Is vaping safe?

E-cigarettes are everywhere and they’re rarely out of the news. Lucy Trevallion looks at the pros and cons of vaping.

There are plenty of scare stories about e-cigarettes, but are they really a dangerous trend, or a useful way to quit smoking?

Electronic cigarettes, known as e-cigarettes or vapourisers, are battery-powered devices that mimic the action of smoking, offering nicotine (in most cases), but without the toxic effect of tobacco smoke. They’ve been in the UK since 2007 and are growing in popularity.

More people may be using them, but e-cigarettes are not harm-free. A 2016 study published in Environmental Science & Technology identified harmful emissions in the vapour, including possible carcinogens and irritants, though at a much lower level than in conventional cigarettes.

The BHF view on vaping

The BHF would not advise non-smokers to start vaping.

More research is needed on the long-term impact of vaping on your heart and blood vessels, and on how people can most effectively use e-cigarettes to quit.

A study from the University of Dundee, published in November 2019 and funded by the British Heart Foundation, suggests that vaping may be less harmful to your blood vessels than smoking cigarettes. Within just one month of switching tobacco for electronic cigarettes, measures of blood vessel health, including blood pressure and stiffness of their arteries, had started to improve. The study looked at 114 people who had smoked at least 15 cigarettes a day for at least two years. This is a relatively small number of people, and the study does not prove that vaping is completely safe.

Professor Jeremy Pearson, Associate Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation, said: “This study suggests that vaping may be less harmful to your blood vessels than smoking cigarettes. Within just one month of ditching tobacco for electronic cigarettes, people’s blood vessel health had started to recover.

“Just because e-cigarettes may be less harmful than tobacco doesn’t mean they are completely safe. We know they contain significantly fewer of the harmful chemicals, which can cause diseases related to smoking, but we still don’t know the long-term impact on the heart and circulation, or other aspects of health. E-cigarettes and vaping should never be taken up by people who don’t already smoke, but could be a useful tool to help people to stop smoking completely.

“Stopping smoking is the single best thing you can do for your heart health. If you’re looking to quit smoking, don’t go it alone.  There is a range of free support available, including local stop smoking services, which will help you to find the best way of quitting and boost your chances of success.”

Stopping smoking and vaping

Smoking-related diseases account for around 100,000 deaths each year in the UK. Most of these deaths arise from one of three diseases: lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and coronary heart disease.

According to a 2019 YouGov survey, more than 3.6 million adults in Great Britain use e-cigarettes – 7.1 per cent of the adult population. Of these users, 54 per cent are ex-smokers, suggesting they are helping people to stop smoking.

Martin Dockrell, Tobacco Control Programme Lead at Public Health England, said: “People might be surprised at how much easier it is to quit with an electronic cigarette. Any smoker with a heart condition has almost certainly tried to quit in the past, and failed. Try again with an electronic cigarette because you might find that’s a lot easier. And further down the line, you might want to quit the e-cigarette as well.”

Mr Dockrell added: “We know that e-cigarettes are probably not completely safe, but that’s not the issue. The question is, are e-cigarettes safer than the alternative?... It's really important that smokers understand how much safer e-cigarettes are, compared to smoking".

Marketing and the law around vaping

Experts agree that we need longer-term data on the effects of using e-cigarettes, particularly in regard to cardiovascular disease. But since e-cigarettes have only been on sale in the UK since 2007, long-term studies don’t yet exist. So e-cigarettes must be responsibly marketed and regulated to ensure appropriate use.

Linda Bauld, Professor of Health Policy at the University of Stirling, said “People have called for removing all marketing completely. I don’t think they should be sold in plain packaging and I don’t think they should be taxed like tobacco - vaping should be less expensive than smoking cigarettes. And we’d tell people to only use e-cigarettes from reputable retailers in the UK,” she added.

Billboards and point-of-sale advertising do not count as broadcasting so are allowed in the UK, although the Scottish government has given itself powers to limit these.

E-cigarettes are not covered by the UK’s smoke-free legislation. Some organisations have chosen to ban vaping on their premises, including Transport for London on its trains, buses and stations. Public Health England has published guidance to help premises come to their own decisions.

Since May 2017, all e-cigarettes and e-liquids have had to be notified to The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency before they can be sold. There are also requirements around labelling and warnings. Certain ingredients including colourings, caffeine and taurine are banned, and the nicotine strength of e-liquids is restricted.