Is vaping really any better for you than smoking?

vaping photoFrom Dennis Weiss

There is no doubt that smoking is bad for your health, but the health effects of e-cigarettes are less clear-cut: they just haven’t been around long enough. However, research so far is promising. Nicotine itself doesn’t cause cancer, and e-cigarettes don’t contain the same harmful chemicals as traditional tobacco cigarettes. A study funded by Cancer Research UK found significantly lower levels of toxic chemicals in the bodies of ex-smokers using e-cigarettes or nicotine replacement therapy compared to smokers. Even so, recent work also found that chemicals in e-cigarette vapour can damage the DNA of cells in test tubes. We still don’t know if the same is true in people.

Answered by Laura Mears for Brain Dump in How It Works Issue 114


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