How inhaling this flavoured aerosol affects your lungs and impacts the body

WORDS AILSA HARVEY

Billows of fruity-flavoured mist are a common scent on today’s city high streets. They plume from devices called electronic cigarettes, also known as vapes or e-cigarettes, and are exhaled from the mouths of young and old alike. But the liquid in vapes contains many harmful ingredients and a total of around 2,000 different chemicals. Despite the device’s name, the mist that escapes vapes is inaccurately described as vapour. A vapour is a substance in gas form, while an aerosol contains small particles of liquid – called e-liquid in vapes – that are suspended in the air.

Although e-cigarettes were invented as a cigarette substitute, feeding nicotine cravings caused by smoking without exposing the body to many deadly toxins, vapes are a new craze that come with their own set of health hazards for a new generation of vaping addicts. Health agencies, such as those in the UK government, have previously misinformed people that vaping is a healthy alternative to smoking. Based on limited information about modern vaping devices and known ingredients, these groups promoted e-cigarettes as being 95 per cent safer than standard cigarettes. This information, which was intended to steer smokers away from tobacco products, has also steered younger non-smokers to these nicotine products.