Vaping doesn’t always get a good report. But research has found that using vaping products rather than smoking substantially reduces exposure to toxic chemicals that promote cancer, lung disease and heart problems.
The study from King’s College London is the most comprehensive review of the risks of vaping to date. It concludes that, while vaping is not risk free (particularly for people who’ve never smoked), it poses only a small fraction of the health risks of smoking in the short to medium term.
The report looked at many aspects of vaping, including who vapes and what they vape, how vaping affects health and how people view vaping.
The researchers examined “biomarkers of exposure”, which measure levels of potentially harmful substances in the body, as well as “biomarkers of potential harm”, which measure changes in the body due to vaping and smoking.
The strongest evidence came from biomarkers of exposure to toxic chemicals such as nitrosamines implicated in the main diseases caused by smoking. Levels were significantly lower in vapers than smokers, and nicotine levels were lower or similar to smokers.
Dr Debbie Robson, one of the report’s authors from King’s, says: “The levels of exposure to cancer causing and other toxicants are drastically lower in people who vape compared with those who smoke. Helping people switch from smoking to vaping should be considered a priority if the Government is to achieve a smoke-free 2030 in England.”
Comparisons of biomarkers between people who vape and people who don’t smoke showed no difference, but occasionally they were higher when vaping.
So while vaping is less harmful than smoking, it’s likely to have some risks, particularly for people who’ve never smoked. While investigators favour vaping versus smoking, public opinion is lagging behind. In 2021, only one in three adults who smoked thought vaping was less harmful.
In the past three years, the prevalence of vaping has been increasing (6.3%, 7.1%, 8.3%) and it’s risen among young people too.
Vaping in 11 to 18-year-olds in England has increased (4.8%, 4.0% and 8.6% in the past three years) although, importantly, vaping among young people who’ve never smoked remains low at 1.7%.
Lead author Professor Ann McNeill from King’s says: “Smoking is uniquely deadly and will kill one in two regular sustained smokers, yet around two-thirds of adult smokers, who would really benefit from switching to vaping, don’t know that vaping is less harmful.
“However, the evidence we reviewed indicates that vaping is very unlikely to be risk-free.
“So we strongly discourage anyone who has never smoked from taking up vaping – or smoking.”
