Let’s talk vaping; what is the big deal?

BY JONELL PANTLITZ
TC JUNIOR REPORTER

Are you a smoker? Or maybe I should ask, are you a vaper? It seems to be the new popular thing of my generation, (Gen Z) society in general.

Lately, there has been a lot of attention given to smoking/vaping.

For anyone who may be clueless about “vaping” according to the Center Of Addiction, “Vaping is the act of inhaling and exhaling the aerosol, often referred to as vapour, which is produced by an e-cigarette or similar device.” The term is used because e-cigarettes do not produce tobacco smoke, but rather an aerosol, often mistaken for water vapour, that actually consists of fine particles.

According to Vaping Daily and Dentalcare.com, “The first smokeless, non-tobacco cigarette device was patented by Herbert A. Gilbert in 1967. This non-tobacco cigarette was thought to be a safe and harmless method of smoking by replacing burning tobacco and paper with heated, moist, flavoured air.”

It was in the 2000’s that a Chinese pharmacist Hon Lik made the first e-cigarette. In 2006 his employer Ruyan Group (now Dragonite International) helped him introduce his invention to the world (first to Europe).The first e-cigarette appeared in the United States in 2007 and has become a very popular trend among people. Since then, vaporizers have gone through many modifications.”

Now that we have covered the fundamentals about the Vape/E-cigarettes, let’s cover the misinformation spread by health officials that reveals their bias against vaping.

Ottawa hosted its 12th annual conference on Smoking Cessation Through State-of-the-art Clinical Approaches. The first suspicion was that the vaping industry experts were not invited to participate; the conference did highlight a series of presenters, including Dr. Stanton Glantz as the keynote speaker. The Ottawa Sun reported that Dr. Glantz made a series of statements stating, “It is a myth that e-cigarettes are helping people quit smoking. There is evidence that vaping products are helpful as part of smoking cessation programs, but research looking at people outside of supervised programs suggests these products can make it harder to quit smoking.”

Although advocates tout vaping as a solution to smoking, research shows that, for every adult who quits smoking using e-cigarettes, 80 kids started vaping. It is also true that each day, about 2,000 people younger than 18 years smoke their first cigarette, and over 300 people younger than 18 years become daily cigarette smokers.

It was also reported that the number of people who vape in the UK has increased from 700,000 in 2012 to 3.6 million in 2019. “Of these, 54% had given up smoking,” says Darryl Tempest, Executive Director of the Canadian Vaping Association. The New England Journal of Medicine, states that vaping has an 18% success rate compared to the 10% success rate for those who quit smoking with other NRT products.

Based on the findings of the Royal College of Physicians, it has been concluded that vaping nicotine e-liquid is at least 95% less harmful than combustible tobacco.  Between 2017 and 2018 current youth vapers increased by 74% in Canada and 46% in the US, compared to 2% in the UK where nicotine levels are capped at 20 mg/ml. Note that in the UK, where youth vaping rates are much lower, there are no restrictions whatsoever on flavours. There is some evidence that the high nicotine levels, not flavours, are responsible for attracting youth.

CVA has many recommendations to address youth uptake, while allowing adult smokers to make informed decisions and protect themselves from black market products. All vaping product sales, including flavoured e-liquids are limited to adult-only access retail environments.

For more information visit: canadianvapingassociation.org.