James Hockaday
While not completely risk free, vaping is generally considered to be a much safer alternative to smoking traditional cigarettes.
In fact, the NHS is confident enough to recommend it as a method of kicking the habit – after all, you’re still taking in nicotine, and the convenience of e-cigs means you can puff away to your heart’s content in bed or in the car without leaving an aroma of stale ashtray.
But with so much still unknown about the long-term effects of vaping, it still has plenty of sceptics and concerns that vapers are unintentionally taking in more nicotine are common, says Dr Lynne Dawkins, professor of nicotine and tobacco studies at London Southbank University.
Exercising a bit of self-control is probably a good idea, but Dr Dawkins tells LADbible she doesn’t think vapers should panic:
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“Smokers are very good at controlling the amount of nicotine that they take from a cigarette and the same is the case with vaping.
“People vape in a way to match the amount of nicotine that they previously got from smoking.”
Dr Dawkins recently took part in a study looking at how much people were vaping over the course of a year and the concentration of nicotine they took in."
She adds: “People tended to start with a higher level of nicotine, and then a year later they would have a lower level.
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“But when we measured the amount of nicotine in their saliva, it was actually the same, so people were adjusting the way they vaped to make sure they had the right level of nicotine for them.”
Most of you probably know someone who seems to treat their vape as an oxygen tank, but it’s not exactly the same as being a chain smoker.
“People do vape more than they smoke, but that's because when you smoke you get nicotine into your bloodstream much quicker,” explains Dr Dawkins, a member of Drug Science's scientific committee, which investigates scientific evidence relating to psychoactive drugs.
“With vaping it takes a bit longer, you have to vape a little bit more continuously to get that same level.”
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Dr Dawkins says how much nicotine people absorb can vary depending on the device they’re using, the power set-up, how used they are to vaping and the strength of their e-liquid.
A 2021 NHS review found people who used e-cigarettes to quit smoking, along with expert support, can be up to twice as likely to succeed as people who used products such as patches or gum.
But unsurprisingly, inhaling chemicals isn’t risk free, and you probably shouldn’t start if you’re not already a smoker.