The Market

The information above provides a bit of insight into the different companies that are competing in the rapidly-changing market for e-cigarettes. As noted, the tobacco industry has made a significant claim on the entry level of the marketplace. Given tobacco companies’ historical interest in deceptive marketing practices, this can quickly cast doubt on claims that e-cigarettes are a healthy alternative to smoking. You can look at the top choices at the Best Electronic Cigarette Brands & Reviews For 2016 website if you like.

The profusion of foreign manufacturers may also be a cause for concern. There are no countries in the world that have introduced strict regulations on the manufacturing of e-cigarettes, which means that product safety on a mechanical and electronic level is a real concern. This especially applies to the cheapest devices coming out of China, where all other considerations are set aside to minimize the cost to the end user.

The Lack Of Regulatory Oversight

A lot of the legitimate health concerns that have so far been raised concerning e-cigarettes – and there have been some significant ones – have to do with the minimal oversight currently being exercised over the way both vaporizers and e-liquids are manufactured. In the section on e-liquid technology above, the standard composition of vaping liquid is described in an ideal scenario. You always want to find the best e juice before buying.

The products of many manufacturers (both large and small ones) have been found to contain very harmful ingredients like diethylene glycol, which can produce formaldehyde when vaporized at high temperatures.

While isolated cases have established that unscrupulous manufacturers can endanger their customers when they cut corners in the production process, so far there is no substantive research that can authoritatively paint vaping as anywhere near as dangerous as smoking tobacco. This means that the devices and e-liquid used for vaping need to be regulated with an eye on user’s safety, not that vaping as a whole needs to be restricted or eliminated.

Diacetyl: A Cautionary Tale

You can gain a much better understanding of the charged atmosphere – and the biased reporting – that surrounds the vaping community by looking at the case of diacetyl, a food additive that was found to have serious long-term health consequences in the early 2000s. Diacetyl is commonly used in artificial butter flavoring, and the respiratory disorder it causes when inhaled is known as “popcorn lung.” The first people who contracted this condition were popcorn factory workers exposed to massive amounts of airborne diacetyl over extended periods of time.

Diacetyl enters the vaping debate because it’s a common flavoring in many e-liquid blends. Opponents of vaping were quick to turn this into a metaphorical smoking gun to prove the dangers of the practice. There are two major holes in this argument, though. The first is that no one has found any link between inhaling diacetyl at the trace levels common in e-liquids and popcorn lung. The second (and more damning) problem is that diacetyl is present in tobacco smoke at levels over 100 times than in e-cigarette vapor. Although smokers experience a host of serious respiratory problems, popcorn lung isn’t one of them.

How Much Study Is Needed?

Many observers who learn more about the vaping debate like to say that it’s impossible to know for certain if vaping is harmful until more research is conducted. This is misleading too, though: What’s still unknown is exactly how much of a risk is posed by long-term use. That doesn’t mean that researchers have failed to compare electronic cigarettes to conventional tobacco products. That exact subject has been addressed by multiple studies, and their results are quite clear.

What has already been established is that electronic cigarettes are far less dangerous than smoking tobacco. From the risk of developing cancer to the threat posed by secondhand vapor, vaping poses a much smaller health risk than smoking. Considering that a very large percentage of active vapers (which is increasing with portable vaporizers) transitioned into the practice to replace traditional smoking either partially or entirely, this is highly significant.