Bold fruity flavours like mango, banana and blueberry or dessert-style treats like bubble-gum and fairy floss. At face value, these flavours don’t exactly sound life-threatening, do they?
Which is exactly what the companies making and marketing vape products want you to think.
And although sometimes ‘dressed’ in bright colours and desirable flavours, these products also typically contain dangerous organic compounds such as propylene glycol, glycerin and toluene; metals including chromium, cadmium, nickel, lead; as well as a range of carcinogens such as formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and benzaldehyde.
(See ADA’s The Little Blue Book of workplace MENTAL HEALTH p. 83)
Like smoking cigarettes, the arguments about the dangers in vaping are settled – these things are dangerous to our health.
However, where there is a demonstrated causality between a range of cancers, heart disease, diabetes (and other disease) that can be attributed to nicotine, tar and other chemicals in cigarettes, research on the negative health effects of vapes – while accumulating rapidly – is ongoing.
And while studies show nicotine vaping may not be as harmful as traditional cigarettes, there is increasing evidence of lung injuries and other health harms.
Besides the well-known harms and addiction risk in nicotine use, what is known is that vaping exposes the lungs to a range of dangerous chemicals which they were not designed to absorb. Like the condensing agent vitamin E acetate (α-tocopheryl acetate), for instance, which is commonly used as an additive in vape products containing THC, and which is strongly identified in lung injury (lung fluid samples showing presence of this agent).
But what may be most important to consider is that the same companies that have lied for decades about the dangers of cigarettes are now profiting from the sale of vapes.
So, you need to ask yourself the question, “Are these companies, and the products they push, deserving of your trust?"
Committing to action through an ADA Australia drug and alcohol awareness training workshop, toolbox talk or webinar will get the conversation going at your workplace around the risks that come with vaping.
If you’d like to learn more about this program, or any of the other training programs we offer, please call ADA Australia on 1300 378 429 or email: enquiry@adaaus.com.au
Additionally, if this information raised any concerns for you, please do speak to your GP, they can help you back to good health, or call a helpline: LIFELINE 13 11 14 or BeyondBlue 1300 22 4636.