Vaping is very popular, and the reasons that people begin vaping are as varied as the people who do it.  Vaping itself is something that people who vape understand quite well, and know the facts about.  However people who do not vape find it quite confusing and often will assume things that are completely incorrect about the practice, most of the time guided by misinformation that is being circulated by those who oppose it.  Due to the resemblance to smoking, many people simply make the assumption that all of the things they know about smoking and the dangers associated with it must also apply to vaping, even though the two products are completely different in nearly every way.  Really, the only comparison between vaping and smoking is that you are inhaling something into your lungs and expelling a cloud.  The intake of nicotine is optional, and in some countries there is literally no nicotine in the e-liquids that are used.  The cloud itself is also not the same makeup as smoke, having almost none of the same ingredients.  With that said, here are some common misconceptions that everyone seems to get wrong about vaping.

1. People confuse two different things for vaping.  E-cigs became popular many years ago as a “stop smoking” device.  They were manufactured to look, feel and act as much like a cigarette as possible so as to allow people to transition away from smoking in a gradual way, decreasing nicotine intake over time while using a device that felt just like a cigarette.  While these e-cigs are popular and have large sales volumes, vape shops do not even carry them.  Vape shops carry APVs (Advanced Personal Vaporizers) which are also known as “vape pens” or a device known as a “MOD” which is more of a customizable and rebuildable vaporizer.  There are distinct differences between these two products (MODS generally having the ability to be far more customized for experience and also having the ability to produce a larger vape cloud) but neither is very comparable to e-cigs.  E-cigs do not have refillable cartridges for the most part, and cannot be modified to give a personal level of nicotine or vapor delivery.  Most experienced people who vape will not use e-cigs, and prefer to use more advanced equipment to deliver the vapor.
2. E-liquid ingredients being mysterious.  So many people have been told that there are potentially things in e-liquid that are harmful to your health, and nobody knows about them because the manufacturers do not list them on the labels.  Nothing is further from the truth, and the overwhelming majority of reputable e-juice manufacturers (like Blue Diamond Vapors) are quite careful to make sure that we list every ingredient on our labels.  With that said, the ingredients themselves in e-liquids are pretty much the same ones that are used in inhalers, with the addition of natural flavorings and nicotine.  Vegetable glycerin is the base of most e-liquids, and is used in combination with propylene glycol which is in medical inhalers and is perfectly safe.  Pharmaceutical grade nicotine and natural flavorings are the only two other ingredients.  Do not be fooled by those who try to make the case that there are all of these harmful chemicals in e-liquids, because there is no reason to put them there in the manufacturing process.  They would serve no purpose, so no reputable manufacturer does it.

Stay tuned for part 2