Hidden risks: the true cost of vaping
Now a multi-billion pound industry, vaping has risen out of nowhere. Charles Wilsher demystifies the industry and counts the true cost of this damaging addiction.
Regularly enshrouded in a billowing cloud of vape mist, we all know people that vape, be they friends, classmates, family members or perhaps you vape yourself. From its first inception in 2010 the use of vape products or e-cigarettes has rapidly accelerated. It’s now a multi-billion-pound industry, estimated to be worth around twenty billion pounds globally and expected to grow by 30% by 2030.
There are estimated to be around six million smokers in England, and nearly four million vapers. Many use vapes as an alternative to smoking, whilst others are taking up the vaping habit without being smokers beforehand.
The dangers of smoking tobacco are well understood. Cigarettes are dangerous because they contain toxic substances, which are found in tobacco smoke and promote cancer, lung disease and cardiovascular disease. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) the tobacco smoking epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced, contributing to the death of more than eight million people per year worldwide. Smoking and passive smoking accounts for 65,000 deaths per year in England alone.
Whilst vaping products offer a substantially less harmful alternative, there is debate about their use and the wide variation in regulation. Against a backdrop of controversy, the recent government Khan review ‘Making smoking obsolete’, supported by a £15 million a year mass media campaign, recommends vaping as an effective way to give up smoking. For the first time the number of smokers is in decline as they switch to using vapes, but is vaping a risk-free option?
In a recent survey undertaken by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), nearly a third of 16 and 17-year-olds have tried vaping, and 14% are currently vapers. Among 11-17 year olds, 7% are vaping - up from 4% in 2020.
Vapes or e-cigarettes are electronic devices that heat a liquid and produce a vapour that is inhaled into the lungs and exhaled. The word ‘vapour’ is perhaps misleading and implies something that is harmless, like water vapour. However, e-cigarette vapour aerosol is NOT harmless “water vapour.” E-cigarette vapour can contain harmful substances, including nicotine and ultrafine particles that can be inhaled deep into the lungs.
It is difficult for consumers to know what e-cigarette products contain. For example, some e-cigarettes marketed as nicotine-free have been found to contain nicotine. Nicotine, as well as being a highly addictive drug, can harm the developing adolescent brain. Using nicotine between the ages of 11 and 18 can harm parts of the brain that control attention, learning and mood - resulting in increased anxiety and depression, sleep problems and impulse control.
Each time a new memory is created or a new skill is learned, stronger connections – or synapses – are built between brain cells. Young people’s brains build synapses faster than adult brains; however, nicotine changes the way that these synapses are formed. Young people who vape are more likely to start smoking regular (tobacco) cigarettes and may be more likely to develop other addictions in the future. Vapers often experience short term side effects such as coughs, shortness of breath, eye irritation, headaches, dry and irritated mouth and throat, and nausea.
The long term health risks of vaping also include chronic bronchitis, asthma and lung damage that can be life-threatening. EVALI (e-cigarette or vaping product use associated with lung injury), is a serious lung condition that vaping causes. It causes widespread damage to your lungs and gives you symptoms like coughing, shortness of breath, chest pain and increased heart rate. EVALI can be fatal. Diacetyl, a chemical used in some flavourings, can cause ‘popcorn lung’ (bronchiolitis obliterans), while this may sound an amusing name the condition causes permanent scarring in your lungs.
The fact is that the true extent of the impact that vaping has on public health is not yet fully understood.
Under UK law, vapes must contain 2ml of e-liquid (or 600 'puffs') and a maximum of 2% nicotine. The market is flooded with illegal vapes of dubious origins and unregulated content, these can contain massive puffs volumes, supplying up to 10,000 puffs each, the impact of regularly inhaling this quantity of nicotine is a massive health concern.
Despite being illegal to sell vapes to under 18s. Vapes with bright colours, sweet flavours and exotic names that range from cotton candy, pink lemonade to blue razz ice, are deliberately marketed to entice and target young people - these have exploded in popularity in the last year.
The Chartered Trading Standards Institute carried out a review during February and March 2022. They had young people under the age of 18 attempt to purchase disposable vapes in shops. They found that, out of a total of 442 test purchases, illegal sales were made on 145 occasions, (a non-compliance rate of 33%). A quarter of the products purchased were not up to UK standards and should not have been on sale in this country. The maximum penalty for selling a nicotine inhaling product to a person under 18 years is a fine of £2500. For further offences, Trading Standards can make an application for a restricted premises order and/or a restricted sales order. To date no such orders have been made.
As an environmentalist, I share major concerns about the impact of the disposal of e-cigarettes. Take a walk anywhere and you will see a plethora of small colourful plastic tubes littering the ground. Disposables are now the most used vaping product. Their use has escalated from 7% of vapers in 2020, to 52% in 2022. By definition, these products are throwaway. And that’s a problem.
In the UK more than 50% of single-use vapes get thrown away – some 1.3 million every week. That’s around 2 vapes every second! This figure is likely to increase rapidly due to the popularity of the disposable vapes, which are considerably cheaper and easier to use.
The plastic in each individual vape tube will take centuries to decompose in the environment and adds to the plastic pollution emergency that the planet is facing. (Visit my website: https://thatsthelaststraw.co.uk/public_html/, to find more about plastic pollution).
But plastic is only one part of the problem. Due to their battery, vapes are classed as waste electrical and electronic equipment which puts them in the same category as things like kettles.
Moreover, each vape contains toxic materials that leach into the soils with a damaging effect to plant and animal life. Each single-use vape contains on average 0.15g of Lithium – the mining of which has led to water loss, ground destabilisation, biodiversity loss, increased salinity of rivers, contaminated soil and toxic waste.
Lithium is a rare element, a finite resource, which we will rely on to make the move from reliance on fossil fuels and move to electric vehicles etc. Discarded disposables mean 10 tonnes of lithium is sent to landfill each year, equivalent to the lithium inside batteries for 1,200 electric vehicles. Demand for Lithium as we move towards electric vehicles is expected to triple in the foreseeable future. We need an effective way to retrieve the batteries in vapes.
Whilst there needs to be better facilities and information about how to recycle vapes, the fact is vapes are difficult to recycle, they need to be broken down into separate components which are contaminated with nicotine and other harmful chemicals. If damaged, Lithium batteries can cause fires at waste disposal sites.
A growing number of campaigners are calling for them to be banned due to their unsustainability and environmental impact.
Cigarette (tobacco) packaging has public health warnings with stomach churning, graphic images of lungs consumed by the effects of smoking, pale, shrivelled, and pitted with black tar like substance, blood vessels oozing fatty like substance, the effect of smoking. Yet people still continue to smoke. The reason for this is addiction. Once addicted to nicotine it’s incredibly hard to stop.
Whilst vaping is clearly helpful as a way to quit smoking, it is replacing one addiction with another. It would never be advisable for non-smokers to take up the highly addictive vape habit. Particularly people of a young age, whose lungs and brains are still developing. It goes without saying that the best way to protect our lungs and general health is not to voluntarily inhale any toxins, be that cigarette smoke or vape vapours.
When acting within the law, ultimately as individuals we are at liberty to make our own choices on whether or not to vape. However, make these decisions informed ones, based on the evidence available regarding the impact to health and damage to our fragile environment. Vaping is completely unsustainable and damaging to the environment. We must act as individuals to create global change and place the planet as a priority.
Charles Wilsher, Y8
Regularly enshrouded in a billowing cloud of vape mist, we all know people that vape, be they friends, classmates, family members or perhaps you vape yourself. From its first inception in 2010 the use of vape products or e-cigarettes has rapidly accelerated. It’s now a multi-billion-pound industry, estimated to be worth around twenty billion pounds globally and expected to grow by 30% by 2030.
There are estimated to be around six million smokers in England, and nearly four million vapers. Many use vapes as an alternative to smoking, whilst others are taking up the vaping habit without being smokers beforehand.
The dangers of smoking tobacco are well understood. Cigarettes are dangerous because they contain toxic substances, which are found in tobacco smoke and promote cancer, lung disease and cardiovascular disease. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) the tobacco smoking epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced, contributing to the death of more than eight million people per year worldwide. Smoking and passive smoking accounts for 65,000 deaths per year in England alone.
Whilst vaping products offer a substantially less harmful alternative, there is debate about their use and the wide variation in regulation. Against a backdrop of controversy, the recent government Khan review ‘Making smoking obsolete’, supported by a £15 million a year mass media campaign, recommends vaping as an effective way to give up smoking. For the first time the number of smokers is in decline as they switch to using vapes, but is vaping a risk-free option?
In a recent survey undertaken by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), nearly a third of 16 and 17-year-olds have tried vaping, and 14% are currently vapers. Among 11-17 year olds, 7% are vaping - up from 4% in 2020.
Vapes or e-cigarettes are electronic devices that heat a liquid and produce a vapour that is inhaled into the lungs and exhaled. The word ‘vapour’ is perhaps misleading and implies something that is harmless, like water vapour. However, e-cigarette vapour aerosol is NOT harmless “water vapour.” E-cigarette vapour can contain harmful substances, including nicotine and ultrafine particles that can be inhaled deep into the lungs.
It is difficult for consumers to know what e-cigarette products contain. For example, some e-cigarettes marketed as nicotine-free have been found to contain nicotine. Nicotine, as well as being a highly addictive drug, can harm the developing adolescent brain. Using nicotine between the ages of 11 and 18 can harm parts of the brain that control attention, learning and mood - resulting in increased anxiety and depression, sleep problems and impulse control.
Each time a new memory is created or a new skill is learned, stronger connections – or synapses – are built between brain cells. Young people’s brains build synapses faster than adult brains; however, nicotine changes the way that these synapses are formed. Young people who vape are more likely to start smoking regular (tobacco) cigarettes and may be more likely to develop other addictions in the future. Vapers often experience short term side effects such as coughs, shortness of breath, eye irritation, headaches, dry and irritated mouth and throat, and nausea.
The long term health risks of vaping also include chronic bronchitis, asthma and lung damage that can be life-threatening. EVALI (e-cigarette or vaping product use associated with lung injury), is a serious lung condition that vaping causes. It causes widespread damage to your lungs and gives you symptoms like coughing, shortness of breath, chest pain and increased heart rate. EVALI can be fatal. Diacetyl, a chemical used in some flavourings, can cause ‘popcorn lung’ (bronchiolitis obliterans), while this may sound an amusing name the condition causes permanent scarring in your lungs.
The fact is that the true extent of the impact that vaping has on public health is not yet fully understood.
Under UK law, vapes must contain 2ml of e-liquid (or 600 'puffs') and a maximum of 2% nicotine. The market is flooded with illegal vapes of dubious origins and unregulated content, these can contain massive puffs volumes, supplying up to 10,000 puffs each, the impact of regularly inhaling this quantity of nicotine is a massive health concern.
Despite being illegal to sell vapes to under 18s. Vapes with bright colours, sweet flavours and exotic names that range from cotton candy, pink lemonade to blue razz ice, are deliberately marketed to entice and target young people - these have exploded in popularity in the last year.
The Chartered Trading Standards Institute carried out a review during February and March 2022. They had young people under the age of 18 attempt to purchase disposable vapes in shops. They found that, out of a total of 442 test purchases, illegal sales were made on 145 occasions, (a non-compliance rate of 33%). A quarter of the products purchased were not up to UK standards and should not have been on sale in this country. The maximum penalty for selling a nicotine inhaling product to a person under 18 years is a fine of £2500. For further offences, Trading Standards can make an application for a restricted premises order and/or a restricted sales order. To date no such orders have been made.
As an environmentalist, I share major concerns about the impact of the disposal of e-cigarettes. Take a walk anywhere and you will see a plethora of small colourful plastic tubes littering the ground. Disposables are now the most used vaping product. Their use has escalated from 7% of vapers in 2020, to 52% in 2022. By definition, these products are throwaway. And that’s a problem.
In the UK more than 50% of single-use vapes get thrown away – some 1.3 million every week. That’s around 2 vapes every second! This figure is likely to increase rapidly due to the popularity of the disposable vapes, which are considerably cheaper and easier to use.
The plastic in each individual vape tube will take centuries to decompose in the environment and adds to the plastic pollution emergency that the planet is facing. (Visit my website: https://thatsthelaststraw.co.uk/public_html/, to find more about plastic pollution).
But plastic is only one part of the problem. Due to their battery, vapes are classed as waste electrical and electronic equipment which puts them in the same category as things like kettles.
Moreover, each vape contains toxic materials that leach into the soils with a damaging effect to plant and animal life. Each single-use vape contains on average 0.15g of Lithium – the mining of which has led to water loss, ground destabilisation, biodiversity loss, increased salinity of rivers, contaminated soil and toxic waste.
Lithium is a rare element, a finite resource, which we will rely on to make the move from reliance on fossil fuels and move to electric vehicles etc. Discarded disposables mean 10 tonnes of lithium is sent to landfill each year, equivalent to the lithium inside batteries for 1,200 electric vehicles. Demand for Lithium as we move towards electric vehicles is expected to triple in the foreseeable future. We need an effective way to retrieve the batteries in vapes.
Whilst there needs to be better facilities and information about how to recycle vapes, the fact is vapes are difficult to recycle, they need to be broken down into separate components which are contaminated with nicotine and other harmful chemicals. If damaged, Lithium batteries can cause fires at waste disposal sites.
A growing number of campaigners are calling for them to be banned due to their unsustainability and environmental impact.
Cigarette (tobacco) packaging has public health warnings with stomach churning, graphic images of lungs consumed by the effects of smoking, pale, shrivelled, and pitted with black tar like substance, blood vessels oozing fatty like substance, the effect of smoking. Yet people still continue to smoke. The reason for this is addiction. Once addicted to nicotine it’s incredibly hard to stop.
Whilst vaping is clearly helpful as a way to quit smoking, it is replacing one addiction with another. It would never be advisable for non-smokers to take up the highly addictive vape habit. Particularly people of a young age, whose lungs and brains are still developing. It goes without saying that the best way to protect our lungs and general health is not to voluntarily inhale any toxins, be that cigarette smoke or vape vapours.
When acting within the law, ultimately as individuals we are at liberty to make our own choices on whether or not to vape. However, make these decisions informed ones, based on the evidence available regarding the impact to health and damage to our fragile environment. Vaping is completely unsustainable and damaging to the environment. We must act as individuals to create global change and place the planet as a priority.
Charles Wilsher, Y8