Around the same time, when real persecution began on smokers all over the world, wise Chinese people came up with a device that imitates the process of smoking most reliably. The electronic cigarette provided an opportunity for smokers to consume nicotine in an almost familiar way, while preserving the maximum sensations and associated habits inherent in smoking - all that neither chewing gums, plasters, nor tablets could give. The news of the miraculous invention instantly spread throughout the smoking world and thousands of people rushed to buy the desired novelty. At the same time, these products are almost never advertised anywhere except on the Internet, and even selling them in a number of countries has not yet been allowed, and the doctors' comments about electronic cigarettes are very restrained and uncertain. Experts say neither yes nor no, and consumers are still confused: so what is an electronic cigarette - harm or benefit?
Nicotine only and nothing but nicotine
What doctors have succeeded in is painting harm from regular cigarettes. Thanks to their efforts (very useful and necessary, I must admit), the vast majority of the population is well aware of the muck that smokers poison themselves with. Nicotine, whose drop, as you know, is fatal to a horse, appears to be almost the least of evils in comparison with combustion products - here you have arsenic, and hydrocyanic acid, and lead, and carcinogens. Cigarette smoke corrodes the airways, trachea, and mucous membranes. The list of diseases caused by smoking is long and terrible, the verdict is harsh, retribution is inevitable.
And against the backdrop of this “all in white” nightmare, an electronic cigarette appears. Nothing burns, instead of caustic smoke - harmless vapor, no tar, no carcinogens, or other muck. Nicotine alone - and nothing but nicotine. And manufacturers go even further, and now you can buy completely non-nicotine liquid for refueling electronic cigarettes. A cigarette turns into a regular inhaler, through which a person breathes flavorings, while accurately reproducing the smoking process. So what is an electronic cigarette - harm or benefit? It doesn't seem so bad!
I smoke, but I do not bother anyone
Of course, nicotine is also not a sugar syrup, so talking about the benefits of electronic cigarettes for the health of the person who smokes them is perhaps not entirely correct. And about the benefits to others? When using electronic cigarettes, the concept of “passive smoking” disappears altogether, because in its vaporizer the liquid is converted into vapor, which the smoker inhales and exhales. Steam is not smoke, it does not contain any combustion products, it is harmless to others, has no smell and instantly dissolves in air, unlike a smoke screen. In many places where smoking is prohibited, for example, in restaurants and on board aircraft, smoking an electronic cigarette is permissible, since it does not bother other people. The main bugbear of firefighters - smoking in bed - in the case of an electronic cigarette also ceases to be a risk factor, because it does not burn when the smoker does not drag on; what’s there - it doesn’t burn at all!
So what is an electronic cigarette - harm or benefit? At least for others, the benefits are obvious.
Insufficiently studied or undesirable to study?
The main argument of the opponents of electronic cigarettes sounds surprisingly “toothless” - their effect on the body, they say, has not yet been sufficiently studied. At the same time, some scientists who, on their own initiative, investigated the composition of the liquid for electronic cigarettes, say: there is nothing dangerous in them - no carcinogens, no diethylene glycol, or anything else that provokes the development of cancer or other diseases. In these liquids, in fact, there are not so many substances - in addition to nicotine, with which everything is clear, these are mainly flavorings that are successfully used even in the food industry.
It is believed that studies by representatives of the so-called “official” medical science do not show anything, since they are not carried out. There is no such order - it is not interested in either a powerful tobacco lobby risking a dangerous competitor or governments risking losing revenue from selling tobacco. And if so, then the question of what an electronic cigarette is - harm or benefit - will still hang in the air for a long time with tobacco smoke, although it could have turned into vapor for a long time, give the same WHO clear and unambiguous answers.