Dave Achondo THERE have been so many arguments whether or not e-cigarettes are better than smoking cigarettes. I started vaping last year because I wanted to quit smoking. While I have yet to completely stop smoking, vaping is still commendable because I now smoke less cigarettes. For some people vaping is just a way for them to quit smoking. Before vaping, I was a two-pack-a-day smoker. I can honestly say that e-cigarettes helped me dramatically get rid of that urge to smoke frequently. I watched many YouTube videos in defense of vaping, and about how much safer e-cigarettes are. There are very few inconclusive studies that suggest otherwise. There is this one particular video that intrigued me the most. It shows two separate but merged videos, each one showing a liter of water in a beaker. After a few minutes, the water in the beaker where cigarette smoke was pumped in showed discoloration while the other one where e-cigarette vapor was pumped in remained clear. It was a simple approach in defending vaping. During my college days, I learned that nicotine wasn’t entirely the one to blame for respiratory problems and other ailments. There are countless factors that cause it, and sometimes, even cancer is a result of one of them, not necessarily nicotine. According to studies, the most dangerous component in cigarettes is tar, and not nicotine. Tar, if absorbed by the lungs, causes lung cells to die. Smoking destroys the “cilia” which are fine hairs that line your upper airways that help protect against infection. When cilia are damaged, tar is able to penetrate further into your lungs, where it can do even more damage. There is no study that supports the idea that this happens in vaping or that e-cigarettes produces tar. To understand how deadly a cigarette is, let’s break it down into simple household products: nicotine (insecticide), acetic acid (vinegar), methanol (fuel), acetone (paint stripper), cadmium (batteries), arsenic (poison), amonia (toilet cleaner), and so on and so forth. I cannot say that vaping is safe because some e-liquids contain nicotine (optional), and one research even suggests that it delivers a cocktail of toxic chemicals, including carcinogens into the lungs. Another study suggests that long-term use of e-cigarettes may even result in bacterial infections resistant to antibiotics. There are safety hazards in using e-cigarettes, and there are plenty of things to consider and understand before anyone could use it. One danger is that in some cases, vape mods explode, but this is due to lack of understanding. Vape mods can explode due to maintenance issues like when one introduces modifications or battery misuse. There are also “fake” e-cigarette products. Based on my experience, the upside is that the kind of e-juice (fuel for e-cigarettes) one uses depends on the user’s choice. One can actually buy e-liquid with little or no nicotine at all. Well, that is much better than cigarettes. My research led me to understand more about e-cigarettes, and its pros and cons. But ultimately everything points to the same direction: a puff on an e-cigarette is less toxic than a puff on a regular cigarette. Cigarettes are definitely terrible for you, but the only reason I can’t say vaping is, too, is that all studies are still inconclusive. Smoking is not good for you, and vaping may not be good either. If you can, better avoid any of the two.