VAEP Shareables are images utilizing graphics, colour and text to quickly teach people about vaping. Each Shareable provides the reference on the bottom. Save them to your phone or hard drive and share.
Reducing youth smoking uptake
Royal College of Physicians
Hospital vape shop
Commonly deadly
Quit or die
Cost to US taxpayer
Hypocracy
Diacetyl
Deaths in USA
Popcorn lung
Dr. Patrice Harris AMA
Royal College of General Practitioners
S&P quote on MSA
EVALI was an isolated event
Canada gov't blames nicotine
Profit over harm reduction
Primary cause of EVALI
MSA payments proportional to cigarette sales
Classifying vaping as tobacco
MSA backed bonds
MSA payments aren't spent on prevention
Dr. Rosemary Leonard
Who's telling the truth?
Protecting profit margins
Deceiving the public
Pervasive lies from authority
Lipoid pneumonia
Claims without evidence
Decreased cancer risk
Abusing drugs
Reducing pharmaceuticals
Increasing quitting rates
A fraction the risk
Even the gov't admits it
Nicotine through inhalation
Types of people that vape
Deceptive definition
Parents are responsible for their children
Vapers want to keep flavours
Hammering manufactures
Same rate but treated differently
Ending the next generation of smokers
Fake youth vaping epidemic
Harm reduction by reducing uptake
Eliminating the worst toxins
Todd Stone smoking advocate
Think of the children
Social cost to Canadians
Social engineering
Shocking images alarm the public
Causative agent found in contraband
Nonprofits lie
Nonprofits for profit
THC cartridges driver of lung injuries
THC carts contained vitamin E acetate
House bans harm reduction
Daily dependence
Finding the solution
Scaring smokers from harm reduction
Save small business
Uniquely satisfies the behaviour
Sarah Rivin thinks wrong
San Fran Ban
Safer equals safer
Royal Society for Public Health
Even WHO admits it
Reduced toxicity
Relative risk
Remaining risk
Regulations for safety
Misinformation is working
Robert Redfield statement
Royal College of Physicians
Public Health England
National Health Services Scotland
US Nat'l Academies of Sciences, Engineering & Medicine
VAEP Shareables are images utilizing graphics, colour and text to quickly teach people about vaping. Each Shareable provides the reference on the bottom. Save them to your phone or hard drive and share.
Everyone knows smoking is very bad for health
Smoking is the most preventable cause of disease and death in North America. The harm from tobacco is overwhelmingly due to its combustion. When a cigarette is burned, the smoke contains over 7,000 chemicals. Hundreds of these chemicals cause diseases and around 70 cause cancer.
Over decades, scientists were paid millions of dollars to experiment with adding chemicals to tobacco to create the modern cigarette. Many of the chemicals in cigarettes enhance the effects and delivery of nicotine. Some chemicals are addictive in themselves.
The fear-based narrative claims there is a vaping epidemic
An epidemic is a widespread disease that affects many people. Globally, smoking kills 17,000 people every single day and over 200 million people suffer with chronic smoking-related diseases! These diseases and deaths are 100% preventable. A safer source of nicotine lets smokers eliminate the toxic chemicals found in cigarette smoke.
Before vaping, about half of smokers tried to quit every year but annually only 2.5% of smokers quit long term. Despite the financial cost, health consequences and social shaming, most smokers are hopelessly addicted and continue to harm their health..
Over decades, scientists were paid millions of dollars to experiment with adding chemicals to tobacco to create the modern cigarette. Many of the chemicals in cigarettes enhance the effects and delivery of nicotine. Some chemicals are addictive in themselves.
The fear-based narrative claims there is a vaping epidemic
An epidemic is a widespread disease that affects many people. Globally, smoking kills 17,000 people every single day and over 200 million people suffer with chronic smoking-related diseases! These diseases and deaths are 100% preventable. A safer source of nicotine lets smokers eliminate the toxic chemicals found in cigarette smoke.
Before vaping, about half of smokers tried to quit every year but annually only 2.5% of smokers quit long term. Despite the financial cost, health consequences and social shaming, most smokers are hopelessly addicted and continue to harm their health..
Reducing the cost of smoking to the taxpayer is everyone’s best interests. Public costs include disability, health care, fires and loss of productivity.
The tobacco industry relies on youth experimentation for their next generation of smokers. The pharmaceutical industry relies on smoking for future customers.
Human adolescence involves high levels of risk taking, experimentation, new experiences, sensation seeking, social development and playing around. This involves trying adult taboos such as smoking, vaping and sex.
Youth become smokers because they inhale smoke from chemically laden cigarettes. Cigarette smoke is so addictive that after just 2 cigarettes, over 10% of youth have trouble saying ‘no’ to the next one. After 100 cigarettes (4-5 packs), 94% have trouble saying ‘no’.
One of the most influential relationships a child has is with their parents. Parents who smoke model self harming behaviours and influence what children will experiment with in their teen years. Parents that quit smoking model self-caring behaviours for their children
The health community in the United Kingdom reviewed the scientific evidence on vaping before the World Health Organization designed the vaping narrative for the world.
This 30 second video explains the epidemic that is related to vaping.
Learn how vaping compares to smoking in this two minute video.
Hospitals in the UK have vape shops
Since 2016, the UK has been successfully helping smokers quit by promoting a tobacco harm reduction strategy: vaping. They confirm over and over that vaping is less than 5% the risk of smoking.
VAEP Shareables are images utilizing graphics, colour and text to quickly teach people about vaping. Each Shareable provides the reference on the bottom. Save them to your phone or hard drive and share.
Making harm reduction appealing
Adults like flavours. The drive to enjoying flavours has lead to 27% of adult Canadians and 42% adult Americans to obesity. Flavours in vaping don’t cause obesity but they offer a more pleasurable taste experience for smokers than cigarettes.
The fear-provoking narrative is that youth are trying vaping because of flavours. It’s normal for youth to mess with adult taboos like cigarettes which taste gross. Surveys clearly show that the majority of people who try vaping do so to quit smoking.
Adult smokers have driven the demand for the eliquid flavours sold in adult only vape shops. This lead to competition between eliquid manufacturers and thousands of flavours are now available.
Smokers prefer the taste of their cigarette brand. That is why they want tobacco flavours when they start vaping. Once get used to vaping, they move away from tobacco flavours to stay away from cigarettes.
Cigarette smoke is more addictive than nicotine. Flavours in eliquid offer an incentive to detox off the chemicals found in smoke while still getting nicotine. New flavours make vaping novel & help them stay quit.
Banning flavours in eliquid won’t stop youth from abusing adult products but it will make harm reduction less appealing to smokers. Many vapers may return to the most deadly form of nicotine: cigarettes.
Canada has strict eliquid manufacturing regulations and in the USA, eliquid manufactures self-regulate to keep eliquid safe. Harm reduction is what attracts smokers to vaping and flavours is what makes it pleasurable. Banning flavours will drive eliquid into the black market which will promote harm.
In 2019, health agencies such as the Canadian Medical Association Journal unjustly included eliquid as a contributor to EVALI. The deception was followed by a demand to create new harm by making flavours in eliquid illegal & driving it underground.
Around 1 million Canadians and 14 million Americans suffer with smoking-related diseases. Nonprofits for smoking-related diseases such as lung, cardiovascular, cancer and stroke are working hard to stop harm reduction for smokers.
If smokers switch to vaping and never get smoking-related diseases, what happens to the nonprofits that rely on these diseases for continued donations and fund raising? Industries that profit from smoking illnesses also fund these nonprofits.
Did you know that people that run ‘health-related’ nonprofits have histories of working for big corporations that profit off of sick people? These same people cycle into gov’t agencies, academic institutions & back to high paying corporate positions.
Around 1 million Canadians and 14 million Americans suffer with smoking-related diseases. Nonprofits for smoking-related diseases such as lung, cardiovascular, cancer and stroke are working hard to stop harm reduction for smokers.
If smokers switch to vaping and never get smoking-related diseases, what happens to the nonprofits that rely on these diseases for continued donations and fund raising? Industries that profit from smoking illnesses also fund these nonprofits.
Did you know that people that run ‘health-related’ nonprofits have histories of working for big corporations that profit off of sick people? These same people cycle into gov’t agencies, academic institutions & back to high paying corporate positions.
Young people are being recruited to push the flavour ban. These young people are not made aware of the importance of flavoured eliquid for adult smokers and how vaping is preventing their friends from becoming smokers.
All teenagers are curious about adult activities. This is why 52% vaped “to give it a try”. 14% vaped because they “liked the flavours”. Since, smoking tastes gross, perhaps the flavours in eliquid is preventing them from becoming smokers.
Youth are seeking a head buzz from abusing JUULs by inhaling too much nicotine. Teens call it a “heady” and 8.3% of grade 8-12 students are “JUULing” to get high. JUUL has less than 5 flavours. Banning 1000’s of eliquid flavours will make harm reduction unattractive to adult smokers.
Over 20,000 US youth were surveyed. Of the high school students that reported they had ever tried vaping, 1 out of 3 admitted they used cannabis in a vaping device. They are abusing vaping to get a heady or to get high. Is this a reason to ban flavours and make harm reduction less appealing to adult smokers?
Flavors are KEY to helping smokers switch to vaping and stay off of cigarettes. Governments are pushing to ban flavors in eliquid to save the children although no one has died from eliquid. There are thousands of alcohol flavours and each year 4300 youth die from alcohol.
VAEP Shareables are images utilizing graphics, colour and text to quickly teach people about vaping. Each Shareable provides the reference on the bottom. Save them to your phone or hard drive and share.
Health improvements
It just makes sense
Due to the toxins, smoking causes adverse health consequences. The good news is that when you stop smoking, the toxic chemicals are no longer entering the body. This means health will improve with quitting smoking. Vaping significantly lowers these toxins which improves health.
We don’t know the long-term effects of vaping but we do know the long-term effects of smoking: it destroys the smoker’s health. Smokers that switch to vaping, report improved health. Smokers that don’t switch to vaping continue to destroy their health.
When asthmatic smokers switched to vaping: spirometry data, airway hype-responsiveness, exacerbations and subjective signs & symptoms ALL showed improvements. Of those that continued to smoke, they went from 22 cigarettes a day to just 2.
The majority of vapers reported a decrease in lung infection rates after they switched to vaping. Of the 5% that reported an increase in lung infections, the increases were due to lifestyle changes such as having children and the resulting exposure to more infectious illnesses.
Smokers are profitable for pharmaceuticle companies
Improved health means less drugs
Smoking is a risk factor for many chronic diseases because of the harmful chemicals in cigarette smoke. Switching to vaping virtually eliminates these harmful chemicals. As a result, these people may not develop the inevitable smoking-related diseases and those with chronic diseases improve. This means billions of dollars lost in potential revenue for the pharmaceutical industry.
Vaping is a “disruptive technology” in that it replaces other smoking reduction methods. The pharmaceutical industry makes smoking cessation aids and drugs for all those smoking related diseases. Compared to vaping, the smoking cessation aids produced by pharmaceutical companies have very poor success, which keeps smokers smoking and ensures they will develop smoking-related diseases.
Smokers get smoking-related diseases that are treated with drugs. Future smokers are future revenue for BigPharma. Youth are experimenting with vaping instead of smoking which means they won’t become smokers and get those smoking-related diseases. Agencies that are funded by BigPharma are pushing to ban vaping.
Anyone who suggests that vaping is not safer than smoking does NOT know what they are talking about! Whoever it is, your physician, a nurse or a representative from a health-related nonprofit, question EVERYTHING they say after that.
Science is universal. The United Kingdom’s scientific community reviewed the evidence on vaping in 2014. As a result, vaping is promoted by their health agencies. Health professionals in Canada and the USA have followed WHO instructions to reject vaping.
The Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) has an annual revenue of about $187 million. Yearly, cancer from smoking kills over 21,000 Canadians and more suffer with cancer. What would happen to CCS revenue if smokers switched to harm reduction and got less cancer?
The American Cancer Society (ACS) makes hundreds of millions of dollars a year because people get cancer. This ensures funding and donations to their organization. Vaping has o.5% the risk for cancer compared to smoking. ACS strongly discourages smokers from switching to vaping.
Workers in a popcorn butter flavouring factory, (diacetyl was a main ingredient) had higher cases of “popcorn lung”. A study found diacetyl in some eliquids, The amount was 750x less than found cigarettes. Headlines around the world read: “Vaping Causes Popcorn Lung!”
This study made headlines claiming that vaping produces carbon monoxide (CO). No CO was produced at manufacture specified levels (55-70 W). They tested only 2 eliquids & at 3 times higher then the specified levels. They measured CO from the wreckage.
Workers in a popcorn butter flavouring factory, (diacetyl was a main ingredient) had higher cases of “popcorn lung”. A study found diacetyl in some eliquids, The amount was 750x less than found cigarettes. Headlines around the world read: “Vaping Causes Popcorn Lung!”
This study made headlines claiming that vaping produces carbon monoxide (CO). No CO was produced at manufacture specified levels (55-70 W). They tested only 2 eliquids & at 3 times higher then the specified levels. They measured CO from the wreckage.
Commercial industries aren’t responsible to the stupid stuff youth do. Youth abuse alcohol & drugs. Yet, alcohol and pharmaceutical industries aren’t being held responsible for teen alcohol and drug abuse. Youth are also abusing vaping. The vaping industry aren’t responsible for teens abusing vaping.
Mom and Pop vape shops were started by people who quit smoking with vaping. They quit their careers and invested their savings into their own businesses to help smokers in their communities. The are small businesses employing local people, NOT tobacco companies. Misinformation from media & authority have demonized them and turned their communities against them.
VAEP Shareables are images utilizing graphics, colour and text to quickly teach people about vaping. Each Shareable provides the reference on the bottom. Save them to your phone or hard drive and share.
Nicotine myth
Like any substance, too much can cause adverse effects. For instance 4000mg of Tylenol can cause severe liver damage.
Medications that are available on the shelves in a drug store are called over-the-counter (OTC) medications. They available without a prescription and used safely by the public.
Nicotine is a mild stimulant and can form a dependance, much like caffeine. Nicotine in eliquid helps smokers transition to a source of nicotine that doesn’t kill them.
Nightshade plants naturally have nicotine in them to protect them from insects. So if you eat tomatoes, potatoes, peppers and eggplants, you have nicotine in your body.
Vaping offers the smoker an alternative that allows them to continue inhaling nicotine without all the disease causing chemicals found in cigarette smoke.
Dr. John Britton of the U.K. Center for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies explains that nicotine addiction isn’t a big deal because “…nicotine itself isn’t particularly hazardous.”
It would be unethical to give nicotine to teens and then test their brains. In this referenced study used by Health Canada to scare smokers away from harm reduction, rats were given nicotine all day through an IV (2mg/kg/d).
Tobacco smoke has 7000 chemicals in it, many of which cause damage to the body. This fear-provoking message from Health Canada suggests that all smokers have some kind of brain damage. How is it that they can identify nicotine as the cause and not the 7000 toxins found in cigarette smoke?
Health Canada claims vaping “can” cause lung damage. They provide no evidence to support this speculation. Health Canada “can” deceive the public about harm reduction. They “can” have a motive to promote disease and serve the pharmaceutical industry.
VAEP Shareables are images utilizing graphics, colour and text to quickly teach people about vaping. Each Shareable provides the reference on the bottom. Save them to your phone or hard drive and share.
Using vaping to quit smoking
Vaping triples the quit rate of the patch
Controlled clinical trials are the gold standard of science. In 2014, a group of smokers who didn’t want to quit smoking were given eliquid and simple vapes (the vapes today are even more effective). 21% of the smokers quit smoking; compare that to 6% success with patches.
Long term vaping increased quitting smoking by 300%
Smokers that bought a vape and used it while still smoking were compared to smokers that didn’t buy a vape. After 2 years, 42% of smokers who also vaped quit smoking, while those that didn’t vape, only 15% quit smoking.
Vaping satisfies the nicotine addiction & smoking behaviour PLUS vaping offers thousands of flavours to help the smoker replace the taste of smoke with something better. That is why it is more effective than sticking a patch to your arm or chewing gum.
The 5.7 million Canadian and 34 million American smokers demand for a safer alternative has driven the vaping industry’s growth. If vaping didn’t help smokers quit smoking then there would be no vaping industry.
Controlled clinical trials are the gold standard of science. In 2014, a group of smokers who didn’t want to quit smoking were given eliquid and simple vapes (the vapes today are even more effective). 21% of the smokers quit smoking; compare that to 6% success with patches.
Long term vaping increased quitting smoking by 300%
Smokers that bought a vape and used it while still smoking were compared to smokers that didn’t buy a vape. After 2 years, 42% of smokers who also vaped quit smoking, while those that didn’t vape, only 15% quit smoking.
Vaping satisfies the nicotine addiction & smoking behaviour PLUS vaping offers thousands of flavours to help the smoker replace the taste of smoke with something better. That is why it is more effective than sticking a patch to your arm or chewing gum.
The 5.7 million Canadian and 34 million American smokers demand for a safer alternative has driven the vaping industry’s growth. If vaping didn’t help smokers quit smoking then there would be no vaping industry.
Vaping uniquely satisfies the ritualistic behaviour
The ritual: bringing the smoke to the mouth; tasting the drag; sensations in the throat & lungs on a big inhale; a visible exhale and nicotine enters the blood through the lungs. A pack-a-day smoker does this 87,600 times a year. Vaping uniquely satisfies this ritual.
Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) such as patches and gums aren’t that effective because they don’t replace the behaviour. Smokers are experts at self dosing nicotine through inhalation. Eliquid is nicotine in a rather benign base & allows the smoker to continue getting nicotine through inhalation.
After dual use for a while, a large percent of vapers quit smoking. Because eliquid comes in a variety of nicotine strengths (mg/ml), the vast majority of those that switch to vaping, lower their nicotine strengths; some all the way down to zero.
The anti-harm reduction zealots claim that vaping is ineffective for quitting smoking because many dual use for a while. Dual users observed in controlled clinical trials reduce the number of cigarettes they smoke by 60-80%. This significantly reduces the toxins they inhale.
This bar graph illustrates that the MAIN reason for vaping is smokers seeking to quit. Flavours are not the main reason but vaping wouldn’t work if it didn’t offer smokers a more pleasurable and novel experience than smoking because cigarette smoke is more addictive than nicotine on its own.
Surveys and reports show that less than half a percent of people that never smoked are vaping. However, 15% of smokers and 13% of ex-smokers vape. This shows that SMOKERS are vaping to either quit smoking or stay quit. They deserve to continue to have access to harm reduction.
Smoking is so bad for health and so hard to quit that doctors prescribe psychoactive medications to help their patients quit. Side effects include killing yourself.
Health professionals that understand tobacco harm reduction understand the difference of nicotine dependence and addiction. Dependence is when the body has a tolerance to a substance and experiences withdrawal without it. Addiction is the same except there are negative consequences for the dependence such as smoking-related diseases.
Eliquid contains 4 ingredients and only the nicotine can cause dependence. The chances of a youth becoming a smoker is 20 times higher if they start their experimentation with smoking verses with vaping. Vaping is interrupting the historical process of creating smokers.
A common fear tactic is to suggest that vaping leads youth to smoking. If that was the case then the increase in youth vaping would mean an increase in youth smoking. This graph clearly shows that youth smoking continues to decline.
This quote proposes vaping’s harm reduction potential not only for current smokers but for preventing the next generation of smokers. The graph illustrates the significant drop in American youth smoking rates since vaping has been introduced in the USA.
This graph shows the trend in current smoking rates of Canadian 15-19 year olds over 18 years. Within 5 years of vaping being introduced, the youth smoking rate decreased at double the highest previous decrease! Is vaping preventing youth smoking uptake?
VAEP Shareables are images utilizing graphics, colour and text to quickly teach people about vaping. Each Shareable provides the reference on the bottom. Save them to your phone or hard drive and share.
The UK benefits their citizens with harm reduction
Unlike Canada and the USA, the United Kingdom bases their vaping policies on the thousands of published scientific articles that consistently show that vaping is the best option to help smokers quit.
Most of us are familiar with and support harm reduction such as seat belts or bike helmets. Smoking is the most preventable cause of disease and death in North America! It’s very hard to quit smoking, so harm reduction is the solution for many smokers to reduce the harm of their nicotine dependance.
The standard scientific tool for measuring the harm from drug use is the MCDA (multi-criteria decision analysis). Experts compared 12 different sources of nicotine using the MCDA. The most harmful source were cigarettes so they were given the value of 100%. The other 11 sources show the relative risk of harm compared to smoking.
Citizens have a right to life which means they have a right to all the information to make informed decisions about preserving health. They also should have access to and be able to effectively utilize harm reduction to protect health such as condoms, seat belts and vaping.
“People smoke for nicotine but they die from tar.” -M. Russell
WHO prioritized the 9 most toxic chemicals found in tobacco smoke for reduction. Vaping significantly reduces or eliminates these toxic chemicals! As to formaldehyde, it is naturally occurring in exhaled breath.
Over 7000 harmful chemicals are produced when the chemically laden cigarette is burned including: carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, hydrocarbons, nitrous oxide, free radicals, radioactive compounds, arsenic, phenols & 69 carcinogens These aren’t found in vapour.
“If you are a smoker, vaping is a less harmful option than smoking.” Health Canada. Vaping nicotine is less than 5% the risk of smoking and the government limits what can be put into the eliquids to keep it that way.
Unlike 100 years ago when smoking came around, science has analyzed thousands of chemicals. All of those chemicals have been tested for safety to establish Threshold Limit Values (TLV). Vapour was compared to TLV and passed with flying colours.
Top health agencies in the US tested for hazardous chemicals in the air in a vape shop with active vaping. The vast majority of chemicals were not even detected! Friends and family of vapers can feel comfortable around vaping and support smokers making the switch.
In Great Britain, vaping is recognized as a significant harm reduction strategy and is promoted by their public health. Yet, less than 2% of 11-18 year olds vape more than once a week. WHERE is the youth vaping epidemic in Great Britain?
Young people have been recruited to distract from the harm reduction aspect of vaping and replace it with fear of youth becoming addicted to nicotine. The problem with this focus is it denies the millions of smokers in North America from learning about an effective harm reduction option.
Health authorities and media claim that youth are becoming dependent on nicotine because of vaping. Dependence to nicotine means daily use. Youth that have never smoked are not daily vapers. But youth that would have becomes smokers are vaping instead.
To compare statistical data from year to year, the parameters of that data must remain the same. The Government of Canada changed the parameters of youth vaping data which falsely inflates the numbers and perpetuates the fear-provoking narrative.
The next generation of smokers is being interrupted by vaping. 99.9% of those that vape everyday, and therefore are dependant, consists of people with a smoking history.
This documentary investigated vaping during the height of the media frenzy to demonize vaping. It offers a comprehensive, indepth look at tobacco harm reduction.
The next generation of smokers is being interrupted by vaping. 99.9% of those that vape everyday, and therefore are dependant, consists of people with a smoking history.
This documentary investigated vaping during the height of the media frenzy to demonize vaping. It offers a comprehensive, indepth look at tobacco harm reduction.
Most of the harmful chemicals found in tobacco smoke are eliminated with vaping. (2)
Nicotine is a mild stimulant much like caffeine and does not cause disease. 6
To quote the study:
"Although the precise fraction of those [effects] attributable specifically to nicotine has not been precisely quantified." (25)
On one occasion in this study, smokeless tobacco was used as a data source, the rest were all about tobacco smoke. It is literally impossible to determine if any of the health effects on the developing fetus or adolescents who smoke are caused from nicotine.
The 5.3 million smokers in Canada have a right to know that vaping is a 95% safer alternative. (9) (36)
Yet, these alarming messages hardly illustrate the significant harm reduction strategy!
Where is the evidence?
Health Canada provides no references for this public announcment on their website or literature.
To quote the only statement associated with this public announcement: “Vaping can expose you to harmful chemicals like formaldehyde and acrolein, and metals and contaminants like nickel, tin and aluminum. You don’t want any of these in your lungs!” 37
VAEP does not condone youth using any product intended for adults.
“…nurses have a responsibility to provide non-judgmental care to individuals and families affected by substance use, regardless of setting, income, age, gender identity, ethnicity or other socio-demographic characteristics.” 23
Vaping exists today because of the demand from smokers who want a harm reduction option. However, the evidence suggests that vaping seems to be having an unintended consequence which is that vaping may be interrupting the uptake of youth smoking. Vaping may be preventing the next generation of smokers.
The adolescent brain is more susceptible to addiction than the adult brain.
Studies have shown that because of the development in the brain during adolescent years, teens are more susceptible to continue impulsive behaviours and develop dependence than adults. 24, 12, 25
Research has also shown that teens are less receptive the the abstinence-only approach and find a harm reduction approach more helpful. 26
We have made some suggestions for an approach that may be more beneficial to this age group than the current fear-provoking narrative in our Harm Reduction section at the end of this page.
Grade twelve smokers are the next adult smokers.
A 35% drop in grade 12 smoking rates is very significant!
If vaping was a gateway to smoking, we would see an increase in the smoking rates. Instead the youth smoking rates are dropping. This suggests that vaping may be reducing the uptake of smoking in youth.
In 2017, 11% of grade 7-12 students had one puff or more 30 days and 1.2% vaped daily.
In 2015, 17.7% grades 6-12 students had at least one puff from a vape. In 2017, 22.8% grade 7-12 students had at least one puff from a vape; an increase of 28.8% in two years. 9, 27
35% of grade 10-12 students have ever smoked and 33% have ever vaped. (27)
Is there a smoking epidemic?
This graph shows a 16 year history of current smoking rates of 15-19 year olds over a 16 year period.
Within 3 years of vaping being introduced, the smoking rate decreased at a level not seen in 14 years! 9, 27, 28, 29
In Great Britain, vaping is recognized as a significant harm reduction strategy and is promoted by Public Health England. (30)
Yet, less than 2% of 11-18 year olds vape more than once a week. 31
This indicates that promoting harm reduction and allowing it to be attractive to smokers such as allowing all sorts of flavours (adults like flavours) does not create increased usage among youth.
'Public Health Consequences of E-Cigarettes' from the national Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (32)
This quote illustrates the potential not only for current smokers but to prevent the next generation of smokers. 32
The graph illustrates the significant drop in American youth smoking rates since vaping has been introduced in the USA. 33
A small percentage of never smokers are abusing nicotine salts eliquids, mainly with pod devices such as JUUL. (34)
‘Nicotine salts’ are nicotine with additives that lower the pH level to crate a faster absorption rate than just pure nicotine. 35 This process is part of tobacco cigarette production and the rapid absorption of nicotine into the blood is what the smoker is accustomed to. 8
Nicotine salts eliquids are an alternative for the current smoker, usually a heavy smoker, when pure nicotine is not enough to transition off of tobacco smoke.
A very small percentage of youth that have never smoked are abusing nicotine salts to achieve a ‘heady’. A heady is the physiological experience of too much nicotine such as a head rush, nausea or racing heart rate.
When youth have difficulty coping with their stressors, some will seek to escape reality with drug use as evidence by 40% or grade 10-12 students have participated in high risk alcohol consumption in the last year. 9 This type of behaviour indicates the youth may benefit from resources that can help them cope such as support groups or anger management courses.
When it comes to substance use, teens find the abstinence only approach to be unhelpful, yet they find a harm reduction approach to be supportive. 26 Instead of the fear-based abstinence-only narrative, perhaps a more beneficial strategy would be a program that provides these youth with resources to cope with their stressors and prevent addiction.
On this website, we reference nicotine vaping products purchased in specialty vape shops when used as intended.
Vaping nicotine based eliquids is 95% reduction in harm compared to smoking. 20 Vaping is less addictive than smoking because it has a fraction of the ingredients found in tobacco cigarettes. 3
Learn how vaping compares to smoking in this two minute video.
This 30 second video explains the epidemic that is related to vaping.
We don't know the long-term effects of vaping but we do know the long-term effects of smoking. (14)
The electronic cigarette was patented in 2004 15 and has been mainstream for about 5-10 years, depending on the country. To date, millions of smokers have switched to vaping. 16 There has never been a case of serious adverse effects from vaping nicotine based products from a specialty vape shop when used as intended.
Unlike with cigarettes, vaping has been developed in an age when science has studied and catalogued thousands of substances and how they effect human health. Eliquid and vapour have been thoroughly analyzed and the results consistently indicate that vaping is a very small fraction of the harm compared to smoking. 17
Over 9000 observations on the constituents of vapor were compared to universally recognized workplace exposure standards; and all (except 2 were less than <5%) were less than 1% of Threshold Limit Values. 18
Smoking is the most common addiction in North America. (19) (20)
Half of smokers try to quit every year; yet only 5% quit of those quit attempts achieve long term success. 21, 9 Vaping may be a better solution for smokers because it is inhaled like smoke is and replaces the ritualistic component of smoking addiction.
The Royal College of Physicians reviewed the science on vaping & wrote an 111 page report. (17)
In April 2016, they released the report,Nicotine without Smoke: “…the likely harm to health and society of e-cigarettes at about 5% of the burden caused by tobacco smoking.” 17
"People smoke for nicotine but they die from tar." -M. Russell
WHO prioritized the nine most toxic chemicals found in tobacco smoke for reduction. Vaping significantly reduces or eliminates these toxic chemicals! 6
We have more info on vaping as a harm reduction strategy for current smokers.
Chemicals are added to tobacco cigarettes to make them more addictive. 3, 4
Scientists employed by tobacco companies created the modern cigarette. When a tobacco cigarette is burned, the smoke contains over 7,000 chemicals; at least 250 of which cause harm and 69 cause cancer. 5
examples of chemicals and what they do
Some strange ingredients can be added to cigarette tobacco such as smoke flavour, furfuryl mercaptan, snakeroot oil and 6-Acetoxydihydrotheaspirane.
Ammonia salts lower the pH of the smoke which increases the amount of nicotine absorbed into the bloodstream (increased bioavailibility).
Menthol numbs the lungs to suppress coughing (local anesthetic).
Eucalyptol and theobromine chemically stretch the lungs (bronchial dilators) to help deliver more smoke into the lungs.
Lactones reduce the body’s ability to get rid of nicotine.
Acetaldehyde acts as an antidepressant in the brain (MOA inhibitor). 3
Nicotine is up to 3x less addictive than tobacco smoke Shareable.
The bar graph (on the Shareable) shows the percentage of people that were able to stop using different sources of nicotine: cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and nicotine gum. Each volunteer was given placebo medications and after 6 months reported whether they quit using the nicotine source.
The graph shows that the people that were on nicotine gum (which is just nicotine) had the easiest time quitting because 36% were able to quit. The people that were smoking had the hardest time quitting because only 10% quit. This indicates that cigarette smoke is up to three times more addictive than just nicotine on its own. 6
Experimenting with adult activities is a normal part of adolescent development.7
“Adolescence is defined by characteristic behaviors that include high levels of risk taking, exploration, novelty and sensation seeking, social interaction and play behaviors.” 8
It is not uncommon for teenagers to experiment with adult taboos such as sex, alcohol and smoking (9).
During adolescents, the brain starts to build adult connections that make different parts of the brain work together more efficiently. The last part to develop is the frontal lobe that controls judgment and insight and this is why teens take more risks than adults and why addiction often starts in youth. 7
Teens are different than adults in that they are more susceptible to peer pressure and they are “sensation-seeking”; they do things that give a rush such as driving a car fast or eating Tide Pods. 10 Therefore, teenagers are the age group that typically tries smoking 7 and why “virtually all cigarette smoking begins before 18 years of age…” 11
The more cigarettes a person smokes, the more likely they are to become a smoker. 6
The key factor to creating a smoker is to get the tobacco smoke into the person. 6 Addiction is a loss of ‘autonomy’; autonomy means to act independently of something. So, someone who is addicted to tobacco smoke has difficulty functioning without cigarettes. 12
The Hooked On Nicotine Checklist (HONC) Scale is an assessment tool used to determine if someone is addicted to smoking.
The more ‘yes’ answers to these questions, the more a person is addicted to tobacco smoke:
1. Have you ever tried to quit, but couldn’t?
2. Do you smoke now because it is really hard to quit?
3. Have you ever felt like you were addicted to tobacco?
4. Do you ever have strong cravings to smoke?
5. Have you ever felt like you really needed a cigarette?
6. Is it hard to keep from smoking in places where you are not supposed to?
When you haven’t used tobacco for a while … OR When you tried to stop smoking …
7. did you find it hard to concentrate because you couldn’t smoke?
8. did you feel more irritable because you couldn’t smoke?
9. did you feel a strong need or urge to smoke?
10. did you feel nervous, restless or anxious because you couldn’t smoke? 13
Loss of Autonomy Shareable
This graph shows at least one answer of ‘yes’ on the HONC scale by the number of cigarettes smoked.
After only one to two cigarettes, 25% have lost some autonomy!
At 20 cigarettes (a pack of cigarettes), half are reporting signs of addiction.
At 100 cigarettes (4-5 packs) 94% are becoming life-long smokers. 6
