Lecture 4: E-Cigarettes

approx ten years ago, rechargeable vapes with replaceable pods drops drastically in popularity (47% to 15% by 2024)
disposable vapes became drastically more popular (lower than 10% in 2014 to 30% in 2024)

everyone on this graph is a regular vaper
less than ten % of vapers have never smoked but continue to vape
the solid black line is dual users, so they smoke tobacco and vape
the solid black and dotted black line move in parallel, aka when people started to quit smoking tobacco they have moved to be an ex tobacco smoker but vape instead
thus vaping and smoking tobacco are quite closely linked

overtime the number of adults that smoke have gone down, almost parallel to the number of adults that picked up vaping
very recent trend shows that the total number of vapers had outnumber the amount that smoke

relatively low in 11-15 year olds, but has made a drastic and increasing leap in recent years

shows its not really older adults that increased use of disposable vapes, but overwhelmingly popular within the younger population

one Dr results show that ecigarettes/ vapers are safer than cigarettes
it is the tar in the cigarettes that cause the harmful toxins to enter our bodies, this is not an issue in vapes

The tobacco industry has a long history of denying the negative and harmful consequences of tobacco, but now that they have transitioned their interests into vapes people are concerned and suspicious of a repeat in strategies, denial and refusal of accountability

if inhaled they are dangerous, but carbonyls are only released if the e-cigarette is overheated.
this only happens if your towards the bottom of the liquid tank and is much less likely if your liquid tank is full
- so this is a lot less likely

1.79 odds ration: you are 79% more likely to have a heart attack if you are an e-cigarette smoker than someone who is not
- 2.72: 172% more likely if you are a smoker

cardiovascular disease and other harmful health issues only appear after a decade or two, so we would not know the relationship between this and e-cigarettes, because it is too new
- we have to wait for these epidemiological studies
a lot of the scents and flavouring or flavourings that have been used in foods, so there is no reason to believe they would be particularly harmful is inhaled
- however, this does not directly indicate that they are as safe when inhaled

the vapes produce the carbonyls when you burn the liquid, as said before
- so the one observation is that this makes you feel physically sick once it happens, which indicates that it probably is not happening often
  - we would know if it was because people would have physical symptoms

when used as intended, there is not too much evidence of them being severely harmful
- most harmful when swallowed or slathered on skin so not common issue

many would say that e-cigarettes and nicotine are as harmful as caffeine
- though some would argue against this

back in 2014 very few were incorrect, however, this has increased drastically by 2024
this might have implications for use of e-cigarettes on those that could be trying to stop smoking in the future

across a ten year time periods, for every 1% increase in the pop prevalence of E-Cig use among tobacco smokers, the success rate of attempts to quit tobacco smoking increased by 0.1%
among tobacco smokers who actually start vaping, they do not find any evidence they are less likely to quit

in 2013, a majority of E-Cig users are also smoking tobacco
- but at some point this cross over occurs, so in 2024 53% used to smoke tobacco but quit
- over time people are leaving the group of vapers who smoke to vapers who used to smoke

these groups may differ in the extent they want to quit, why they are using e-cigs and the frequency of use
- they differ in various ways

maybe if we just focussed on people who used e-cigs and really want ot quit, we could see different results in smoking sensations than included others who have no intention of quitting