Vaping vs. Smoking: An Honest Comparison

While vaping has its fair share of risks, evidence suggests this trendy nicotine-delivery method could be a step in the right direction. Switching to vapes might help you quit smoking and give your lungs a chance to heal from tobacco-related damage.

In this article, we’re pitting vaping and smoking head to head to find out which is better — and whether vaping truly lives up to the hype.

Smoking vs. Vaping: Key Differences

Smoking and vaping both deliver nicotine to the lungs, but this is the only thing they have in common. Here’s a breakdown of the key differences between smoking and vaping, from the delivery method to the chemicals involved:

• Combustion: Smoking involves burning tobacco, releasing countless combustion byproducts into the lungs. Vapes heat a liquid to create a smokeless aerosol vapor.
• Nicotine Content: Cigarettes always contain nicotine, but some vapes offer customizable nicotine levels, making it easier for users to limit their nicotine consumption. Nicotine-free vapes like ARRØ are even safer because they eliminate the risk of addiction altogether.
• Tobacco Content: Smoking exposes users to cancer-causing tobacco smoke while vapes are entirely tobacco-free.
• Chemicals: A burning cigarette releases over 7,000 chemicals. Vaping produces far fewer harmful compounds, though they still contain a few chemicals in the form of base liquids and flavoring ingredients.
• Health Risks: Both smoking and vaping carry risks, but vaping is generally considered less harmful — more on this later.
• Secondhand Exposure: Secondhand smoke from burning cigarettes can cause serious health effects for non-smokers. Secondhand vapor from an e-cigarette can expose bystanders to nicotine but at much lower levels than cigarette smoke.
• Cost: Smoking tends to be more expensive than vaping. While vapes might cost more upfront than a pack of cigs, they tend to be cheaper over time because they last longer.
• Longevity of Use: Each cigarette offers 10 to 15 puffs while disposable vapes often deliver thousands of puffs per device, sometimes lasting users weeks of regular use.

From a practical standpoint, vaping seems like the clear winner. It’s more affordable, less harmful, and exposes users (and the people around them) to fewer chemicals. But when you dig into the health risks of vaping vs. smoking, does vaping still come out on top? Let’s find out.

Is It Better to Vape or Smoke?

Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. (and globally). It causes all kinds of nasty side effects and chronic diseases — and can reduce a person’s life expectancy by 10 years.

Vapes look pretty good in comparison. The UK government states that electronic cigarettes are around 95% less harmful than traditional cigarettes because they expose users to far fewer toxic chemicals. While e-cigarettes are not entirely risk-free, experts say that they carry a fraction of the harm.

Both vaping and smoking come with the side effects of nicotine, such as addiction, increased blood pressure, and elevated heart rate. But smoking has far more harmful health effects overall, including:

• Increased risk of cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and stroke.
• Long-term damage to the lungs.
• Premature aging of the skin.
• Weakened immune system and autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis.
• Reproductive health effects.
• Dental issues like gum disease, tooth sensitivity, and tooth loss.
• Eye irritation, damage, or dryness.

Clearly, tobacco use is not healthy. But don’t be mistaken: vapes are not necessarily good for you either. The side effects of vaping include:

• Lung and airway irritation, causing dryness and coughing.
• Possible lung damage from harmful contaminants or flavoring additives.
• Headaches, dizziness, and nausea, particularly with high-nicotine vapes.
• Allergic reactions to ingredients in vape juice.

While vaping still carries risks and is not recommended for non-smokers, it’s the better choice if you’re deciding between the two.

There’s an important caveat here: for vapes to be safer than cigarettes, they must contain high-quality, contaminant-free e-juice. People have experienced lung injuries from vaping, mainly after modifying their devices or sourcing black-market e-liquids containing harmful chemicals like vitamin E acetate, diacetyl, and formaldehyde.

On the other end of the spectrum are wellness-focused “healthy vapes” that contain vitamins and supplements — the safety of inhaling these substances is currently unclear.

At ARRØ, we keep our vapes as clean as possible with a pure base liquid, fruit-based flavors, and no nicotine or harmful chemicals. Buying top-quality vapes from trusted brands like ours ensures switching to vapes is healthier than smoking tobacco products.

Are Vapes a Tobacco-Free Option?

Vapes do not contain cancer-causing tobacco, but they are often made with nicotine derived from tobacco. Most disposable vapes contain nic salts (nicotine salts), a form of tobacco-derived nicotine that’s been chemically altered to make it smoother and more easily absorbed. You can also get nicotine-free vapes that vaporize pure e-juice base liquid and flavors but contain no nicotine or tobacco.

Whether vapes contain tobacco-based nicotine, synthetic nicotine, or no nicotine, all vape aerosol is free of the cancer-causing contaminants in cigarette smoke. This makes vapes an excellent harm reduction tool for smokers who want to break up with tobacco products.

Will Vaping Help Me Quit Smoking?

Some evidence suggests that vaping is one of the most effective tools to help people quit smoking. For example, one recent study found that people who use vapes are twice as likely to quit smoking than those using nicotine-replacement therapy (NRT) products like gum, lozenges, and patches. Another found that vaping could lead to an additional four quitters per 100 people compared to NRT.

Even with these findings, vaping is not officially approved by the FDA as a stop-smoking aid. But many other experts and government agencies do recommend vaping to quit smoking. The National Health Service (NHS) in the UK even offers free vapes to smokers to help them kick the habit.

Hold up — isn’t trading cigarettes for vapes just swapping one addiction for another? Technically, yes, but as we mentioned above, making this switch is considered a harm-reduction move, immediately reducing your health risks while allowing you to gradually let go of the habits and behaviors associated with smoking.

If you opt for nicotine-free vapes like ARRØ, you get to cut out the addictive component as well. Vapes, with or without nicotine, satisfy the behavioral and psychological aspects of nicotine addiction by providing a similar hand-to-mouth action and throat hit to smoking.

Will My Lungs Heal if I Quit Smoking and Start Vaping?

Your lung health may show some improvement if you make the switch from smoking to vaping, but the extent of healing is still unclear. Let’s explore what we do know.

Research suggests that vaping is easier on the lungs than smoking because it doesn’t introduce the same harsh chemicals. For example, tar and carbon monoxide in cigarette smoke can damage lung tissue, reduce lung function, and cause chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a group of serious lung diseases that make breathing more difficult.

These are just a handful of the lung conditions you can develop from smoking cigarettes:

• Chronic Bronchitis: A type of COPD characterized by chronic inflammation in the major airways that carry air to and from your lungs. It causes coughing and shortness of breath.
• Emphysema: Another type of COPD that damages the air sacs in the lungs, causing coughing, fatigue, and even sleep problems.
• Lung Cancer: An abnormal growth of cells in the lungs. Smoking and secondhand smoke are the leading causes of lung cancer.

Quitting smoking is the best way to avoid these lung conditions. In fact, the NHS states that lung function can improve by 10% just 3 to 9 months after you quit smoking. While it’s not clear whether you’ll experience the same improvement by switching to vapes, this move will likely help your lungs heal from smoking to some extent.

What about your lung cancer risk? While current research has not found a link between the compounds in vape juice and cancer, it can take decades for cancer to show up, and vapes only became popular recently. We just don’t have enough long-term research to say whether switching from smoking to vaping can reduce your risk of cancer.

Trade Nasty Tobacco Smoke for Cleaner Vapes

Although vaping is relatively new compared with smoking, and the long-term health effects are still up for debate, it is generally recognized as a safer alternative for smokers who want to give up the habit.

Compared with regular cigarettes, electronic nicotine delivery systems have a lot going for them, offering fewer harmful ingredients while providing a satisfying throat hit and oral fixation solution that makes quitting tobacco easier.

Are you considering giving up smoking for vaping? ARRØ makes it easy with nicotine-free vapes that feel just like the real thing, so you can quit the nic without giving up your familiar smoking habits. Check out our collection of nicotine-free vapes here.