While vaping is not risk-free, it is less harmful than tobacco

A decade ago, most smokers thought vaping was less harmful than tobacco.

十年前，大多数吸烟者认为电子烟的危害比烟草要小。

But ten years on, the opposite is true: the majority say that vapes are just as or even more dangerous.

但十年过去了，事实恰恰相反：大多数人认为电子烟同样危险，甚至更加危险。

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It’s not surprising that sentiment towards vaping has become more negative — the public discourse has shifted substantially.

人们对电子烟的态度变得更加消极，这并不奇怪——公众的言论已经发生了巨大的变化。

Look at the news, and it’s easy to see why people would think that vaping is just as bad, if not worse.

看看新闻，很容易理解为什么人们会认为电子烟同样糟糕，甚至更糟。

Here are just three headlines published in popular newspapers (The Sun, The Telegraph, and Daily Mail) in the last few years:

以下是过去几年流行报纸（《太阳报》、《电讯报》和《每日邮报》）上发表的三个头条新闻：

The rising popularity of e-cigarettes may be another reason for the backlash against them.

电子烟的日益普及可能是引起强烈反对的另一个原因。

In the United Kingdom today, almost as many people vape as smoke tobacco : around one-in-ten adults.

如今在英国，吸电子烟的人数几乎与吸烟草的人数一样多：大约十分之一的成年人。

4 But the trajectory of these products has been very different.

4 但这些产品的发展轨迹却截然不同。

Half of adults smoked cigarettes in the 1970s, and since then, rates have plummeted.

20 世纪 70 年代，有一半的成年人吸烟，从那时起，吸烟率直线下降。

Vapes, on the other hand, are a relatively recent addition.

另一方面，电子烟是一个相对较新的产品。

You can see this in the chart below.

您可以在下图中看到这一点。

Is this a positive development?

这是一个积极的发展吗？

Or are people just substituting one harmful habit with an equally harmful or even worse one?

或者人们只是用一种同样有害甚至更糟糕的习惯来代替一种有害的习惯？

In this article, I address some of the most frequently asked questions about vaping and its effects.

在本文中，我将解决一些有关电子烟及其影响的最常见问题。

Are British smokers right?

英国烟民的观点正确吗？

Is vaping actually more harmful than tobacco?

电子烟实际上比烟草更有害吗？

Is there evidence for its effectiveness as a tool to quit?

有证据表明它作为戒烟工具的有效性吗？

Could it be a “gateway” to smoking among young people?

它会成为年轻人吸烟的“门户”吗？

This is the crucial question.

这是关键问题。

If vaping is just as bad as cigarettes, then substituting one for the other would not be positive for public health, or for individuals who smoke.

如果电子烟和香烟一样糟糕，那么用一种电子烟代替另一种电子烟对公共健康或吸烟者来说不会有任何积极影响。

Research suggests that this is not the case.

研究表明事实并非如此。

While we can’t say that vaping carries zero risk, the evidence clearly indicates that it is much less harmful than smoking.

虽然我们不能说电子烟的风险为零，但证据清楚表明它的危害比吸烟要小得多。

This should not be surprising: tobacco is extremely bad for health.

这并不奇怪：烟草对健康极其有害。

It not only increases the risk of lung cancer — American men who smoke are around 21 times more likely to die from lung cancer — but a range of other diseases too, including strokes, heart disease, and several other cancers.

它不仅会增加患肺癌的风险（吸烟的美国男性死于肺癌的可能性高出约 21 倍），还会增加一系列其他疾病的风险，包括中风、心脏病和其他几种癌症。

5 In the UK, smoking is the leading risk factor for early death, ahead of obesity, high blood pressure, cholesterol, and other behavioral and environmental factors.

5 在英国，吸烟是导致过早死亡的首要风险因素，排在肥胖、高血压、胆固醇以及其他行为和环境因素之前。

If you’re a smoker who wants to improve your health, quitting is probably the single best thing you can do.

如果您是一名想要改善健康的吸烟者，戒烟可能是您能做的最好的事情。

To understand the comparative risks of tobacco and vaping, we need to understand what’s in each and what makes them harmful.

为了了解烟草和电子烟的相对风险，我们需要了解两者的成分以及它们的危害。

When you light a cigarette , you burn dry tobacco leaves.

当您点燃香烟时，您会燃烧干烟叶。

This burning generates thousands of chemicals, some of which are toxic or carcinogenic.

这种燃烧会产生数千种化学物质，其中一些有毒或致癌。

These include nicotine (which makes them addictive), tar, carbon monoxide, benzene, cadmium, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (which are strong carcinogens), to name a few.

其中包括尼古丁（使人上瘾）、焦油、一氧化碳、苯、镉和多环芳烃（强致癌物）等。

Inhaling these substances is bad for the lungs, but as mentioned above, it can also damage other organs.

吸入这些物质对肺部有害，但如上所述，它也会损害其他器官。

Vaping is different.

电子烟则不同。

E-cigarettes heat a liquid, which creates an aerosol.

电子烟加热液体，从而产生气雾。

This vapor is inhaled, but since no burning occurs — the liquid is heated, but there is no combustion — fewer toxins are released compared to smoking.

这种蒸气被吸入，但由于不会发生燃烧——液体被加热，但没有燃烧——与吸烟相比，释放的毒素更少。

That doesn’t mean vaping is completely harmless, though.

但这并不意味着电子烟完全无害。

Many vapes contain nicotine, which makes them addictive.

许多电子烟含有尼古丁，这会使它们上瘾。

While nicotine is relatively benign for most people and has little long-term health impact, it can have short-term impacts on blood pressure and heart rate.

虽然尼古丁对大多数人来说相对无害，并且对健康几乎没有长期影响，但它可能会对血压和心率产生短期影响。

6 It’s also not recommended for pregnant women, since there is some evidence that it can cross the placenta and affect fetal development — I say more on this in the additional information section below.

6 也不建议孕妇使用，因为有一些证据表明它可以穿过胎盘并影响胎儿发育 - 我将在下面的附加信息部分对此进行更多介绍。

Vapes also contain solvents and flavorings that can create harmful byproducts, and small amounts of metals can be released from the heating coil.

电子烟还含有溶剂和调味剂，会产生有害的副产品，并且加热线圈会释放少量金属。

Breathing in aerosols can irritate the lungs and exacerbate asthma or bronchitis.

吸入气溶胶会刺激肺部并加剧哮喘或支气管炎。

But overall, the health impacts are far lower than smoking tobacco.

但总体而言，对健康的影响远低于吸烟。

People often note that we have less data on the long-term health impacts of vaping.

人们经常注意到，我们关于电子烟对健康的长期影响的数据较少。

This is certainly true compared to cigarettes.

与香烟相比，这确实是事实。

However, vapes’ earliest adopters have been using them for two decades — they were first commercialized in the early 2000s.

然而，电子烟最早的采用者已经使用了二十年——它们在 2000 年代初期首次商业化。

If there were significant long-term health impacts, we’d expect to see signs of those by now, especially if they were anywhere close to those of tobacco.

如果对健康有重大的长期影响，我们预计现在就能看到这些迹象，特别是如果它们与烟草的影响很接近的话。

And while we don’t have very long-term epidemiological data, we do have a good understanding of the ingredients, the levels of exposure, and how these are likely to affect the human body.

虽然我们没有非常长期的流行病学数据，但我们确实对成分、暴露水平以及它们可能如何影响人体有很好的了解。

Several additional health concerns are often raised; you might have seen them in media headlines.

经常会提出一些额外的健康问题；您可能在媒体头条中看到过它们。

I review the evidence on these in the “detailed questions” section below.

我在下面的“详细问题”部分中回顾了这些证据。

For those who don’t want to read through all of the details in my detailed FAQ below, the summary is quite simple: many health bodies suggest that vaping is much less harmful than tobacco.

对于那些不想阅读下面的详细常见问题解答中的所有详细信息的人来说，摘要非常简单：许多健康机构表明电子烟的危害比烟草小得多。

While they advise against it for young people or non-smokers, they do recommend it as a “quitting tool” for smokers for the health benefits of switching.

虽然他们建议年轻人或非吸烟者不要吸烟，但他们确实建议吸烟者将其作为“戒烟工具”，因为戒烟对健康有益。

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“The key points about vaping (e-cigarettes) can be easily summarised.

“关于电子烟的要点很容易总结。

If you smoke, vaping is much safer; if you don’t smoke, don’t vape.”

如果您吸烟，则电子烟更安全；如果你不吸烟，就不要吸电子烟。”