Iowa Health Says There's No Real Difference Between Vaping and Smoking

According to the Iowa Health web site, "Overall, there’s not much difference between smoking and vaping."

The site goes on to explain that: "Commonly, smoking was thought to be more harmful because the product is being burnt and smoke inhaled into the lungs. But we’re finding very similar damage from heating up vaping solutions and inhaling that vapor into the lungs."

Not only is there little difference between smoking and vaping when it comes to adult users, but apparently there is little difference when it comes to youth either: "Overall in the long run, the evidence shows that there’s not much difference for individuals that have never smoked. Studies have shown that when adolescents start with vaping, there is a strong likelihood that they will have future cigarette or tobacco use. Commonly, smoking is thought to be more harmful because the product is being burnt and smoke inhaled into the lungs. But we’re finding similar damage and decreased ability to fight infections from heating up vaping solutions and inhaling that vapor into the lungs. So when it comes to adolescent use (and never smokers), there isn’t much difference in harmfulness, given the concern for addiction and likely future risk for traditional tobacco use."

The same web site also makes the claim that: "Doctors are confident that within 10 years or so, they will be able to say that vaping leads to cancer."

The Rest of the Story

This web site is like a dream come true for the cigarette industry. They literally could not have paid a health organization money to produce a fact sheet that minimizes the health effects of smoking as much by equating it merely with vaping. And had they paid for such a fact sheet, it would not have been nearly as favorable to cigarette smoking as this one is.

It is one thing to make the unsupported claim that vaping causes lung cancer or heart disease but to tell the public that there's really no difference between smoking and vaping is way beyond misleading. Factually, there is no comparison between smoking and vaping. One involves the combustion of tobacco. The other contains no tobacco. One involves the burning of tobacco leaves at 1100 degrees. The other involves no burning whatsoever. One delivers more than 10,000 chemicals including at least 60 proven human carcinogens. The other delivers between 2-15 chemicals, including no or only trace levels of carcinogens. One kills more than 400,000 people each year. The other has not been shown to have killed anyone (excluding THC vaping).  

Equating smoking and vaping is like arguing that there's basically no difference between the Boston Celtics and the Washington Wizards. Or between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Tennessee Titans. Or for that matter, between the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Northern Iowa Panthers.