Did you know that 1.4% of people in the United States vape for the sake of vaping? A small percentage of 1.4% is actually close to two million people according to US census data in 2016. Originally, e-cigarettes (e-cigs) were seen as devices that can help people quit smoking “combustible” cigarettes, the ones you need to light with fire, and that can be a healthy alternative to smoking combustible cigarettes. Lately, e-cigs have been pushed to consumers that don’t already smoke combustible cigarettes. This population of “sole e-cig consumers”, people who never smoked before e-cigs, is concerning because a study shows that there is a link between smoking e-cigarettes for fun and taking part in high-risk activities like heavy drinking.
Various e-Cigarettes. (Photo from Wikimedia Commons)
According to a paper in the Annals of Internal Medicine, e-cigs appeal to a large number of people who have never smoked before, and sole e-cigarette users are more frequently taking part in high-risk activities and self-rated their mental and physical health as poorer than nonusers.
The study used something called a Behavioural Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) to survey smokers and non-smokers, and age-standardized the responses. Data can be compared across populations after age-standardization. For example, cancer death rate is age-standardized, so that an older population doesn’t skew the rate of death by cancer with death by old age with cancer. So the data in the e-cig study is age-standardized in consideration of the fact that approximately 60% of sole e-cig users were between 18 and 24 years of age. The response data were listed as percentages, which I have made graphs of below:
Perceived Health of Smokers and Non-smokers (Image created by Alyssa Hui, with data from study)
Health Behaviours of Smokers and Non-smokers (Image created by Alyssa Hui, with data from study)
From the above graphs, we see that sole e-cig smokers perceive themselves to be fairly healthy, similar to a non-smoker. Yet, the same sole e-cig smokers will more frequently take part in high risk, unhealthy activities, such as heavy drinking and having a “high-risk lifestyle”.
When I see this link between vaping for fun and doing high-risk, unhealthy activities, the function of e-cigs as a healthier alternative to smoking combustible cigarettes is somewhat undermined.
-Alyssa Hui
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