As vapes enter the public consciousness, health-conscious smokers looking to quit are increasingly turning to this less harmful alternative. While vaping has gained acceptance among some, many others still hold misconceptions due to widespread misinformation. Today, I want to speak up in defense of vapes.
Can Vaping Before Surgery Kill You?
The probability of direct death caused by smoking vapes before surgery is relatively low, and currently, there are few cases in which smoking vapes is clearly identified as the main cause of death after surgery.
However, the intake of nicotine in vapes before surgery will have a negative impact on human health. A more prominent one is that it will slow down the wound healing process. Nicotine can cause blood vessels to constrict, resulting in the obstruction of the blood supply to the healing tissues, thus interfering with the body's normal recovery mechanism. Especially for patients with heart disease or respiratory diseases, they should strictly avoid using vapes before surgery.
From a health perspective, it is strongly recommended that patients stop using vapes 8 to 9 weeks before surgery. Although vapes themselves are not a direct cause of death, the various complications and potential risks caused by them should not be underestimated and require sufficient attention.
The Complex Factors Influencing Human Aging
Human aging is influenced by a combination of factors, including genetic predisposition, lifestyle choices, and environmental exposures. Genetic factors largely determine an individual's rate and characteristics of aging, while lifestyle elements—such as a balanced diet, regular exercise, and sufficient sleep—along with environmental factors like pollution and UV radiation, all play significant roles in the aging process.
Vapes represent just one of many environmental variables. Attributing accelerated aging solely to vape use oversimplifies the issue, ignoring the cumulative effects of other critical factors.
If vapes are claimed to accelerate aging, a fair comparison with traditional cigarettes must be made. Conventional cigarettes contain thousands of chemical compounds, including numerous confirmed carcinogens and toxic substances, with well-documented detrimental effects on human health.
In contrast, while e-cigarettes are not risk-free, current research suggests they generally emit lower levels of harmful substances than combustible tobacco. Without conclusive evidence proving that e-cigarettes are more harmful than traditional cigarettes in terms of aging acceleration, such a claim remains speculative and unsupported by comparative data.
Does Vaping Produce Formaldehyde?
Formaldehyde is not an inherent component of e-cigarette e-liquid, but a by-product of the pyrolysis of vegetable glycerin (VG) or propylene glycol (PG) caused by improper use (such as using inferior devices or extremely high power).
In 2015, a controversial study in the New England Journal of Medicine once proposed the risk of formaldehyde. However, subsequent scholars pointed out that the experimental conditions of this study were far beyond the actual usage scenarios (such as continuously using extremely high power to burn the coil), resulting in the conclusion misleading the public.
Trace amounts of formaldehyde may only be decomposed from e-cigarette e-liquid when it is overheated due to a dry hit. However, under normal usage conditions (with reasonable power and atomization temperature), the amount of formaldehyde generated is extremely low, even lower than the natural formaldehyde content in indoor air, furniture, or cooking fumes.
Conclusion
Fabricating hoaxes and hasty generalizations does not help regulate vapes nor promote harm reduction measures at all. With so much uncertainty concerning vapes and clear facts about cigarettes and smoking, all we need is further study and an open mind for possibilities.