Electronic Cigarettes – Life Savers or Dangerous Devices
Electronic cigarettes are recent inventions that seek to replace the unhealthy cigarettes. But are electronic cigarettes just as dangerous as the regular ones? Are they just marketers’ efforts to make more money? To talk electronic cigarettes, let’s first go over some basic facts.
What Makes Tobacco Cigarettes Dangerous? The regular tobacco cigarettes are a health hazard because the smoke contains thousands of chemicals. These chemicals include carbon monoxide, tar, and a number of carcinogens. These substances can cause cancer and cardiovascular diseases. The second hand version of the same smoke is even more deadly than the original. When the smoke exits the smoker’s lungs, it cools down, which allows it to better invade bystanders’ lungs.
What is in the Electronic Cigarette Vapor Most electronic cigarettes generate a smoke-like vapor through an atomizer, which heats a solution into vapor and delivers it to the user. The solution, which is completely formulated by man, contains a number of substances. These substances include water, glycerin (food additive), nicotine, and flavors. The number of substances in this nicotine solution is far fewer than the chemicals present in regular tobacco smoke, which has more than 3,000 distinct and harmful components. But is electronic cigarette safe to use? Let’s have the nicotine talk first.
Nicotine Safety What about the nicotine in electronic cigarettes? Isn’t it carcinogenic as well? Nicotine, contrary to its infamous image, does not cause cancer. It is actually the other chemicals in tobacco smoke that are carcinogenic. But since nicotine usually comes with cigarettes, it suffers from the negative images of lung cancer.
As for its addictiveness, nicotine is only mildly so. Still, smokers find regular cigarettes hard to quit because the chemicals and the physical act of smoking both contribute to the habit. While smoking electronic cigarettes is not quitting, you at least knock the habit down to only nicotine as the active ingredient.
So Are Electronic Cigarettes Really Safe to Use? If you ask a doctor if you should smoke anything, the answer is mostly likely to be “no”. But if you do smoke, the electronic cigarette is absolutely safer than regular cigarettes. It lacks the dangerous chemicals that cause lung cancer and literally stops smokers from killing themselves.
Some opponents may argue that electronic cigarettes only give people an excuse to continue smoking. They could be right, if the product steers smokers away from quitting to settling for the next best (worse) thing. However, given the fact that a majority of chronic smokers simply accept their fate and continue to use cigarettes, the electronic cigarette is a much, much safer and attractive alternative. The product mimics the appearance and the nicotine level of a real cigarette and gives the user the option of reducing health risks without actually quitting.
Marc Riley is a smoker and an electronic cigarette enthusiast. He strongly encourages all regular tobacco users to make the switch to Electronic Cigarette before they lose any more of their health and money. Go to his website now at SmokeReview to get the latest information on electronic cigarette products.
