Vocal Voices

A young teenager started vaping, under age, at 16. Some months later he developed hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP) and that eventually became so bad he was put in intensive care. It has taken him 14 months to make a 75%-80% recovery. It will have been devastating and very scary for the lad and his case has led to a sort of anti-vaping campaign with one doctor saying that:"we consider e-cigarettes as 'much safer than tobacco' at our peril."

Oh please. We all know that putting things in our bodies that have no real right to be there is a bad idea. That goes for smoking, alcohol, drugs, fats, sugar and even the chemistry set in ready meals, but let us beware of the language used and have some context, eh?

This lad not only vaped, but he did so using DIY 'juices' of unknown quality. He was a drug user and had smoked cannabis - so obviously your ultra average vaper.

As things stand there are no known deaths 100% down to vaping in the UK, but there are 220 per day due to smoking.

There has been "a spate" of deaths in the US - 39 over three years - with a further 2,000 'illnesses'(?) two thirds of those affected being under 21. Many of those who died were vaping THC, the active ingredient in cannabis. All this in a population of over 300 million.

OK, vaping is not "safe", but neither is crossing the road. However, the British Lung Foundation, the NHS and Public Health England all say vaping is about 95% safer than smoking and that: "in absolute terms it [the risk] is extremely small and, crucially, far smaller than that of smoking."

"The advice remains the same: if you smoke, switch to vaping; if you don't smoke, don't vape."

Focusing in on a few negative cases and blowing them up out of all proportion when compared to the overall picture is pretty poor form.

Master O switched from smoking to vaping a number of years ago after nicotine patches simply didn't work with him - the craving was work-stress induced, which wasn't going to go away as a cause, so we were pleased for him that he made the transition. He is now trying to cut down on the vaping. It is, of course, banned in many public spaces along with smoking, and I'm not a huge fan of vaping because of the tremendous fug it creates, but at the end of the day it does seem the better option.

There will always be some nanny-state expert or other out there wanting to de-bunk vaping, I'm afraid, and you're quite correct, there are plenty of other "activities" like jaywalking which can be just as dangerous, but we still do them.

It is a far better option, but at the end of the day the long-term effects are unknown. You are just swapping one habit disorder for another, and vaping really should be a short-term way of stopping smoking, rather than a long-term alternative.

Having said that, I'm glad Master O has managed to stop smoking, and wish him luck cutting back on vaping xx

Well now, new research from the University of Dundee says that vaping, whilst 'not safe' (they have to say that) does reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes in ex-smokers who are using it as a way to quit.

For those on the cutting down to quit route the benefits do outweigh the negatives and that is the whole point of the game for many.