Myths, Legends, conspiracies. We hear them all every day about everything. From swallowing chewing gum and having it stay in your guts for 7 years, to Robin Hood or pigeons being secretly cameras. Some sound like a children's story regardless of their legitimacy, and it can be hard to know which are true and which are not. Especially when you have morning news channels spreading this stuff like it's fact without checking the truth to them.

So below, we will cover the myths of vaping. I've tried to cover as many myths as I can, some more outlandish than others but even the most crazy ones... I've personally heard.

Popcorn lung

We’ve already spoken about this one in another blog which you can read >here< but to abridge it, popcorn lung comes from chemicals used in the microwave popcorn industry. One of those chemicals was used in vape flavours in the very very early days of cigalikes, we’re talking 2005 to 2014, but it has been on the band ingredients list since regulations were first introduced for vaping. UK Legal E-liquid will NOT contain Diacetyl.

Formaldehyde

Does your vape create Formaldehyde? Not if used correctly. There were studies done that pushed devices far, far beyond their intended use and when they did that, they saw chemicals like Formaldehyde being produced. There is a very very small amount that can be flagged on a test if you really intend to find it but it’s an amount small enough that you can pick that up walking through a city centre any day of the week. Using your E-cigarette correctly will stop this from being present.

Lead and Cobalt

This one really bugs me. No No No. You will not get lead poisoning from an e-cig. I don’t even know how bad of a test they had to run to get lead to show up or where they had to go to source their materials for it. All products that enter the UK market must go through testing, the liquids can’t have things like lead in them. The device must be shown to not degrade under use and produce aerosolised particles of itself. The battery can’t be leaking radiation. We pay for all that and then have a morning news show tell everyone that it’s full of lead… it is not.

Vaping causes cancer!

Where this comes from I think is mostly just fear of the unknown. But, the whole point of vaping is to get rid of smoking and reduce the number of people with cancer. While people still smoke we will fight to reduce that number and help PREVENT cancer. While I will not say that it doesn’t cause it as even yoga mats are a little bit carcinogenic, I will say that both the NHS and Cancer Research UK say that it is healthier, safer, and less cancer causing than smoking. Some people say that nicotine causes cancer, though according to Cancer Research UK, it does not. It’s just addictive. So what can cause it? The flavours? They are rigorously screened to ensure they are not carcinogenic. PG? They use it in perfume, food, medicine, and VACCINES. It’s a carrier for things and breaks down easily in our body. So VG. Again, our body just deals with it. Essentially treats it like sugar, but it has hardly any calories. 

Vapes are used to secretly give people Vaccines…

Yeah, this is one I’ve heard and no… no it isn’t. How would that benefit anyone? This is obviously just tin foil hat stuff but, 1 there aren’t anywhere near enough people using vapes to make it even worth thinking about and 2 that’s not how vaccines work.

E-cigarettes cause COPD

There are some small datasets that seem to indicate that excessive use of vapes could result in COPD. However, smoking causes COPD and this could be data actually resulting from that. Unfortunately this is one that can’t be proved or disproved for another 20 or 30 years. We as an industry believe that we are reducing the chances of COPD with the reduction in the number of smokers and that is our goal.

Vaping can collapse your lungs.

If you read the newspaper, you might have seen a case of a young girl vaping who was hospitalised. This myth comes from that article, an almost identical article about the same girl that  was published years earlier by the same newspaper correctly identifying the fact that young people are at risk of randomly suffering incidents like collapsed lungs due to extreme excitement. Yeah, you can collapse a lung by being TOO excited… 

Vaping causes Covid.

Bit late to the boat on this one but during the pandemic, people stopped vaping and returned to smoking through the misguided belief that vaping was causing covid or that smoking would save them from it. The fact is, several ingredients in vapes are actually anti-microbial, meaning they reduce bacteria. No, it’s not a substitute for washing your hands or brushing your teeth. The myth originated after a study of patients found that people who were hospitalised that smoked were less likely to die. The truth behind that is, if they weren’t smokers, they wouldn’t have been hospitalised at all… Say no to smokes folks.

Flavoured vapes were invented to sell to kids.

This one mostly comes thanks to America and JUUL. JUUL became very popular amongst young people in the US thanks to their discrete nature, and from that, a few over protective people have wagged their finger saying that the vape industry is actively trying to sell to kids. It doesn’t help that in the UK, thanks to disposables and the availability in corner shops run by people with no morals, this notion has been reinforced. But, in places like VapeHQ where we regularly have 3rd parties check our stores to make sure they are performing challenge 25 checks and where we have multiple systems that allow us to verify someone's age even on our website, I can assure you that we are not targeting children. 

Just remember the next time someone says vape companies are targeting children. How did children get cigarettes in the first place? Exactly.

Vaping burns holes in your lungs.

Shock horror another one from America. This one comes off the back of the THC e-liquid incident that occurred in America. The specific culprit? Vitamin E Acetate. 

“But hey, vitamins are good for you.” I hear you say. Yeah, if you eat them… You can’t put anything anywhere and expect it to be fine. We need salt and water but you can’t drink the ocean. The effects of Vitamin E acetate on the liquid was that it allowed for lots of THC to be mixed into the product. The effect of a fatty vitamin going into the lungs however was a rapid build up of fat in the lungs. Your lungs don’t like fat, love watery things though. The build up of fat caused something called lipid-pneumonia, which in some cases caused other injuries like holes to form in the lungs. 

The lesson from this? Don’t do drugs, and don’t buy things from shady people.

Vapes contain Antifreeze.

No, they contain AN ingredient that can also be used in antifreeze. This comes from a lack of understanding in chemistry and a large push by the media with misinformation surrounding vapes. Nuclear reactors use water, is water bad? I mean, you can drown in it so… no… no it isn’t. The reason PG is used in Antifreeze is it doesn’t freeze until it is well below 0C. That’s it. Oh, and it doesn’t mess up all the rubber and silicon seals ‘n’ stuff around your windows and engine. 

Big Tobacco made vapes to trap addicts. 

Again, no. There’s some merit to the idea that big tobacco are lobbying governments to put in rules that squash their competition, but it’s much more a move for profits, not a device designed to trap people. The original device was made because people like nicotine but cigarettes create tar. And that’s bad for your lungs. It’s not a trap. It’s just a better way to use nicotine, though, with nicotine being addictive, you should try to quit vaping when you’ve made the switch from smoking. If you believe big tobacco are nefarious, and are trying something evil with vapes, just buy from someone who isn’t big tobacco. 

Governments put poison in vapes to discourage vaping.

Again, no. Where these ideas come from really makes you rub your temples. Thanks for the headache Reddit. The only people putting poison in vapes are people smart enough to figure out how to mix things, but not smart enough to check if they should. It is almost always related to drugs or illegal activities, and not the government. Also, you don’t need the government to do that anyway. Enough people see something new and get scared that anything new is dangerous and get discouraged from the start anyway. Look at the first car/pedestrian related fatality in 1896, travelling 4mph and managed to kill poor Bridget Driscoll who was stated as “horror struck” at the sight of the automobile. Or the man cited for wearing too tall a hat, don’t believe me? Look him up, John Hetherington 1797. People supposedly fainted at the sight of a tall hat… wild times.

Okay, so, who wins the dumbest conspiracy / myth award then.

Unfortunately for the above entrants, it’s none of them. The winner?

Vapes are embedded with Pagan symbols and sacred geometry to mark users to interstellar sub-atomic portals controlled by aliens and supernatural beings…

Bet you never thought that was something you’d read today…okay, that one isn’t a real conspiracy, buuuut, it’s not far off the top one.

Vaping Devices are tracking and mind control tools.

Yeah, like I said, not far off. They aren’t. Vapes are a device that allows you to inhale nicotine infused liquid with the intention for you to stop smoking. Not a tool used by MKUltra and the illuminati to trick you into doing something absurd, like, believing that governments use them as a distraction. I mean, obviously they don’t need vapes for that. Covid already let them change the batteries in the pigeons…

Anyway, our big Tobacco / Government overseers are telling me I have to wrap this up. I hope you’ve found this informative, and until next time. Quit smoking, be healthy, and the pigeons are always watching…