Search for Shareables by choosing a category or by words in the descriptions. Share directly from the gallery to several social media platforms or right mouse click and save to your device.
VAEP Shareables are images utilizing graphics, colour and text to quickly teach people about vaping. Each Shareable provides the reference on the bottom.
Everyone knows smoking is very bad for health
Smoking is the most preventable cause of disease and death in North America. The harm from tobacco is overwhelmingly due to its combustion. When a cigarette is burned, the smoke contains over 7,000 chemicals. Hundreds of these chemicals cause diseases and around 70 cause cancer.
Over decades, scientists were paid millions of dollars to experiment with adding chemicals to tobacco to create the modern cigarette. Many of the chemicals in cigarettes enhance the effects and delivery of nicotine. Some chemicals are addictive in themselves.
The fear-based narrative claims there is a vaping epidemic
An epidemic is a widespread disease that affects many people. Globally, smoking kills 17,000 people every single day and over 200 million people suffer with chronic smoking-related diseases! These diseases and deaths are 100% preventable. A safer source of nicotine lets smokers eliminate the disease causing chemicals found in cigarette smoke.
Before vaping, about half of smokers tried to quit every year but annually only 2.5% of smokers quit long term. Despite the financial cost, health consequences and social shaming, most smokers are hopelessly addicted and continue to harm their health.
Over decades, scientists were paid millions of dollars to experiment with adding chemicals to tobacco to create the modern cigarette. Many of the chemicals in cigarettes enhance the effects and delivery of nicotine. Some chemicals are addictive in themselves.
The fear-based narrative claims there is a vaping epidemic
An epidemic is a widespread disease that affects many people. Globally, smoking kills 17,000 people every single day and over 200 million people suffer with chronic smoking-related diseases! These diseases and deaths are 100% preventable.
Before vaping, about half of smokers tried to quit every year but annually only 2.5% of smokers quit long term. Despite the financial cost, health consequences and social shaming, most smokers are hopelessly addicted and continue to harm their health.
Reducing the cost of smoking to the taxpayer is everyone’s best interests. Public costs include disability, health care, fires and loss of productivity.
A safer source of nicotine lets smokers eliminate the disease causing chemicals found in cigarette smoke, rendering these costs obsolete.
The tobacco industry relies on youth experimentation for their next generation of smokers. The pharmaceutical industry relies on smoking for future customers.
Human adolescence involves high levels of risk taking, experimentation, new experiences, sensation seeking, social development and playing around. This involves trying adult taboos such as smoking, vaping and sex.
Youth become smokers because they inhale smoke from chemically laden cigarettes. Cigarette smoke is so addictive that after just 2 cigarettes, over 10% of youth have trouble saying ‘no’ to the next one. After 100 cigarettes (4-5 packs), 94% have trouble saying ‘no’.
One of the most influential relationships a child has is with their parents. Parents’ lifestyle choices influence what their teenager will experiment with. Parents who smoke are modelling a self-harming behaviour. Parents that quit smoking are modelling a self-caring behaviour.
Harm reduction means to reduce the consequences of risky behaviours such as wearing a helmet when biking or using a condom during sex. Vaping provides the smoker with nicotine but does not contain the chemicals found in cigarette smoke that cause disease. Therefore, vaping is tobacco harm reduction (THR).
This 30 second video explains the epidemic that is related to vaping.
Learn how vaping compares to smoking in this two minute video.
Harm reduction in healthcare
Since 2016, the United Kingdom (UK) has been successfully helping smokers quit by utilizing vaping. Vaping has been studied since it’s invention in 2004. Through ongoing review of the credible evidence, the UK scientific community continues to affirm that vaping is less than 5% the risk of smoking and an effective smoking cessation aid.
VAEP Shareables are images utilizing graphics, colour and text to quickly teach people about vaping. Each Shareable provides the reference on the bottom.
Making harm reduction appealing
Adults like flavours. The drive to enjoying flavours has lead to 27% of adult Canadians and 42% adult Americans to obesity. Flavours in vaping don’t cause obesity but they offer a more pleasurable taste experience for smokers than cigarettes.
The fear-provoking narrative is that youth are trying vaping because of flavours. It’s normal for youth to mess with adult taboos like cigarettes which taste gross. Surveys clearly show that the majority of people who try vaping do so to quit smoking.
Adult smokers have driven the demand for the eliquid flavours sold in adult only vape shops. This lead to competition between eliquid manufacturers and thousands of flavours are now available.
Smokers prefer the taste of their cigarette brand. That is why they want tobacco flavours when they start vaping. Once get used to vaping, they move away from tobacco flavours to stay away from cigarettes.
Cigarette smoke is more addictive than nicotine. Flavours in eliquid offer an incentive to detox off the chemicals found in smoke while still getting nicotine. New flavours make vaping novel & help them stay quit.
Banning flavours in eliquid won’t stop youth from abusing adult products but it will make harm reduction less appealing to smokers. Many vapers may return to the most deadly form of nicotine: cigarettes.
Canada has strict eliquid manufacturing regulations and in the USA, eliquid manufactures self-regulate to keep eliquid safe. Harm reduction is what attracts smokers to vaping and flavours is what makes it pleasurable. Banning flavours will drive eliquid into the black market which will promote harm.
In 2019, health agencies such as the Canadian Medical Association Journal unjustly included eliquid as a contributor to EVALI. The deception was followed by a demand to create new harm by making flavours in eliquid illegal & driving it underground.
Around 1 million Canadians and 14 million Americans suffer with smoking-related diseases. Nonprofits for smoking-related diseases such as lung, cardiovascular, cancer and stroke are working hard to stop harm reduction for smokers.
If smokers switch to vaping and never get smoking-related diseases, what happens to the nonprofits that rely on these diseases for continued donations and fund raising? Industries that profit from smoking illnesses also fund these nonprofits.
Did you know that people that run ‘health-related’ nonprofits have histories of working for big corporations that profit off of sick people? These same people cycle into gov’t agencies, academic institutions & back to high paying corporate positions.
Around 1 million Canadians and 14 million Americans suffer with smoking-related diseases. Nonprofits for smoking-related diseases such as lung, cardiovascular, cancer and stroke are working hard to stop harm reduction for smokers.
If smokers switch to vaping and never get smoking-related diseases, what happens to the nonprofits that rely on these diseases for continued donations and fund raising? Industries that profit from smoking illnesses also fund these nonprofits.
Did you know that people that run ‘health-related’ nonprofits have histories of working for big corporations that profit off of sick people? These same people cycle into gov’t agencies, academic institutions & back to high paying corporate positions.
Young people are being recruited to push the flavour ban. These young people are not made aware of the importance of flavoured eliquid for adult smokers and how vaping is preventing their friends from becoming smokers.
All teenagers are curious about adult activities. This is why 52% vaped “to give it a try”. 14% vaped because they “liked the flavours”. Since, smoking tastes gross, perhaps the flavours in eliquid is preventing them from becoming smokers.
Youth are seeking a head buzz from abusing JUULs by inhaling too much nicotine. Teens call it a “heady” and 8.3% of grade 8-12 students are “JUULing” to get high. JUUL has less than 5 flavours. Banning 1000’s of eliquid flavours will make harm reduction unattractive to adult smokers.
Over 20,000 US youth were surveyed. Of the high school students that reported they had ever tried vaping, 1 out of 3 admitted they used cannabis in a vaping device. They are abusing vaping to get a heady or to get high. Is this a reason to ban flavours and make harm reduction less appealing to adult smokers?
Flavors are KEY to helping smokers switch to vaping and stay off of cigarettes. Governments are pushing to ban flavors in eliquid to save the children although no one has died from eliquid. There are thousands of alcohol flavours and each year 4300 youth die from alcohol.
VAEP Shareables are images utilizing graphics, colour and text to quickly teach people about vaping. Each Shareable provides the reference on the bottom.
Health improvements
It just makes sense
Due to the toxins, smoking causes adverse health consequences. The good news is that when you stop smoking, the toxic chemicals are no longer entering the body. This means health will improve with quitting smoking. Vaping significantly lowers these toxins which improves health.
We don’t know the long-term effects of vaping but we do know the long-term effects of smoking: it destroys the smoker’s health. Smokers that switch to vaping, report improved health. Smokers that don’t switch to vaping continue to destroy their health.
When asthmatic smokers switched to vaping: spirometry data, airway hype-responsiveness, exacerbations and subjective signs & symptoms ALL showed improvements. Of those that continued to smoke, they went from 22 cigarettes a day to just 2.
The majority of vapers reported a decrease in lung infection rates after they switched to vaping. Of the 5% that reported an increase in lung infections, the increases were due to lifestyle changes such as having children and the resulting exposure to more infectious illnesses.
Smokers are profitable for pharmaceuticle companies
Improved health means less drugs
Smoking is a risk factor for many chronic diseases because of the harmful chemicals in cigarette smoke. Switching to vaping virtually eliminates these harmful chemicals. As a result, these people may not develop the inevitable smoking-related diseases and those with chronic diseases improve. This means billions of dollars lost in potential revenue for the pharmaceutical industry.
Vaping is a “disruptive technology” in that it replaces other smoking reduction methods. The pharmaceutical industry makes smoking cessation aids and drugs for all those smoking related diseases. Compared to vaping, the smoking cessation aids produced by pharmaceutical companies have very poor success, which keeps smokers smoking and ensures they will develop smoking-related diseases.
Smokers get smoking-related diseases that are treated with drugs. Future smokers are future revenue for BigPharma. Youth are experimenting with vaping instead of smoking which means they won’t become smokers and get those smoking-related diseases. Agencies that are funded by BigPharma are pushing to ban vaping.
Anyone who suggests that vaping is not safer than smoking does NOT know what they are talking about! Whoever it is, your physician, a nurse or a representative from a health-related nonprofit, question EVERYTHING they say after that.
Science is universal. The United Kingdom’s scientific community reviewed the evidence on vaping in 2014. As a result, vaping is promoted by their health agencies. Health professionals in Canada and the USA have followed WHO instructions to reject vaping.
The Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) has an annual revenue of about $187 million. Yearly, cancer from smoking kills over 21,000 Canadians and more suffer with cancer. What would happen to CCS revenue if smokers switched to harm reduction and got less cancer?
The American Cancer Society (ACS) makes hundreds of millions of dollars a year because people get cancer. This ensures funding and donations to their organization. Vaping has o.5% the risk for cancer compared to smoking. ACS strongly discourages smokers from switching to vaping.
Workers in a popcorn butter flavouring factory, (diacetyl was a main ingredient) had higher cases of “popcorn lung”. A study found diacetyl in some eliquids, The amount was 750x less than found cigarettes. Headlines around the world read: “Vaping Causes Popcorn Lung!”
This study made headlines claiming that vaping produces carbon monoxide (CO). No CO was produced at manufacture specified levels (55-70 W). They tested only 2 eliquids & at 3 times higher then the specified levels. They measured CO from the wreckage.
Workers in a popcorn butter flavouring factory, (diacetyl was a main ingredient) had higher cases of “popcorn lung”. A study found diacetyl in some eliquids, The amount was 750x less than found cigarettes. Headlines around the world read: “Vaping Causes Popcorn Lung!”
This study made headlines claiming that vaping produces carbon monoxide (CO). No CO was produced at manufacture specified levels (55-70 W). They tested only 2 eliquids & at 3 times higher then the specified levels. They measured CO from the wreckage.
Commercial industries aren’t responsible to the stupid stuff youth do. Youth abuse alcohol & drugs. Yet, alcohol and pharmaceutical industries aren’t being held responsible for teen alcohol and drug abuse. Youth are also abusing vaping. The vaping industry aren’t responsible for teens abusing vaping.
Mom and Pop vape shops were started by people who quit smoking with vaping. They quit their careers and invested their savings into their own businesses to help smokers in their communities. The are small businesses employing local people, NOT tobacco companies. Misinformation from media & authority have demonized them and turned their communities against them.
For more information on youth and vaping, please visit our VAEP Shareables gallery and choose the “Youth” category.
VAEP Shareables are images utilizing graphics, colour and text to quickly teach people about vaping. Each Shareable provides the reference on the bottom.
Nicotine myth
Like any substance, too much can cause adverse effects. For instance 4000mg of Tylenol can cause severe liver damage.
Medications that are available on the shelves in a drug store are called over-the-counter (OTC) medications. They available without a prescription and used safely by the public.
Nicotine is a mild stimulant and can form a dependance, much like caffeine. Nicotine in eliquid helps smokers transition to a source of nicotine that doesn’t kill them.
Nightshade plants naturally have nicotine in them to protect them from insects. So if you eat tomatoes, potatoes, peppers and eggplants, you have nicotine in your body.
Vaping offers the smoker an alternative that allows them to continue inhaling nicotine without all the disease causing chemicals found in cigarette smoke.
Dr. John Britton of the U.K. Center for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies explains that nicotine addiction isn’t a big deal because “…nicotine itself isn’t particularly hazardous.”
It would be unethical to give nicotine to teens and then test their brains. In this referenced study used by Health Canada to scare smokers away from harm reduction, rats were given nicotine all day through an IV (2mg/kg/d).
Tobacco smoke has 7000 chemicals in it, many of which cause damage to the body. This fear-provoking message from Health Canada suggests that all smokers have some kind of brain damage. How is it that they can identify nicotine as the cause and not the 7000 toxins found in cigarette smoke?
Health Canada claims vaping “can” cause lung damage. They provide no evidence to support this speculation. Health Canada “can” deceive the public about harm reduction. They “can” have a motive to promote disease and serve the pharmaceutical industry.
VAEP Shareables are images utilizing graphics, colour and text to quickly teach people about vaping. Each Shareable provides the reference on the bottom.
Using vaping to quit smoking
Vaping triples the quit rate of the patch
Controlled clinical trials are the gold standard of science. In 2014, a group of smokers who didn’t want to quit smoking were given eliquid and simple vapes (the vapes today are even more effective). 21% of the smokers quit smoking; compare that to 6% success with patches.
Long term vaping increased quitting smoking by 300%
Smokers that bought a vape and used it while still smoking were compared to smokers that didn’t buy a vape. After 2 years, 42% of smokers who also vaped quit smoking, while those that didn’t vape, only 15% quit smoking.
Vaping satisfies the nicotine addiction & smoking behaviour PLUS vaping offers thousands of flavours to help the smoker replace the taste of smoke with something better. That is why it is more effective than sticking a patch to your arm or chewing gum.
The 5.7 million Canadian and 34 million American smokers demand for a safer alternative has driven the vaping industry’s growth. If vaping didn’t help smokers quit smoking then there would be no vaping industry.
Controlled clinical trials are the gold standard of science. In 2014, a group of smokers who didn’t want to quit smoking were given eliquid and simple vapes (the vapes today are even more effective). 21% of the smokers quit smoking; compare that to 6% success with patches.
Long term vaping increased quitting smoking by 300%
Smokers that bought a vape and used it while still smoking were compared to smokers that didn’t buy a vape. After 2 years, 42% of smokers who also vaped quit smoking, while those that didn’t vape, only 15% quit smoking.
Vaping satisfies the nicotine addiction & smoking behaviour PLUS vaping offers thousands of flavours to help the smoker replace the taste of smoke with something better. That is why it is more effective than sticking a patch to your arm or chewing gum.
The 5.7 million Canadian and 34 million American smokers demand for a safer alternative has driven the vaping industry’s growth. If vaping didn’t help smokers quit smoking then there would be no vaping industry.
Vaping uniquely satisfies the ritualistic behaviour
The ritual: bringing the smoke to the mouth; tasting the drag; sensations in the throat & lungs on a big inhale; a visible exhale and nicotine enters the blood through the lungs. A pack-a-day smoker does this 87,600 times a year. Vaping uniquely satisfies this ritual.
Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) such as patches and gums aren’t that effective because they don’t replace the behaviour. Smokers are experts at self dosing nicotine through inhalation. Eliquid is nicotine in a rather benign base & allows the smoker to continue getting nicotine through inhalation.
After dual use for a while, a large percent of vapers quit smoking. Because eliquid comes in a variety of nicotine strengths (mg/ml), the vast majority of those that switch to vaping, lower their nicotine strengths; some all the way down to zero.
The anti-harm reduction zealots claim that vaping is ineffective for quitting smoking because many dual use for a while. Dual users observed in controlled clinical trials reduce the number of cigarettes they smoke by 60-80%. This significantly reduces the toxins they inhale.
This bar graph illustrates that the MAIN reason for vaping is smokers seeking to quit. Flavours are not the main reason but vaping wouldn’t work if it didn’t offer smokers a more pleasurable and novel experience than smoking because cigarette smoke is more addictive than nicotine on its own.
Surveys and reports show that less than half a percent of people that never smoked are vaping. However, 15% of smokers and 13% of ex-smokers vape. This shows that SMOKERS are vaping to either quit smoking or stay quit. They deserve to continue to have access to harm reduction.
Smoking is so bad for health and so hard to quit that doctors prescribe psychoactive medications to help their patients quit. Side effects include killing yourself.
Health professionals that understand tobacco harm reduction understand the difference of nicotine dependence and addiction. Dependence is when the body has a tolerance to a substance and experiences withdrawal without it. Addiction is the same except there are negative consequences for the dependence such as smoking-related diseases.
Eliquid contains 4 ingredients and only the nicotine can cause dependence. The chances of a youth becoming a smoker is 20 times higher if they start their experimentation with smoking verses with vaping. Vaping is interrupting the historical process of creating smokers.
A common fear tactic is to suggest that vaping leads youth to smoking. If that was the case then the increase in youth vaping would mean an increase in youth smoking. This graph clearly shows that youth smoking continues to decline.
This quote proposes vaping’s harm reduction potential not only for current smokers but for preventing the next generation of smokers. The graph illustrates the significant drop in American youth smoking rates since vaping has been introduced in the USA.
This graph shows the trend in current smoking rates of Canadian 15-19 year olds over 18 years. Within 5 years of vaping being introduced, the youth smoking rate decreased at double the highest previous decrease! Is vaping preventing youth smoking uptake?
VAEP Shareables are images utilizing graphics, colour and text to quickly teach people about vaping. Each Shareable provides the reference on the bottom.
The UK benefits their citizens with harm reduction
Unlike Canada and the USA, the United Kingdom bases their vaping policies on the thousands of published scientific articles that consistently show that vaping is the best option to help smokers quit.
Most of us are familiar with and support harm reduction such as seat belts or bike helmets. Smoking is the most preventable cause of disease and death in North America! It’s very hard to quit smoking, so harm reduction is the solution for many smokers to reduce the harm of their nicotine dependance.
The standard scientific tool for measuring the harm from drug use is the MCDA (multi-criteria decision analysis). Experts compared 12 different sources of nicotine using the MCDA. The most harmful source were cigarettes so they were given the value of 100%. The other 11 sources show the relative risk of harm compared to smoking.
Citizens have a right to life which means they have a right to all the information to make informed decisions about preserving health. They also should have access to and be able to effectively utilize harm reduction to protect health such as condoms, seat belts and vaping.
“People smoke for nicotine but they die from tar.” -M. Russell
WHO prioritized the 9 most toxic chemicals found in tobacco smoke for reduction. Vaping significantly reduces or eliminates these toxic chemicals! As to formaldehyde, it is naturally occurring in exhaled breath.
Over 7000 harmful chemicals are produced when the chemically laden cigarette is burned including: carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, hydrocarbons, nitrous oxide, free radicals, radioactive compounds, arsenic, phenols & 69 carcinogens These aren’t found in vapour.
“If you are a smoker, vaping is a less harmful option than smoking.” Health Canada. Vaping nicotine is less than 5% the risk of smoking and the government limits what can be put into the eliquids to keep it that way.
Unlike 100 years ago when smoking came around, science has analyzed thousands of chemicals. All of those chemicals have been tested for safety to establish Threshold Limit Values (TLV). Vapour was compared to TLV and passed with flying colours.
Top health agencies in the US tested for hazardous chemicals in the air in a vape shop with active vaping. The vast majority of chemicals were not even detected! Friends and family of vapers can feel comfortable around vaping and support smokers making the switch.
In Great Britain, vaping is recognized as a significant harm reduction strategy and is promoted by their public health. Yet, less than 2% of 11-18 year olds vape more than once a week. WHERE is the youth vaping epidemic in Great Britain?
Young people have been recruited to distract from the harm reduction aspect of vaping and replace it with fear of youth becoming addicted to nicotine. The problem with this focus is it denies the millions of smokers in North America from learning about an effective harm reduction option.
Health authorities and media claim that youth are becoming dependent on nicotine because of vaping. Dependence to nicotine means daily use. Youth that have never smoked are not daily vapers. But youth that would have becomes smokers are vaping instead.
To compare statistical data from year to year, the parameters of that data must remain the same. The Government of Canada changed the parameters of youth vaping data which falsely inflates the numbers and perpetuates the fear-provoking narrative.
The next generation of smokers is being interrupted by vaping. 99.9% of those that vape everyday, and therefore are dependant, consists of people with a smoking history.
This documentary investigated vaping during the height of the media frenzy to demonize vaping. It offers a comprehensive, indepth look at tobacco harm reduction.
The next generation of smokers is being interrupted by vaping. 99.9% of those that vape everyday, and therefore are dependant, consists of people with a smoking history.
This documentary investigated vaping during the height of the media frenzy to demonize vaping. It offers a comprehensive, indepth look at tobacco harm reduction.