Smoking and Vaping

This topic really hits home for me. I have an uncle who has terminal lung cancer, and knowing this, has decided to give up and smoke for the rest of his life. As a result, his death is going to be sooner (and more painful) than it should have been.

Smoking, the act of lighting tobacco and nicotine wrapped in paper and putting it in your mouth, is highly carcinogenic and addicting. We've known this since the 1950s when Richard Doll researched this. He studied lung cancer patients from 20 hospitals in London, having originally thought tarmac and car exhaust were to blame. All this was thrown out the window when he realized that the patients were linked in the fact that they all smoked cigarettes. He said, "The risk of developing the disease increases in proportion to the amount smoked. It may be 50 as great among those who smoke 25 or more cigarettes a day as among non-smokers." (1)

As I did the research for this article, I found that among 4,000 chemicals, at least 43 of which are carcinogenic. Some of these dangerous compounds include nicotine (duh), tar, carbon monoxide (knew that too), hydrogen cyanide, ARSENIC, the list goes on and on. (2)

Going back to my uncle, he has probably smoked enough cigarettes to equal a burning building from the golden age of asbestos (not scientifically proven, but very likely). This could lead you into thinking twice about that cigarette and switching to vaping. Don't.

As bad as it sounds to have tar in your lungs when you smoke, you could be breathing in antifreeze when you vape. (3) Yes, the ingredient propylene glycol (also knownknown as PG) can also be found in antifreeze (check the label) and fog machine juice, the latter one I know thanks to stage crew and how much we used it in Viewmont High Schools production of Brigadoon.

But what exactly is propylene glycol? "Propylene glycol (often referred to as PG) is the third 'product' in a chemical process beginning with propene, a byproduct of fossil fuel (oil refining and natural gas processing) and also found in nature as a byproduct of fermentation." (4)

So my final message about all this, don't smoke. We all know the problems it brings, yet most people don't think it will happen to them. Please don't cause your family the same pain my uncle has. Don't smoke, don't vape.

As always, I'm David and these are the First World Problems

Sources: Wikipedia - Richard Doll (1)

quitsmokingsupport.com (2)

ATSDR (3)

Dr. Axe (4)