Rise among Americans who think that vaping is MORE dangerous than smoking

A new study reveals that Americans are increasingly thinking that e-cigarettes are just as bad, if not worse, than combustible cigarettes.

The number of people who think that vaping is as bad and worse than smoking has tripled since 2012.

In fact, vaping is certainly not "healthy" – it forces the heart and lungs to work harder – and we still know very little about the effects, but it's far less dangerous than smoking.

Researchers at Georgia State University (GSU) say the public has received conflicting messages about the safety of electronic cigarettes, leading to confusion and mistrust.

Essentially, when we talk about e-cigarettes, we talk about risk when the media reports lung and heart risks to a public who believes that if devices are dangerous, they must be as bad as cigarettes.

Since 2012, the number of people who think that e-cigarettes are as bad as cigarettes has tripled (orange). The number of those who think that vaping is worse has also tripled (gray)

Electronic cigarettes were first introduced as a safer alternative to smoking to help nicotine addicts quit nicotine more easily.

Or at least to encourage them to eliminate the smoke and chemicals in cigarettes that cause lung cancer.

But devices have quickly become the last vice of adolescence – especially the stylish Juul, similar to USB, that teenagers have bought en mbade.

This sparked a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) war against e-cigs and launched a call for research on the potential effects of vaping on American youth.

Since then, Juul has been slapped with requests to abandon his sweet flavors and his fashionable marketing campaign and many studies on the short-term effects of e-cigarettes on health have been published.

These studies showed that vaping had harmful effects on the heart and lungs very similar to those of combustible cigarettes.

And heating some e-liquid flavors – especially the sweeter ones – used in devices can transform compounds called carcinogenic terpenes.

In addition, the e-cigs explosion horror stories and the toxicity of ingested e-liquids cast a shadow of doubt over the vaping industry.

That said, experts still believe that electronic cigarettes are far less harmful to health than their combustible cousins.

The burning – or burning of vegetable matter from tobacco and other substances in cigarettes – is what produces the most toxic compounds of cigarette smoke. Inhaling the body exposes to these carcinogenic compounds.

Reducing this process of the nicotine equation significantly reduces the harm, compared to smoking.

The risks of vaping are therefore lower than those of smoking, but higher than doing nothing.

That's where the confusion comes in. Scientifically, it is the difference between "absolute risk" and "relative risk".

Research suggests that choosing to smoke rather than smoking would reduce the absolute risk of diseases such as lung cancer.

However, the use of e-cigs increases the relative risks of heart and lung problems, stress the authors of the GSU study.

And despite the reduction in the burning of the nicotine delivery process, we are learning more and more about the harmful effects of nicotine on the heart and the cardiovascular system.

The stimulant reduces the size of the blood vessels, forcing the heart to work harder.

In addition, the technology and processes involved in heating an electronic liquid can release tiny particles of metal and other substances that do not have commercial activity in human lungs .

The essential thing is that vaping means inhaling substances other than the air into our atmosphere that we are supposed to breathe. So, vaping is not safe.

And e-cigarettes are really too new for us to know what their long-term effects will be.

But we know a lot about the multitude of horrific diseases for which smoking causes not only risks, but also causes.

The Georgia State University team therefore calls for clearer communication on the risks and benefits of vaping, in the hope that the alarmist rhetoric will not deter smokers from taking over, but that marketing does not attract non-smokers and teenagers.