Switched to vaping and have been analog free for 12 days! Now the paranoia is setting in regarding eliquids. I understand that there is no way to test long term health risks because of the relative newness of vaping, and this is something that I accept. I do feel slightly better and admit that I believe that vaping is healthier but the worry still is there. I know that I should avoid flavors with diacetyl and have since read that it is good to avoid custard flavorings due to chemical compounds similar to diacetyl. With that said, is there a list of things to avoid? Will it continue to increase as we progress in the vaping culture? Is the generally believed safest option in vaping to stick with unflavored? I do love vaping and don't want to turn back to analogs at all, just trying to look out for my future self. Anything you can offer to subside these potentially irrational fears? At this point I have the stance of telling myself to "shush yourself, it HAS to be healthier than my previous experiences with analogs".
Thanks for for any input.
Honestly, the notion that vaping regular-nic eliquid is "safer" than smoking is a no-brainer; so much so that saying it inadvertently draws too much of a parallel (IMO) to smoking -- it's like saying driving without an airbag is safer than driving without wearing seat belt. Understand? I'd rather say that vaping is, maybe, not quite as safe as not vaping. LOL
Not talking about you here, burnnoticefanny, but to the sentiment I've seen alluded to a few times on the forum: if anyone ever thinks that vaping is too questionable in terms of safety, and that causes a look backwards to smoking, I would guess the mind is playing a very mean trick on you and looking for any reason to smoke.
For the most part, I think what happens often is not so much real fear or worry about what normal vaping is or isn't doing, but there is a certain amount of guilt that comes when we are seemingly having our cake and eating it to. Screw guilt!
But if you care, here's a quick list of things you
may want to avoid if you want to keep your vaping as
clean as possible:
1.
Natural tobacco liquids, i.e., NETs. Some have tested to be fine, but some (from that same vendor) have tested to be cytotoxic. As to why some test fine and others don't, we don't know (it's likely the specific tobacco used). I vape many of these liquids, but my consumption on average per day is pretty low (<1 mL).
2.
Cinnamaldehyde, i.e., red hot cinnamon flavors. Possibly an irritant to some (it was for me, so I ceased with vaping the product.) It's also problematic for certain materials, meaning it can "melt" plastic driptips, plastic tanks and, often times, the plastic bottles they come in. That is also the case with certain acidic flavors (
ex.). I just skip 'em (the cinnamon flavors) because they hurt my chest -- but others have no issue vaping it. However, I will say I think it's asinine to sell plastic-melting liquid in plastic bottles. D'uh!
3.
Dicaetyl, acetoin, acetylpropionyl, i.e., custard/buttery flavors. There are reasons to want to avoid these ingredients, but there is no current data on whether or not the small quantities used in eliquid justify those fears.
4.
Colored liquids. Many liquids may inherently have some color to them based on their ingredients, or the liquids may even darken as they age, but that is not the same as getting a perfectly red, orange, green, blue, white, etc., colored liquid. There is a no-value-added scenario when coloring a liquid, unless you consider a "cool" color to your liquid to be of value -- I don't.
5.
Any flavors in general.
Aside from #5, many vapers don't vape any of those liquids, and many vendors offer hundreds of flavors that don't include any of the above 1-4. I have consciously, or unconsciously, vaped liquids from the each of those categories and decided to continue or discontinue with those options based mostly on my preferences of taste, not so much "safety". If you want to keep it as "clean" as possible, I would say vape unflavored liquid -- you can get boatloads of it on-the-cheap. You can even sweeten it a tad, if you're feeling adventurous (LOL), with ethyl maltol.
I had no intention of furthering your paranoia (as you called it), and I hope I didn't. I just wanted to point out some things that you MAY want to avoid to set your mind more at ease (as you'll likely see those points brought up more than others). As far as I am concerned, even vaping a natural tobacco liquid flavored with cinnamon, diacetyl and colored green (which hopefully doesn't exist) need not be compared to the once-feared mega-monster of tobacco combustion, unless one is confident they will smoke without that one liquid.
If you have had no reaction to PG/VG, and we know you're not allergic to nicotine, vape unflavored until you decide otherwise -- unflavored is perfectly viable and many vapers not only vape unflavored, they vape it with zero nic. You truly can play it as "safe" as you like or with caution thrown to the wind -- but there's only a breeze to consider anyway. Wink.
