A new report commissioned by Public Health England reveals that e-cigarettes are 95% less harmful than tobacco. For this reason, many health experts are predicting that electronic cigarettes could be prescribed by the NHS in the future to help smokers quit.
If you’re a current smoker who’s currently mulling over the decision to vape or not to vape, these findings could provide the ‘game changer’ you’re looking for. With that thought in mind, and using this new research as a spring board, we’ve decided to investigate the health, financial and social benefits you can enjoy by making the switch to electronic cigarettes.
Health
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So experts now believe that e-cigarettes are a massive 95% less harmful than tobacco cigarettes. But why have they come to this conclusion? Well, let’s take a look at the evidence.
First of all, nicotine is the chemical within traditional cigarettes that keeps smokers hooked. Yet nicotine is no less bad for you then a daily dose of caffeine. This is because it’s actually the innumerable number of toxic chemicals that tobacco produces when burned that ends the life of two out of every three smokers early.
Conversely, electronic cigarettes deliver nicotine without burning tobacco. For this reason, the new report commissioned by Public Health England has concluded that electronic cigarettes are much safer than tobacco. And while they admit that e-cigarettes do still produce some toxic chemicals, they are far fewer and far less potent than those produced by traditional cigarettes.
Professor Kevin Fenton of Public Health England, has gone on record to say:
“E-cigarettes are not completely risk-free but when compared to smoking, evidence shows they carry just a fraction of the harm.”
So, what positive physical effects can switching to electronic cigarettes have on your health?
It’s okay saying that e-cigarettes are 95% safer than tobacco, but what does that mean in real terms? Here we take a look at the positive effects on physical health that switching to electronic cigarettes can have for you.
Say goodbye to your smoker’s cough
The first health benefit that many smokers will notice after taking the decision to vape is the sudden disappearance of that horrible smoker’s cough.
Remember the overabundance of toxic chemicals in tobacco that we were talking about earlier? When these chemicals continually bombard the back of your throat, they create a build-up of mucus, which is responsible for that smoker’s cough.
However, because e-cigarettes don’t contain these toxins, electronic cigarettes can help to consign that ravaged throat and the resulting smoker’s cough to a thing of the past.
Start to breathe more easily
On a similar theme, the toxins found in tobacco are also responsible for giving your lungs a tough time of it. To get into specifics, the hydrogen cyanide inherent in tobacco makes it hard for your lungs to clear themselves as they naturally would. In addition, the cocktail of other toxins can cause your lungs to swell, which constricts the flow of air.
With e-cigs, there is no hydrogen cyanide or many other toxins, so your lungs will once again enjoy the capacity to repair themselves naturally. So although you shouldn’t expect to run the 100 meters in 10 seconds flat anytime soon, making the switch to e-cigs should make climbing your stairs a whole lot easier.
Improve your blood circulation
You’ve heard of carbon monoxide, right? Well, it’s another damaging chemical that is found in cigarettes, and it basically acts as a thief of oxygen in your blood, which has a severe adverse effect on your circulation.
But guess what? If you haven’t cottoned on to the theme by now, carbon monoxide is yet another chemical that electronic cigarettes do not contain. Thus, making the switch to e-cigs can also help to improve your blood circulation – drastically!
Financial
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As every man and their dog from here to Timbuktu knows, smoking is very expensive. The main culprit for the average price of cigarettes currently standing at £7.98 is rising taxation. And with this trend showing no sign of slowing any time soon, the cost of cigarettes is only going to increase.
However, making the switch from tobacco to electronic cigarettes can help prevent your money from going up in smoke – in more ways than one. This is because using electronic cigarettes is much cheaper than smoking traditional cigarettes.
You don’t believe us? Well then, let’s do some simple maths:
Our cheapest electronic starter kit costs £13.99. For this price you get an electronic cigarette, a charger and three refill cartridges that collectively contain the equivalent amount of nicotine that you’ll find in 100 traditional cigarettes.
If you take £7.98 as the price of 20 cigarettes, it will cost you just under £40 to buy 100 of your favourite smokes. Obviously, that’s quite a difference from £13.99. However, if you can make the transition from tobacco to electronic cigarettes stick, the potential for savings increases exponentially.
For one, if you’ve bought an electronic cigarette starter kit, you’ll already possess the e-cigarette required for all your vaping needs. After that, you can buy e-cig refill cartridges in bulk – that each contain as much nicotine as 20 cigarettes – from us for as little as £1.15 each.
In short, then, the potential savings involved in making the switch to electronic cigarettes are huge. If you want more information about just how much you could save by making the switch, read our blog: How Much Money Can You Save with Electronic Cigarettes?
Social
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In recent years, as awareness around the health risks that cigarettes possess has increased, a stigma had grown around smoking. Thus, many people view puffing away on a crafty cigarette as socially unacceptable. However, making the switch to electronic cigarettes can help solve this problem – and here’s the reasons why:
No smell – Cigarettes produce a rancid stale smell that rests on smoker’s clothes and breath, following them everywhere they go. On the other hand, e-cigarettes don’t produce that same smell. This means by taking up e-cigs you can wave goodbye to stinking clothes, smoke-ravaged homes and fag breath in one fell swoop.
No more going outside – E-cigarettes don’t create tobacco smoke. For this reason, they are exempt from the vast majority of smoking bans across the UK. So now when you’re at the pub with your mates, you will no longer need to head outside into the cold and rain when the need for a nicotine hit arises.
No second-hand smoke – The negative effects of passive smoking are well documented. However, scientific studies suggests that second-hand vapour is much less harmful than tobacco smoke. Thus, electronic cigarettes are much safer to smoke around other people than traditional cigarettes.
Bring back your taste – The taste buds of smokers become flattened and less receptive over years of using cigarettes. However, because e-cigarette vapour is less harsh than tobacco smoke, many people new to vaping begin to notice that their sense of taste becomes a lot stronger shortly after making the switch.
So, are you ready to join the vaping revolution?
As you can see, making the switch to electronic cigarettes creates a multitude of benefits in relation to your health, finances and social life.
As one of the oldest electronic cigarette companies in the UK, our aim is to help make your switch from smoking to using e-cigs as simple as possible. That’s why our electronic cigarette starter kits include everything you’ll need to get started – including an e-cig, charger, case and refill cartridges.
So if you want to swap traditional cigarettes for a healthier hit of nicotine, grab an iCig Electronic Cigarette Starter Kit today.
Alternatively, if you need more information before making the switch from traditional cigarettes, you can refer to our guide: Everything a Beginner Needs to Know about Electronic Cigarettes.