How do you convince yourself to quit smoking when doing it makes you feel really good? This is the dilemma of every smoker who understands that at one point in their lives, they will have to give up smoking for the vice could kill them sooner than they wish. But how does one quit smoking? An alternative to smoking may be a solution, but is vaping really a healthier alternative?
Vaping is much like traditional smoking, however, it comes with special devices like the vape and the vape juice. It also does not come with nicotine, which makes it less addictive than the traditional cigarette whose nicotine content could really get you hooked. Many have made the switch to vaping with the promise that they could quit smoking.
Although vaping can be healthier as an option for those who want to quit smoking altogether, the promotion of vaping is not causing a crisis on disaster planning. The top vaping companies are looking carefully into piloting a recycling program to address the vaping devices that are discarded each year. Most of them are improperly disposed, so it is causing more trouble than one could imagine.
Euromonitor, a market research group, released a statement that makes an estimate of the number of adults who will be making a switch to vaping by 2021. They said that the total number will reach up to 55 million people all over the world. In 2017, there were about 565 types of vaping devices available in the market in the US. A sheer number of 184 devices are designed to be of single-use or disposable vapes. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, when these products are littered, they could release dangerous metals, not to mention leak the acid inside the battery. Sadly, there is no legal way available to recycle these vape paraphernalia.
While major vape companies like JUUL and Altria have expressed their concerns about the growing problem of people using vape, they have yet to concretize their action plan and act on the problem at hand.
"None of the companies concerned have truly taken action to address the growing environmental concern," said Yogi Hale Hendlin, a research associate from the University of California, San Francisco.
"It is a consensus of public health researchers looking into the total environmental cost of tobacco and the counterpart deposit that vape manufacturers must put into funding," he said.
It would be a total shame if these vape products are able to save the lives of cigarette smokers who made the switch, but they won't be able to save the environment in the long run. The benefit then is for the individual and not for the bigger scheme of things.
