Vaping vs Smoking: Are Disposable Vapes a Safe Option?

In the past ten years, vaping or the use of electronic cigarettes has grown famous and is increasingly becoming a trend compared tobacco smoking. 

 In fact, the proportion of adults with the usage of e-cigarettes, 16 years and over rose from 3.7% in 2014 /15 and by 8. 7% in 2022/23 there has been right change in the smoking methods. 

However, with the increase in vaping especially with the disposables, there are still many people who tend to ask, are disposables safer than smoking? 

The purpose of this article will be to talk about the risks associated with smoking and vaping devices particularly with regards to the disposable vapes. Now, it is time to have a scientific approach to it and give tips that will help you make choices regarding your health. 

Understanding The Disposable Vapes 

Now that we are going to compare vaping and smoking, it is only proper that we first understand what disposable vapes are. Single use vaping devices that are ready to use and come with batteries and e liquids and are disposed when they are out of liquid or battery. Disposable vapes are less complicated than refillable vaping devices which makes them easier to use but at the same time they produce more waste and are usually not as flexible. 

What Disposable Vape Consists Of?

Most disposable vapes contain the following ingredients: 

• Nicotine
• Propylene Glycol and Vegetable Glycerin
• Flavorings
• Other Chemicals

Why Do People Go For Vapes? 

Smoking is known as one of the big sources of concern in the society for many years now. It is also important to note that normal cigarettes include thousands of other cancer causing substances, chemicals leading to cancer, heart diseases, and respiratory ailments. 

Quitting smoking is one of the best steps anyone can take for their health, but nicotine addiction makes it incredibly difficult.

This has been found to be helpful as vaping has been adopted by the individuals as an alternative to smoking because it enables the user to take nicotine without burning the tobacco. This reduces the number of dangerous chemicals present in cigarettesmoke by a very big margin. The individuals consider vaping to be a cleaner, safer way of taking cigarettes, especially when using a disposable vape. 

But the real question remains: Are disposable vapes healthier than the refillable ones or is it a different kind of harm associated with them? 

The Health Risks of Smoking

Smoking is deadly & this is not a secret to anyone. The death rates caused by traditional cigarettes are in millions and the harms of smoking are not a secret as they have been scientifically studied. 

Now it is about time to turn to some of the most severe negative health impacts associated with smoking. 

Cancer 

Tobacco has been proved to cause cancer especially lung cancer, and this has been attributed to being one of the main causes of cancer in the world. Cigarette has more than seventy different carcinogenic chemicals and most of these chemicals affect the cells of the lungs and cause cancerous growths. The other diseases caused by smoking include mouth, throat, esophagus, pancreatic, and bladder cancer. 

Respiratory Diseases 

Smoking is one of the leading causes of respiratory illnesses such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD, and emphysema. When you breathe in cigarette smoke it is easy to cause inflammation to the respiratory tracts and lungs for a long time. Smoking becomes dangerous as it results in chronic coughing, shortness of breath and reduced lung capacity after sometime. 

Heart Disease 

Tobacco smoking is an independent risk factor for heart disease. Smoking also impairs the blood vessel lining by making it thinner and thus has the potential of accumulating fatty materials that blocks the blood passageway. It also raises the likelihood that you will have a heart attack, stroke or peripheral arterial disease. 

Reduced Immune Function 

Smoking also reduces the immunity of your body hence it is more likely for your body to be infected by diseases. It can result to increased likelihood of contracting common flu, having frequent respiratory infections, and slow recovery from cuts and other injuries. Smoking for the long term may also be risky for the development of autoimmune diseases among the users. 

Reproductive Health Issues 

Smoking has been known to cause erectile dysfunction in men, infertility and complications during pregnancy in women. It is also dangerous for a woman to smoke during pregnancy since it may cause the baby to have a low birth weight, be born prematurely, or have birth complications. 

Vaping Health Concerns

Unlike cigarette smoke, vaping is not risk-free though  it eliminates the mixture of a majority of the unhealthy chemicals. 

While the consequences of vaping as a long-term practice and using disposable vapes are still unknown, some preliminary data indicate that it may be unsafe. Here are some of the potential health impact of disposable vapes:

Nicotine Addiction 

Let’s not deny the fact that if nicotine it is delivered in a puff of a cigarette or a puff of a vape, it is highly addictive. It is true that vaping minimizes people’s exposure to certain dangerous compounds, but as for the addictive potential of nicotine, it is not helped at all. Health risks of nicotine include heart disease, artery disease and possibly heart attack. Some of the people who use electronic cigarettes end up facing a lot of challenges of quitting as those who used to smoke normal cigarettes. 

Lung Irritation 

While vaping does not involve burning tobacco, it puts heated chemicals into your lungs. This is one of the potential health impacts in which the users develop respiratory problems within their trachea; this causes them to cough and have difficulties breathing. Researchers have also established that some of the liquids used in vapes especially those containing flavorants can cause lung irritation. 

Popcorn Lung 

Some of the more prominent risks associated with vaping include bronchiolitis obliterans often referred to as “popcorn lung. ” This is a situation whereby the small airways in your lungs clog and become narrow, thus causing one to have a hard time in breathing. The disease has been associated with a chemical called diacetyl found in some of the flavorings used in vapes but most of the famous vape companies do not use this chemical in their products. 

Ongoing Research on Health Risks of Vapes - Unknown Long-Term Effects

When it comes to health consideration, disposable vapes look safer than smoking but they also are dangerous in various ways, including unknown long-term impacts. 

 But, it has been less than a decade since vaping started and it takes several years for chronic health related issues to come up. Initial investigations into the health effects of vaping indicate that vaping may lead to lung diseases, cardiovascular disease and other complications, 

Is The Use of Disposable Vape Safe Than Cigarette? 

It is important to point out the distinction between vaping and smoking based on the risks that are established and the risks that may be potential. Even though vaping is believed to be less dangerous than smoking, that does not mean it is safe (as mentioned above). The question of the hour is whether the saving from deadly chemicals when switching from smoking to vaping is enough to make a noticeable difference in your body.

Disposable Vapes vs. Cigarettes

They are different in many aspects including the way they give their speeches, the language they use and the topics they discuss among other things. 

Should Non-Smokers Go For Disposable Vapes?

A major worry that exists with vaping is that a lot of people who have never been smokers are grabbing disposable vapes. However, for a non-smoker, vaping is far from being safe because although it’s better than smoking, it’s still dangerous. Nicotine has adverse effects on the body, more so when one is young, and introduction of this substance into the body’s system only leads to addiction among other complications. 

Thus it could be said that for non-smokers, the harms of vaping probably are more than the benefits. Some of the health concerns of vaping are shared above.

Environmental Impact of Disposable Vapes

Considering the Disposable Vape as an object that has been designed for use in the environment it is important that there be an investigation into the environmental impact of the Disposable Vape. 

In the battle of vaping vs smoking, mostly concerns health, one cannot ignore the part that these two habits play in polluting the environment. The cigarette butts are the most popular type of litter in the world and normally it takes 10 years for butts to decompose. On the same note, disposables are electronic wastes given that they come with built-in batteries and are used once before being discarded. 

 The disposable vapes are for a few uses then disposed of, and this makes them produce wastes more than the vaping gadgets that are reusable. Want to know more about the differences between refillable and disposable vapes? Read, Reusable Vapes or Disposable Vapes: What’s Right for You? This can be a problem to the environment since most of these devices end up as e-waste in cases of improper disposal. In most of the cases, the lithium-ion batteries used in disposable vapes may cause the leakage of dangerous chemicals in the soil and water.  Proper recycling of disposable vape is necessary.

Important Vaping Safety Tips

Now, if you’ve decided to switch from smoking to vaping, there are steps you can take to reduce the risks associated with disposable vapes:

Choose Trusted Brands

Not all the disposable vapes are of the same quality and standard in the market. It is recommended to buy products of proven manufacturers that meet all the safety standards and indicate the list of ingredients on their packaging. 

Opt for Lower Nicotine Levels 

If your objective is to cut down on nicotine, then select products that contain less nicotine level in the vaping liquids. This can help minimize the chances of addiction and if one decides to quit there will be a less struggle in the process. 

Avoid Extra Consumption of Flavored Vapes

Of the ingredients used in the preparation of e-juice, some flavorants have been associated with lung.