cigarette smoking is bad; it's the leading cause of preventable death. In fact, lighting up causes more than 7 million deaths worldwide each year.
In recent years, vaping has been touted as a safer alternative to smoking cigarettes, and even as a method to help quit. But is vaping really any safer?
A brief history of vaping
Vaping refers to the use of electronic cigarettes (or e-cigarettes) and similar handheld devices that heat and vaporize liquids for users to inhale. In addition to tobacco, e-cigarettes can also be used to smoke marijuana.
Vaping liquids typically contain nicotine, flavor enhancers, and chemicals like propylene glycol. The exact combination of ingredients varies according to brand and flavor, although package labels aren’t always accurate. In fact, some products that claim to be nicotine-free have been found to contain the substance.
“Until we actually have U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved studies, there really is no consistent way for consumers to know exactly what they’re getting,” says Susan Garwood, MD, a pulmonary critical care physician at TriStar Centennial Medical Center in Nashville. That lack of transparency, along with concern over the safety of chemical ingredients, sparked demand for FDA regulation of vaping products in 2016. In response, the agency announced that vape companies would have to start submitting their products for approval by August 2016.
Two years later, the FDA took further regulatory steps. In August 2018, the agency announced it was cracking down on companies that make or sell vape products packaged to resemble kid-friendly treats, like juice boxes and candies. Advertising tobacco products in ways that appeal to kids violates the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
Then, in January 2020, the FDA announced a ban on marketing and distributing prefilled, flavored e-cigarette products aside from menthol and tobacco. Refillable and cheap disposable vape cartridges (pods) were not prohibited, however, leaving the door open for use of flavored e-liquids (also called vape juice).
But October 2021 brought on a big change. That’s when, for the first time, the FDA permitted marketing of three e-cigarette products to help adult smokers wean themselves off tobacco. In studies, smokers successfully used certain Vuse Solo devices to reduce or quit cigarettes, according to an agency press announcement.
It should be noted that the FDA didn’t give approval for these items—which would have signified an endorsement of tobacco use—but rather an authorization, which only allowed specific products to hit shelves for a specific use. In fact, the agency was careful to note that tobacco products are both harmful and addictive, and that Vuse will be carefully monitored to ensure it follows FDA marketing requirements. If it doesn’t, the authorization can be taken back.
In the meantime, there is still much to be learned about the safety of electronic cigarettes, but here's what we do know.
What’s in your e-cigarette?
You might not know what you’re inhaling with each puff. Here are some common ingredients and how they affect your body.
Nicotine: The majority of vaping liquids contain nicotine. More research on the long-term effects of e-cigarettes is needed, but we already know the nicotine content in vaping liquids can pose health risks. Nicotine elevates the heart rate, is highly addictive, and is associated with impaired cognitive development among adolescents.
Parents must keep vaping devices out of reach of children, says Dr. Garwood, since ingesting even a few drops of the liquid can be dangerous and even deadly. In 2016, Congress passed legislation requiring child-resistant packaging for vaping liquids, but many cartridges can still be opened by curious kids. Between January 2012 and April 2017, more than 8,200 cases of exposure to liquid nicotine in children under 6 were reported, according to an analysis published in Pediatrics in May 2018
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