Is vaping with e-cigarettes safe?

By Procon.org
8/29/2024
Vaping is the act of using e-cigarettes, which were first introduced in the United States around 2006. [5]
These are battery-powered devices that heat a liquid into an aerosol vapor for inhalation. The liquid used in
e-cigarettes is also known as e-liquid or vape juice. The main components are generally flavoring, nicotine,
and water, along with vegetable glycerin and propylene glycol, which distribute the flavor and nicotine in
the liquid and create the vapor. Popular flavorings include mint, mango, and tobacco. [3] [4] [44] [45]

E-cigarettes are also known as “e-cigs,” “e-hookahs,” “mods,” “vape pens,” “vapes,” “vaporizers,” or “e-
pipes”.” Some of them are made to resemble regular cigarettes, cigars, or pipes, while others look like pens
or USB flash drives. [7] [42] [43]

JUUL, a popular brand of e-cigarettes, launched in 2015 and captured nearly 75% of the market in 2018,
becoming so popular that vaping is often referred to as “juuling.” Juul’s market popularity has since declined
to 42% in 2020. [7] [8] [9] [51]

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has regulated e-cigarettes as a tobacco product since 2016.
On Sep. 11, 2019, President Donald Trump’s administration announced plans to have the FDA end sales of
non-tobacco e-cigarette flavors such as mint or menthol in response to concerns over teen vaping. E-
cigarette manufacturers were required to request FDA permission to keep flavored products on the market.
The FDA had until Sep. 9, 2021 to make a decision. [6][46] [49]

On Sep. 9, 2021, Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock and Director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco
Products Mitch Zeller announced that the FDA had made decisions on 93% of the 6.5 million submitted
applications for “deemed” new tobacco products (“‘deemed’ new” means the FDA newly has authority to
review the products but the products may already be on the market), including denying 946,000 vaping
products “because their applications lacked sufficient evidence that they have a benefit to adult smokers to
overcome the public health threat posed by the well-documented, alarming levels of youth use.” [55] [56]
[57]

On Oct. 12, 2021, the FDA authorized the Vuse e-cigarette and cartridges, marketed by R.J. Reynolds one of
the world’s largest cigarette manufacturers. The move is the first time the FDA authorized any vaping
product. According to a statement from the FDA, the organization “determined that the potential benefit to
smokers who switch completely or significantly reduce their cigarette use, would outweigh the risk to
youth.” [58]

On June 23, 2022, the FDA ordered Juul to stop selling “all of their products currently marketed in the United
States.” The order included removing products currently on the market, including Juul devices (vape pens)
and pods (cartridges). The following day, June 24, 2022, a federal appeals court temporarily put the ban on
hold while the court reviewed Juul’s appeal. On Sep. 6, 2022, Juul settled a lawsuit brought by almost 36
states and Puerto Rico, in which Juul was accused of marketing to minors. Juul admitted no wrongdoing in
settling the lawsuit, but the company will have to pay $438.5 million, stop marketing to youth, stop funding
education in schools, and stop misrepresenting the amount of nicotine in the products. [61] [62] [63]
On June, 21, 2024, the FDA approved four types of menthol-flavored vapes made by NJOY. The approval
makes the vapes the first flavored e-cigarettes that can be legally sold in the United States. The move comes
amid a debate about whether to ban traditional menthol cigarettes at the federal level. [64]

Nearly 11 million American adults used e-cigarettes in 2018, more than half of whom were under age 35.
One in five high school students used e-cigarettes to vape nicotine in 2018. E-cigarettes were the fourth
most popular tobacco products with 4% of retail sales, behind
traditional cigarettes (83%), chewing/smokeless tobacco (8%), and cigars (5%) as of Feb. 2019. The global
e-cigarette and vape market was worth $15.04 billion in 2020. [1][2][8] [50]

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 9.7% of current cigarette smokers were also current
vapers, though 49.4% of current smokers had vaped at some point. Of former smokers who had quit within
the last year, 25.2% were current vapers and 57.3% had tried vaping. Of former smokers who quit one to four
years ago, 17.3% were current vapers and and 48.6% had tried vaping. Of former smokers who quit five or
more years ago, 1.7% were current vapers and 9% had tried vaping. And of people who have never smoked,
1.5% were current vapers and 6.5% had tried vaping. 18-29 year olds were more likely to say they vaped
(17%) than smoked cigarettes, while every older age group was more likely to smoke than vape. [52] [54]

Addicting a new generation to nicotine and introducing them to smoking.

Marijuana vaping by teens doubled between 2013 and 2020, and the number of minors who stated they’d
vaped marijuana in the past 30 days rose from 1.6% to 8.4% in the same time. [59]

Former U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams declared youth e-cigarette use an “epidemic,” noting a 900%
increase in vaping by middle and high school students between 2011 and 2015. [2]

As of 2023, 10% of high school students used e-cigarettes, the most-used tobacco product among the age
group, followed by cigarettes (1.9%) and cigars (1.8%). Teens who use e-cigarettes are four times more likely
to try regular cigarettes than their peers who never used tobacco, and 21.8% of youth cigarette use may be
attributable to initiation through vaping. [26] [53] [65]

“The tobacco industry is well aware that flavored tobacco products [such as e-cigarettes] appeal to youth
and has taken advantage of this by marketing them in a wide range of fruit and candy flavors,” says Nancy
Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association. [30]

The serious physical and mental health risks of vaping

Nicotine use by young people may increase the risk of addiction to other drugs and impair prefrontal brain
development, which can lead to ADD and disrupt impulse control. Adult vapers are also more than twice as
likely to be diagnosed as depressed than their non-vaping peers. [12] [27] [28] [29] [60]

The CDC has confirmed six vaping-related deaths and over 450 possible cases of lung illness associated
with e-cigarettes. People who use e-cigarettes have a 71% increased risk of stroke and 40% higher risk of
heart disease, as compared to nonusers. Studies have shown that e-cigarettes can cause arterial stiffness
and cardiovascular harm, and may increase the odds of a heart attack by 42%. [31] [32] [33] [47]
 Researchers who found increased risk of blood clots from e-cigarettes wrote, “these devices do emit
considerable levels of toxicants, some of which are shared/overlap with tobacco smoking; and thus their
harm should not be underestimated.” [33]

Scientists at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that e-cigarettes leak toxic metals,
possibly from the heating coils, that are associated with health problems such as kidney disease, respiratory
irritation, shortness of breath, and more. [34]

Some ingredients in the liquids used in e-cigarettes change composition when they are heated, leading to
inhalation of harmful compounds such as formaldehyde, which is carcinogenic. [35]

E-cigarettes can catch fire and even explode.

E-cigarette explosions have led to the loss of body parts (such as an eye, tongue, or tooth), third degree
burns, holes in the roof of the mouth, and death. [36]

Researchers at George Mason University found that 2,035 people sought emergency room treatment for
burn or explosion injuries from e-cigarettes between 2015 and 2017, and believe there were more injuries
that went untreated. They also found more than 40 times the number of injuries reported by the FDA
between 2009 and 2015. [36] [37]

Airlines prohibit e-cigarettes in checked baggage due to the possibility of their lithium batteries catching fire.
In Jan. 2019, a passenger’s e-cigarette overheated and caught fire in the airplane cabin. That same month, a
Texas man died when debris from an e-cigarette explosion tore his carotid artery. In 2018, a man in Florida
was killed by shrapnel from his e-cigarette exploding. [38] [39] [40]

The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) found 195 reports of e-cigarette explosions and fires including 133 acute
injuries, of which 29% were severe. The USFA stated, “No other consumer product that is typically used so
close to the human body contains the lithium-ion battery that is the root cause of the incidents.” [41]

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