts. A study carried out by the University of Dundee, involving 114 smokers, suggested that vaping could reduce the chance of heart attacks and strokes in smokers.

Cigarette smoke is known to cause the buildup of fatty deposits within the body, ultimately leading to narrowed arteries and a doubling in the chance of having a heart attack. As part of the study, the scientists measured how effectively blood vessels were able to expand when waves of blood flowed through them. The greater the expansion, the healthier the heart and vessels. The results, which have been published in the Amercian College of Cardiology, show that healthy non-smokers had a ‘flow-mediated dilation’ score of 7.7%, with smokers having a score of 5.5%. However, those who made the change to nicotine e-cigarettes for just a month scored 6.7%, showing that switching to e-cigarettes leads to an improved vascular function.

Such reductions occur because vaping products produce few of the harmful chemicals found in tobacco smoke. E-cigarettes do not produce carbon monoxide or tar, which are perhaps the most damaging constituents of cigarette smoke. Furthermore, they do not burn tobacco. They do, however, contain nicotine. Yet research has shown that nicotine has been found to be relatively harmless in e-cigarettes. It is only when combined with the various chemicals found in cigarettes that nicotine based products have a detrimental effect on the body.

Secondary Smoking

The advantages of using e-cigarettes over conventional cigarettes extends to those around the smoker too. The NHS has stated that “there is no evidence that vaping causes harm to other people around you. The available evidence indicates that any risk of harm is extremely low, especially when compared with secondhand tobacco smoke.”

Flavoured Liquids

In the US, bans have been implemented on the sale of flavoured e-cigarettes. We believe that by offering a range of flavoured liquids, we can more easily attract smokers who wish to have a more pleasant alternative to tobacco cigarettes available to them. We do not intend for our flavoured products to attract non-smokers and young people.

To Sum Up

iBreathe Products are fully compliant with UK regulations and are safe when properly used. We are providing an opportunity for those who are ready to quit, to choose a safe and effective alternative to smoking tobacco, one that will ultimately help them quit for good.

We would welcome anyone with any concerns they have about the use of vaping products with our team at iBreathe.