Public Health England: Vaping 95% Healthier Than Smoking

Crescent City Vape Blog

Your source for breaking news, innovations, research, and clarity on electronic cigarettes and vaping.

Public Health England Encourages Smokers to Start Vaping

Public Health England officially states that vaping is around 95% healthier than smoking tobacco cigarettes.

There’s wonderful vaping news from our friends across the pond: Public Health England (PHE) has officially declared that e-cigarettes are a vastly healthier alternative to smoking tobacco cigarettes.

PHE is an umbrella executive agency of the U.K. Department of Health. For an official organization to make such a concrete declaration means public health organizations are starting to understand the health benefits of vaping as a smoking cessation method, as more and more people are choosing this as alternative to smoking and more companies as Vape Key Co, sell vaporizers for this, since people is trying to become more healthy by trying to quit tobacco.

After reviewing the many available peer-reviewed studies on e-cigarettes and culling survey statistics from thousands of smokers and nonsmokers, PHE concluded (emphasis ours):

There has been an overall shift towards the inaccurate perception of EC [electronic cigarettes] being as harmful as cigarettes over the last year in contrast to the current expert estimate that using EC is around 95% safer than smoking. [PHE Study, page 6]

Referring to the specific example of the widely spread news item about formaldehyde in e-cigarettes, PHE said (emphasis ours):

A high level of formaldehyde was found when e-liquid was over-heated to levels unpalatable to EC users, but there is no indication that EC users are exposed to dangerous levels of aldehydes. [PHE Study, page 12]

Vaping Can Help You Quit Smoking

PHE is officially supporting vaping as a method of smoking cessation. In a trial run in two regions of England, public health organizations are actually permitted to medically prescribe vaping as a cessation method. According to a Business Insider article on the news:

[A]lmost all of the 2.6 million adults in the U.K. now thought to be using e-cigarettes are current or former conventional smokers, most using them to help them quit tobacco or to prevent them going back to smoking. […] There was no suggestion that the products were a gateway into tobacco smoking, with less than 1% of adults or young people who had never smoked becoming regular cigarette users.

Implications for the Vape Community

With this news from PHE about the safety of vaping, it seems clear that vaping should be allowed to thrive as an alternative to smoking. Regulation is necessary and good for public health issues, but only if approached wisely.

Clinical Psychology Professor Peter Hajek of Queen Mary University in London said:

[S]mokers differ in their needs and I would advise them not to give up on e-cigarettes if they do not like the first one they try. It may take some experimentation with different products and e-liquids to find the right one.

Any completely new market will face a learning curve, but vaping can be easy and rewarding. Physicians were persuaded to prescribe opioids inappropriately by pharmaceutical companies that paid opinion leaders to convince physicians that opioids weren’t so addictive after all, and that physicians who withheld opioids from patients with arthritis or back pain were “opioiphobic” and not providing the best care to their suffering patients. Pharmaceutical companies also confused prescribers about addiction by inventing the concept of “pseudoaddiction,” which looked exactly like addiction but was easily treated by higher doses of opioids.

Good vaping companies — of which there are many — produce high quality and thoughtfully engineered products. According to the PHE report, organizations have an obligation “to protect public health policy from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry.”

Let’s avoid destroying a health revolution before it takes a foothold; let’s keep vaping alive.

Our most important goals at Crescent City Vape are to bring you the best vaping experience for your needs and to spread accurate vaping education. The benchmark of good science is skepticism, coupled with acknowledgment and implementation of what’s been proven. This PHE statement is a step in the right direction.

Let’s embrace truthful, objective information about e-cigarettes, with the ultimate goal of helping as many people as possible ditch the toxic smoke for much healthier vapor.

Image Copyright: yellomello / 123RF Stock Photo

E-Cigarette Battery Safety Guide

Crescent City Vape Blog

Your source for breaking news, innovations, research, and clarity on electronic cigarettes and vaping.

E-Cigarette Battery Safety Guide

Electronic cigarette batteries come in all different shapes and sizes. No matter what kind of device you’re vaping with, follow these basic guidelines for better, safer and more efficient battery use.

Guidelines for Safe and Effective Battery Use

Battery safety is one of the most important issues in vaping. Overloading a battery beyond its power limits or misusing a battery or charger can lead to potentially dangerous situations, as well as cause damage to your device. But there’s no need to worry. We’ve outlined simple guidelines below to make sure you’re using your battery properly and to keep you vaping as safely as possible.

If you have any questions about battery safety, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Internal Batteries: Non-Replaceable Batteries Like eGo/Pen-Style Batteries and Other Regulated Devices

Pen-style batteries (also called eGo batteries) and regulated devices with internal batteries are protected, which means they’ll never allow you to empty the battery’s power out beyond a safe limit. In terms of battery safety, basic, slim eGo batteries and regulated mods are very similar. Here are safety tips you should follow to be sure you’re playing it safe:

  • Keep an eye on charging battery: Do not charge your battery overnight. It’s best to charge it when you are nearby to keep an eye on it. When the light turns green, or your device says the battery is fully charged, remove the battery from the charger.
  • Use the right charger: Always use the correct type of charger for a battery — ideally, stick with the charging cable and wall adapter that came with your device.
  • Buy from a reputable source: It’s best to buy eGo chargers from a reputable source (like a local vape shop!). Using a cheap gas station charger with a quality eGo battery is a no-no. Avoid this!
  • Watch your amp level: Most regulated devices with internal batteries charge at either 0.5 amps or 1 amp, but some can charge at up to 2 amps. Look in your user manual to find out the correct amp level for charging your mod.

External Batteries: Mods With Replaceable or Removable Batteries

Mods with removable batteries (also called loose or external batteries) can be either regulated or unregulated. Unregulated mods, also known as mechanical mods, have no circuitry or safety protections. They are simply metal tubes, or sometimes boxes, into which a battery is inserted. This means you should take extra safety precautions when using a mechanical mod. Here’s a list of tips and guidelines for mech mods and other mods with external batteries.

  • Keep it clean: Regularly clean all the threading and inner walls of your mech mod. It’s best to use an alcohol wipe or alcohol and a cotton swab. Dirty threading can interfere with the circuit and cause a “hot button” — i.e., a button that remains stuck even after you let go.
  • Battery wrap: Check your battery wrap to make sure there are no holes or nicks in the wrap. The wrap is the plastic sheath that’s wrapped tightly around the metal battery. Additionally, be absolutely sure you are putting your batteries in the correct direction. The positive end of a battery is the end with less metal showing underneath the plastic battery wrap. In a box mod that holds two batteries, the batteries could either be in parallel (pointing in the same direction) or in series (pointing in opposite directions). Make sure you know the correct orientation for you mod batteries.
  • Married batteries: For a two-battery mod, it’s safest to use “married batteries.” This means you should buy two batteries at the same time, and use them and charge them together. If you want backup batteries, buy two more and keep them together as well. If needed, label the batteries with a marker so you can identify them.
  • Amp limit: The amperage limit is the measure of how much power your battery can handle. Most loose batteries tell you their amp limit directly on the side of the battery. If you find an Ohm’s law calculator online, you can input your coil’s resistance and your battery’s voltage and determine the amperage you are outputting. If this amperage is higher than your battery can handle, and you prefer to vape with this much power, you should purchase a higher-amperage battery.
  • Coil resistance: Whether you buy prebuilt atomizers or build your own coils, you need to be extra sure the resistance of your coil is high enough to be safe, especially with an unregulated mechanical mod. Building below 0.2ohms is not recommended unless you thoroughly understand battery safety.
  • Look out for hot spots: When building your own coils, you also need to be extra sure that your coil is firing correctly and that it does not have any hot spots. A good coil should heat up starting at the center of the coil.
  • Avoid cheap chargers: With external battery chargers, avoid chargers that seem generic, come from unknown companies, or do not stop the battery from charging once it is fully charged. This is known as “overcharge protection,” so look on your charger’s product box for that phrase or something similar. To play it as safe as possible, two high-quality and reputable battery charger companies are Luc and Nitecore.

Tip for mechanical mods: A loose battery in a single-battery mechanical mod will output voltage directly, meaning that as you vape, the battery’s output power will decrease and you’ll get less vapor and flavor. Don’t continue to vape until the battery is completely dead; this is bad for the battery and can be unsafe. When you notice a significant decrease in power, switch to a freshly charged battery.

General Battery Issues

  • Auto-firing: If your tank or coil heats up without the button being pressed, the first thing to do is remove your tank/atomizer as quickly as possible.
  • Venting: In the worst-case scenario, a battery will vent. This means gases inside the battery will build up and begin to release. If this happens, move your device as quickly as possible into something plastic, or at least away from anything flammable, and wait until the battery is no longer venting.
  • Disposal: Batteries that are at the end of their life should not just be thrown away — bring your loose batteries or devices with built-in batteries to Crescent City Vape and we will recycle them for you.

These guidelines may seem complicated at first, but in fact they’re simple to follow. It comes down to this: Keep an eye on your batteries, don’t charge them overnight, and don’t push your battery’s limits. Stick by these guidelines and the only thing you’ll have to worry about is which flavor to vape next!

E-Cigarette Facts Vs. Myths

Crescent City Vape Blog

Your source for breaking news, innovations, research, and clarity on electronic cigarettes and vaping.

E-Cig Mods

There are many myths swirling around about e-cigarettes and their effects on vapers and bystanders. To clear the air about the real impact of electronic cigarettes, here are our responses to some of the most common misconceptions about e-cigarettes.

Myth: We don’t know what ingredients are in e-liquid.

Fact: E-liquid, also known as e-juice, is the liquid used in electronic cigarettes. E-liquid generally contains the following ingredients: water, propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, flavoring, and usually nicotine, although e-juice is available without any nicotine whatsoever. You can learn more about these ingredients and their uses and health effects here.

All e-juice carried at Crescent City Vape is made in the U.S. using food-grade ingredients.

Myth: E-cigarette vapor contains as many carcinogens as tobacco smoke.

Fact: So far, research indicates that e-cigarette vapor is safer than traditional tobacco smoke, and has toxicity risks comparable to those of other smoking cessation products. E-cigarette vapor contains roughly the same amount of tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs) as a nicotine patch.

While it may not be perfect, the bottom line is that e-cigarette vapor is exponentially safer than tobacco smoke. Smokers who switch from traditional tobacco cigarettes to non-combustible e-cigarettes, will improve their health significantly.

Myth: Vapor released into the environment from e-cigarettes is as harmful to bystanders as secondhand smoke.

Fact: While secondhand vapor does exist, the levels of carcinogens and nicotine exposure are far below those of secondhand smoke, and secondhand vapor does not contain carbon monoxide, a significant toxic substance found in secondhand smoke. According to this study, air quality after e-cigarette use is much less toxic than after tobacco cigarette use.

Carbon Monoxide Emission from Cigarettes vs. E-cigs

Myth: E-cigarettes encourage children and nonsmokers to try real cigarettes.

Fact: While e-cigarette use is now higher among high school students than in the past, this growth corresponds to overall growth of e-cigarette use across the entire population. There is currently no data that suggests trying e-cigarettes leads minors to smoking traditional cigarettes. In fact, teenage smoking rates of traditional cigarettes have dropped dramatically, from 11 percent in 2009 to 6.7 percent in 2014. A study, published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, suggests there is very little chance that a nonsmoker who tries an e-cigarette will develop a tobacco smoking habit.

E-cigarettes are intended for adult smokers only, and in almost all states, minors are not legally allowed to purchase these products. At Crescent City Vape, we actively ask for IDs and do not allow anyone under 18 to step foot in our shop. This is the same at every vape shop we know of.

Myth: e-cigarettes don’t help smokers quit.

Fact: Long-term studies are needed, but current short-term studies show that e-cigarettes do help smokers quit. An analysis of 12 studies showed significant reduction in traditional tobacco cigarette smoking, including a reduction of 50 to 80 percent in the number of cigarettes smoked per day.

Anecdotally, we can proudly say that everyone who works at Crescent City Vape has quit smoking tobacco cigarettes thanks to e-cigarettes, and hundreds of our customers share the same life-changing experience from these products. There is no doubt that electronic cigarettes help smokers quit and are saving lives by doing so.

Myth: E-cigarette vapor contains large amounts of poisonous formaldehyde.

Fact: This is a claim most recently proposed by authors of a study published by the New England Journal of Medicine. The problem with this claim is that the conditions used in the study when formaldehyde was detected are nothing like actual e-cigarette vaporizing conditions.

The study actually concluded that at typical wattage (i.e. normal vaping conditions), no formaldehyde was found in vapor.

According to cardiologist Dr. Konstantinos Forsalinos:

It is more than obvious that the findings of very high levels of formaldehyde are a result of overheating. Lack of experience on e-cigarettes and no contact with vapers can result in such erroneous and unrealistic results, which can create confusion and misinformation both in the scientific community and among users and potential users of e-cigarettes.

Myth: Nicotine is dangerous, so e-cigarettes are bad because they deliver nicotine.

Fact: This myth is based on the fallacy that nicotine is the harmful substance in cigarette smoke and other tobacco products. In reality, it is the thousands of other chemicals and carcinogens in tobacco products that are so harmful to public health, rather than the nicotine. In fact, many FDA-approved smoking cessation products also contain nicotine, such as nicotine gum, nicotine patches, and nicotine inhalers. Analysis conducted by Peter Hajek of the Wolfson Institute of Preventative Medicine suggests that perhaps health officials are reluctant to recommend e-cigarettes because they believe nicotine use should be eradicated. This conclusion is extremely harmful to smokers who might otherwise be inclined to reduce health risks by switching to e-cigarettes.

It is also important to note that not all e-liquid contains nicotine, and many vapers are able to wean themselves off nicotine entirely by gradually lowering the concentration of nicotine in their e-juice over time.

Myth: E-cigarettes are more expensive than tobacco cigarettes.

Fact: While costs of tobacco cigarettes vary significantly depending on location, e-liquid is not subjected to federal or state tobacco taxes that drive up the cost of conventional cigarettes. Additionally, while e-juice bottles and equipment vary in cost, e-cigarette use is generally less expensive than a pack-a-day cigarette habit. This calculator can help you determine just how much money you could save by switching to an e-cigarette and e-liquid.

Myth: Fruity or sweet flavors are not appealing to adult smokers, but rather are meant to attract kids.

Fact: While several lawmakers have urged the FDA to further regulate e-cigarettes, and ban marketing that they say draws children into using e-cigarettes, there is no statistical or scientific evidence to back their claims that e-cigarette marketing is designed to appeal to children. In fact, flavors sell for a reason: They appeal to adult vapers. Three-quarters of adults buying e-liquid prefer flavored e-liquid for their e-cigarettes.

At Crescent City Vape, we have more than 100 flavors of e-juice, and in our experience, the key to quitting your smoking habit is to find a flavor you love more than that pack of cigarettes. Even vapers who start by using tobacco-flavored e-liquid often transition to different flavors as they begin to lose their taste for tobacco altogether.

E-cigarettes are intended only for adult smokers, and no one under the age of 18 is allowed in our vape shop, or any other vape shop we know of.

Myth: Electronic cigarettes are more addictive than tobacco cigarettes.

Fact: This Penn State study shows that electronic cigarettes are actually less addictive than tobacco cigarettes. The study posits that e-cigarettes deliver less concentrated levels of nicotine than tobacco cigarettes, which could explain the lessened risk of addiction.

Additionally, almost all e-juice is available with 0mg of nicotine, and many vapers are able to wean themselves off nicotine entirely by reducing the concentration of nicotine in their e-liquid over time, eventually to zero.

If you have any questions about e-cigarettes or their health implications, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We’re here to help!