In recent years, the vaping community has exploded into a juggernaut. With the ever growing popularity, the once not-so-known about vaporizers are now under scrutiny. With so much attention being garnered by opposing oppositions, especially from Big Tobacco, the devices being bought and sold by vapers and vape shop owners are under question. Mainly, the devices that are being produced at a rapid pace: are they safe to use? We will try to examine this question and explain what the concerns are.

Recently, concerns about aldehydes and formaldehyde has raised the question of how eliquids are produced and eventually vaporized, inhaled, and exhaled from heat produced off a vaporizer, aka e-cig. Formaldehyde has been researched to produce nasal tumors in lab rats. In humans, lower doses have irritated eyes and air passages. But the study is limited. Everyday emissions given off from motor vehicles add to levels of formaldehyde in the air we breathe. So it is difficult to say the exact level of what is getting into the body from which factor. A study published by Dr. Konstantinos Farsalinos back on May 21, 2015 titled “E-Cigarettes Generate High Levels of Aldehydes Only In “Dry Puff” Conditions” debunks a research paper published in January of 2015. The New England Journal of Medicine had published the paper, “Hidden Formaldehyde in E-Cigarette Aerosols”. The study done by Dr. Farsalinos shows that vapers are not exposed to high, dangerous levels of aldehydes. It continues to show that e-cigs are 95% safer than actual smoking. Minimal levels of aldehydes that were detected shows that it was far less then in tobacco cigarette smoke, 30-250 times lower. In comparison, a 2013 study reported similar results in Poland. The Poland study was conducted on a dozen e-cig brands. The levels found in the study showed that e-cig vapor were 9-450 times lower compared to what was found in conventional cigarettes.

By looking at the numbers presented by the two studies conducted, you can come to the conclusion that vaping is safer than smoking traditional tobacco cigarettes. To take it a step further, a new study that was reported in regulatory toxicology and pharmacology of leading American and British brands, found the same levels of potentially hazardous substances in e-cig aerosol in ambient air. Scientists have claimed that e-cigs produce vapor that has no toxic effect on the cells found in the human lungs. While these studies and findings do not prove that vaping is completely safe, they do however disprove many of the claims made in the California Public Health Department Report on E-Cigs and Vaping, which was released in January of 2015.

Studies and research are still being conducted on the long term effects of vaping. We do not know for certain the long term effects vaping and e-liquid vapor have on our body, on our internal organs, on our long term health, but according to the studies aforementioned, it is safe to say they will not compare to the long term effects of smoking. Most of us know that at least for the short term, vaping has become a savior. I can attest to that fact. I was an avid smoker for 20 years. Immediate, positive effects became noticeable once I picked up vaping. And my story is just one of the many smokers turned vaper over the years. If you needed to decide if picking up vaping is safe or not, then just sit down with a vaper and he or she will tell you it definitely is.