If you’re wondering whether to switch from cigarettes to a vape, you’re asking the right question. The short answer: yes, vaping is considered less harmful than smoking traditional cigarettes.
The critical difference comes down to combustion. When you smoke, you’re burning tobacco and inhaling thousands of toxic chemicals. When you vape, you’re heating a liquid that turns into an aerosol with far fewer harmful substances. But “less harmful” doesn’t necessarily mean “safe.” Neither option is healthy, and the best choice for your body is to avoid both entirely.
Let’s break down exactly what the science says about vaping compared to smoking.
TL;DR
- Major health organisations agree that vaping is considerably less harmful than smoking because it doesn’t involve burning tobacco.
- Cigarette smoke contains over 7,000 chemicals, including at least 70 known carcinogens. Vape aerosol has far fewer toxic substances.
- Neither option is risk-free. The safest choice is to avoid both smoking and vaping entirely.
- Long-term health effects of vaping remain under investigation, whilst smoking’s devastating impact is proven beyond doubt from over a century of medical research.
The Direct Answer: Vaping vs Smoking
Yes, regulated vaping products are widely considered less harmful than smoking cigarettes, according to organisations like Public Health England and the Royal College of Physicians. But this comes with important caveats.
The fundamental difference is combustion. Cigarettes burn tobacco at high temperatures, creating tar, carbon monoxide, and thousands of toxic chemicals. Vaping heats a liquid into an aerosol without burning anything, which means you’re exposed to far fewer harmful substances.
That said, “less harmful” is not the same as “harmless.” Vaping still carries health risks, and we don’t yet know the full picture of what decades of vaping might do to your body. The healthiest choice remains clear: don’t smoke, and don’t vape.
Vaping vs Smoking Health Effects: A Head-to-Head Look
To understand why vaping is considered less dangerous, you need to know what you’re actually putting into your body with each option.
| Cigarette Smoke | Vape Aerosol |
| Over 7,000 chemicals, including tar and carbon monoxide | Nicotine, propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, and flavourings |
| At least 70 known carcinogens (cancer-causing substances) | Some harmful substances and compounds, but at much lower levels |
| Produces toxic compounds through combustion | No combustion, so fewer toxic by-products |
| Leaves tar residue in lungs | No tar |
Nicotine appears in both (unless using 0% vape juice). It’s the addictive substance that keeps people coming back, but it’s not the main culprit behind smoking-related cancers and lung disease. The real damage comes from everything else in cigarette smoke.Cigarettes create a toxic chemical cocktail through burning. You’re inhaling formaldehyde, benzene, arsenic, and ammonia alongside the nicotine. Vapes deliver nicotine through aerosol, which can contain some harmful chemicals depending on the device and liquid quality, but the numbers don’t compare even slightly to cigarettes.
Impact on Your Lungs: Vaping vs Smoking Lungs
Your lungs bear the brunt of both habits, but the damage looks different.
Smoking destroys lung tissue. The tar from cigarettes coats your airways and lung sacs, causing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and lung cancer. These conditions are irreversible and often fatal. Decades of research have documented exactly how cigarette smoke systematically damages every part of your respiratory system.
Vaping causes inflammation and irritation. Studies show that vape aerosol can irritate lung tissue and trigger inflammatory responses. In 2019, an outbreak of e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury (EVALI) hospitalised thousands of people, though this was primarily linked to illicit THC/cannabis products containing vitamin E acetate, not regulated nicotine vapes.
The key difference: smoking’s catastrophic effects on lungs are proven and well-documented after decades of research. Vaping’s long-term lung impact is still being studied, but early evidence suggests it’s far less damaging than smoking. That doesn’t mean vaping is safe for your lungs, just that it appears to be the lesser of two evils.
While not seeking to promote the use of vapes, many smokers who switch to vaping devices quickly report a return of their sense of taste, as well as increased lung capacity in the not-out-of-breath-on-stairs sense.
Other Impacts of Smoking
- Heart
Smoking weakens the heart and increases the risk of heart attacks and heart disease, in addition to the damaging effects on blood circulation throughout the body.
- Brain
The risk of a stroke is increased by at least 50% as a result of smoking, as well as an increased chance of developing an aneurysm.
- Skin, bones and reproductivity
Smoking reduces the oxygen available to reach your skin and can cause your bones to become brittle and weak. Smoking while pregnant can lead to miscarriage, premature birth, stillbirth and illness – and have a harmful effect on the foetus. Up to 120,000 men in their twenties and thirties are impotent as a direct result of smoking.
Source: NHS
Short-Term vs Long-Term Health Risks
Short-Term Effects
Smoking:
- Immediate difficulty breathing and reduced lung capacity
- Increased heart rate and blood pressure
- Reduced sense of taste and smell
- Yellowing of teeth and fingers
- Persistent cough and phlegm production
Vaping:
- Throat and mouth irritation
- Dry cough
- Headaches and dizziness (often nicotine-related)
- Nausea in some users
- Temporary breathing discomfort
Long-Term Risks
Smoking:
- Leading cause of preventable death worldwide
- Lung cancer, throat cancer, mouth cancer, and at least 15 other types of cancer
- Heart disease and stroke
- COPD and emphysema
- Type 2 diabetes complications
- Weakened immune system
- Premature ageing and skin damage
Vaping:
- Nicotine addiction
- Potential cardiovascular effects (research ongoing)
- Possible long-term lung damage (research ongoing)
- Unknown effects after decades of use
- Potential impact on brain development in young people
This is where the picture gets murky. We know exactly what 40 years of smoking does to a human body, the evidence is overwhelming. We don’t know what 40 years of vaping will do because vaping devices have only been widely available since the mid-2000s. This uncertainty is why health experts urge caution, even whilst acknowledging that vaping is less harmful than smoking.
Is Vaping a Good Tool to Quit Smoking?
Many people turn to vaping as a way to stop smoking cigarettes. Here’s what you should know:
- Vaping can help you quit smoking. Research shows that vapes can be more effective than traditional nicotine replacement therapy (like patches or gum) when used as a quitting tool. You satisfy the nicotine craving and the hand-to-mouth habit without inhaling cigarette smoke.
- Complete switching is key. The benefit only comes if you stop smoking cigarettes entirely. Using both products (“dual use”) doesn’t reduce your risk, you need to replace cigarettes completely with vaping to see health improvements.
- The end goal should be quitting vaping too. Vaping is a stepping stone, not a permanent solution. The aim is to gradually reduce your nicotine dependence and eventually stop vaping as well.
- Get proper support. Speak to your GP or a stop-smoking service. They can help you choose the right nicotine strength and develop a plan to quit both smoking and vaping over time.
- Not for non-smokers. If you don’t currently smoke, don’t start vaping. There’s no health benefit, only potential harm and the risk of nicotine addiction. This is particularly important for teenagers and young adults, whose brains are still developing.
Some sceptics believe one of the main dangers of vaping is that it essentially acts as a gateway to conventional cigarettes. Several American studies and publications have expressed the view that e-cigarettes could influence younger people to take up smoking or re-normalise previous smoking behaviours.
However, the PHE review of 2018 contradicts these arguments in unequivocal terms, stating that, “evidence does not support the concern that e-cigarettes are a route into smoking among young people (youth smoking rates in the UK continue to decline, regular use is rare and is almost entirely confined to those who have smoked).”
FAQ
When were the negative health effects of smoking first exposed?
It may seem difficult to imagine now, but there was a time when smoking was romanticised and the health risks were either downplayed or marginalised altogether. Even in 1960 – following a decade of reports and research which demonstrated the negative consequences of smoking – only one-third of doctors in the United States believed the case against cigarettes had been established.
Public perception on the subject has since evolved. In Western society, a smaller proportion of people are now smoking cigarettes (according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Protection, in 1965, 41.9% of the US adult population smoked; in 2015, this had reduced to 15.3%). Yet smoking still accounts for nearly 80,000 deaths each year in England alone, and one in two smokers will die from a smoking-related illness.
Is vaping safer than smoking cigarettes?
Although a relatively new technology, there have been a significant number of studies and research papers published on the health benefits of vaping vs. smoking. It is likely that more research will be conducted in the coming years to establish any long-term effects of vaping.
Public Health England (PHE) published an independent e-cigarette evidence review in February 2018, addressing vaping use in England and providing guidance on the risks to health. The review found that e-cigarettes “pose only a small fraction of the risks of smoking and switching completely from smoking to vaping conveys substantial health benefits”, with vaping at least 95% less harmful than smoking.
The PHE review also recommended that local ‘stop smoking’ services and healthcare professionals should support the use of e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation tool, and NHS Trusts should ensure vaping products are made available for sale in hospital shops.
However, evidence in the United States is less certain on the long-term health impacts of vaping. . The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine published a January 2018 reportwhich confirmed that “across a range of studies and outcomes, e-cigarettes appear to pose less risk to an individual than combustible tobacco cigarettes”, whilst also stating that the “implications for long-term effects on morbidity and mortality are not yet clear.”
Is vaping bad for lungs?
As referenced previously, smoking cigarettes contributes to the majority of deaths from lung cancer, as well as having a detrimental impact on breathing and overall quality of life. Some articles on vaping make reference to ‘popcorn lung’ – a type of lung disease, although not cancerous – as a danger of vaping.
There have been no reported cases in the United Kingdomof popcorn lung as a direct result of using e-cigarettes. This concern originated due to the inclusion of diacetylin some e-cigarette flavours in the past, albeit at a level hundreds of times lower than in cigarette smoke. In the UK, diacetyl is now banned as an ingredient in e-cigarette and e-liquids.
Does vaping lead to smoking?
Some sceptics believe one of the main dangers of vaping is that it essentially acts as a gateway to conventional cigarettes. Several American studies and publications have expressed the view that e-cigarettes could influence younger people to take up smokingor re-normalise previous smoking behaviours.
However, the PHE review of 2018 contradicts these arguments in unequivocal terms, stating that, “evidence does not support the concern that e-cigarettes are a route into smoking among young people (youth smoking rates in the UK continue to decline, regular use is rare and is almost entirely confined to those who have smoked).”
Can vaping help you stop smoking?
There is data available to suggest that using e-cigarettes can aid with stopping smoking altogether. A February 2019 evidence update from Public Health Englandstates that, “using an EC [e-cigarette] as part of [a] quit attempt continues to be helpful for people attending stop smoking services in England.”
Smoking cessation continues to be a powerful motivating factor for those who start vaping, according to figures produced by the Office for National Statistics. These figures show that almost half of those vaping (48.8%)said they used e-cigarettes as an aid to stop smoking, with 29.2% saying they started because of the perception that vaping is less harmful than smoking.
An article published on Harvard Healthin February 2019 concluded that, “While…concerns about vaping are appropriate (especially regarding use among youth), this study demonstrates that it could help people quit smoking.”
Aside from the health implications of vaping vs. smoking, there are also other considerations to take into account. Smoking is known to be costly, especially with ever-increasing taxationon tobacco products, but how does vaping compare?
Is it cheaper to vape?
Smoking is an expensive habit, irrespective of where you live. Data from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) in the United States shows the average cost of a packet of cigarettes is $6.28– meaning that a pack-a-day habit will cost almost $2,300 annually. The cost is even higher in the UK, with data from ASH Scotland(Action on Smoking and Health) calculating that the cost to a smoker is almost £3,000 per year.
Analysis from NerdWalletshows that using e-cigarettes is much cheaper than smoking cigarettes. Disposable vapes and rechargeable kits were both found to be significantly less expensive than smoking cigarettes on a like-for-like basis.
How popular is vaping vs. smoking?
As a general trend, the use of e-cigarettes is increasing as the number of smokers is decreasing. Although there are still several more smokers in the UK than vapers, the gap narrows with each passing year, as demonstrated by the following facts:
In Great Britain, there are currently 2.8 million vapers, and nearly one in five Brits have tried an e-cigarette.
Between 2010 and 2016, smoking prevalence in the UK fell by over six percent for 18-24 year olds.
Across the UK, smoking prevalence has fallen from 24.2% in 2007 to 14.9% as of February 2019.
Almost one in twenty American adults now use e-cigarettes.
Polish respondents to an Ernst & Young survey said their main reason for using e-cigarettes was the range of flavours and nicotine levels available.
More vaping and smoking facts are available on our recent post on the topic
Conclusion: Making an Informed Choice
The verdict: Vaping is less harmful than smoking, but it’s not safe. You’re still exposing yourself to health risks, just fewer of them.
If you smoke: Switching completely to vaping is better for your health than continuing to smoke cigarettes. You’ll reduce your exposure to thousands of toxic chemicals and give your body a chance to recover from some smoking-related damage.
If you don’t smoke: Don’t start vaping. There’s no health benefit to inhaling anything into your lungs beyond the air you breathe.
The gold standard: The best decision for your long-term health is to be free from both cigarettes and vapes. If you’re struggling to quit, speak to a healthcare professional who can provide evidence-based support tailored to your situation.
Your lungs, heart, and body will thank you for making the switch from smoking—and they’ll thank you even more when you eventually quit vaping too.