Most smokers don’t know that vaping is less harmful

Vaping doesn’t always get a good report. But research has found that using vaping products rather than smoking substantially reduces exposure to toxic chemicals that promote cancer, lung disease and heart problems.

The study from King’s College London is the most comprehensive review of the risks of vaping to date. It concludes that, while vaping is not risk free (particularly for people who’ve never smoked), it poses only a small fraction of the health risks of smoking in the short to medium term.

The report looked at many aspects of vaping, including who vapes and what they vape, how vaping affects health and how people view vaping.

The researchers examined “biomarkers of exposure”, which measure levels of potentially harmful substances in the body, as well as “biomarkers of potential harm”, which measure changes in the body due to vaping and smoking.

The strongest evidence came from biomarkers of exposure to toxic chemicals such as nitrosamines implicated in the main diseases caused by smoking. Levels were significantly lower in vapers than smokers, and nicotine levels were lower or similar to smokers.

Dr Debbie Robson, one of the report’s authors from King’s, says: “The levels of exposure to cancer causing and other toxicants are drastically lower in people who vape compared with those who smoke. Helping people switch from smoking to vaping should be considered a priority if the

Government is to achieve a smoke-free 2030 in England.”

Comparisons of biomarkers between people who vape and people who don’t smoke showed no difference, but occasionally they were higher when vaping.

So while vaping is less harmful than smoking, it’s likely to have some risks, particularly for people who’ve never smoked. While investigators favour vaping versus smoking, public opinion is lagging behind. In 2021, only one in three adults who smoked thought vaping was less harmful.

In the past three years, the prevalence of vaping has been increasing (6.3%, 7.1%, 8.3%) and it’s risen among young people too.

Vaping in 11 to 18-year-olds in England has increased (4.8%, 4.0% and 8.6% in the past three years) although, importantly, vaping among young people who’ve never smoked remains low at 1.7%.

Lead author Professor Ann Mcneill from King’s says: “Smoking is uniquely deadly and will kill one in two regular sustained smokers, yet around twothirds of adult smokers, who would really benefit from switching to vaping, don’t know that vaping is less harmful.

“However, the evidence we reviewed indicates that vaping is very unlikely to be risk-free.

“So we strongly discourage anyone who has never smoked from taking up vaping – or smoking.”

Saturday mornings are always a battleground in our house because it’s chores day.

Or as The Dark Lord calls it: sleep-till-noon-anddon’t-lift-a-blinking-finger day.

It’s hard enough trying to get her to tidy her room, but at the weekend her spotty friends come round and sit there, playing guitars, listening to anguished indie music and generally being miserable (which makes them happy).

I’ve given up asking The Dark Lord to make her bed, so it always looks like a giant gerbil has made its nest in the rolled-up duvet, with bits of clothing, loo rolls, crisp packets and the missing tops to all her drinks bottles sticking out of it.

Anyway, on Saturdays I try to wield the vacuum cleaner around the house, but for the past three weeks I’ve not been able to get in The Dark Lord’s bedroom to do her mucky carpet.

“Leave it, Mum,” she yells at me from inside her monster’s grotto. And then promises: “I’ll do it myself later.”

Which never, ever happens. So I’ve just had to let it go and hope we don’t have an outbreak of cholera in the house.

Anyway, I know parents just have to shut teenagers’ doors and let them wallow in their own mess, but the dog is desperate to get in there because it’s a great snack bar.

Trouble is, our pug Boris can get himself in there, but he can’t get out on his own and he’s too much of an idiot to bark, so he goes missing for most of the day. This week he found his way in for hours – I only noticed because my feet were chilly under my desk.

I stuck my head round TDL’S bedroom door, and somehow the dog had managed to find a half-eaten steak bake that she’d rolled on in bed, and he was desperately trying to reach it, but his little legs were too short.

The Dark Lord came back that afternoon after school and I told her about Bozza’s archaeological find – the ancient steak bake. She just shrugged and said: “Oh I wondered where that had gone. I’m starving. Did you keep it?”

Saying that, it’s probably not as bad as her legendarily filthy cousin Leo, who was in another league. The family still talk in hushed tones about the time her mum found a desiccated frog under her bed. It was the frog I felt sorry for.

■ Email me at siobhan.mcnally@mirror.co.uk or write to Community Corner, PO Box 791, Winchester SO23 3RP.