A British study found vaping to be 95 per cent safer than smoking.
Thank God - a smoker! Enjoying yourself, matey? Any chance you can spot me a ciggie?
Sorry dude. This isn't a traditional cigarette that you light with a match and flick ash off. There's no burning coal. No thrilling sense of heat. No sticky tar that gathers poignantly in your teeth. Nothing to prod small children into asthmatic spasms from what used to be called passive smoking. Because there is no smoke per se. This, my friend, is a a battery-powered device called an e-cigarette that heats a nicotine liquid. What I'm inhaling is vapour. Hence, what I'm doing is called ``vaping". I'm a vaper. Look it up in the Oxford Dictionary, okay?
Okay. It looks inviting. Can I have a go?
Illustration: Matt Golding
First, it doesn't come in a pack of 20. There's just the one. And it's all mine, not for sharing. Didn't I mention it's battery powered? Besides, I'd wager you don't have a prescription from a doctor, hey?
Why do I need a prescription? I'm over 18. I'm just asking for a drag on your fancy nicotine stick. It's just a trendy substitute for cigarettes, so what's the commotion?
In most states and territories, you can legally buy an e-cigarette and the vaping liquid, provided it does not contain any nicotine.
E-cigarettes filled with nicotine are illegal in Australia unless you get a prescription from your doctor saying you want to use the device to quit smoking. But that hasn't stopped people from importing the nicotine-containing liquids from overseas.
The United States and Britain have a slightly different approach, and allow people aged 18 and over to buy the devices and nicotine liquid from specialised shops and some pharmacies.
It sounds like a drag... GEDDIT? So what's the point?
As you can see, the actual act of vaping is much the same as smoking – suck and blow, suck and blow – so for someone who likes to punctuate their day with a cigarette, the experience is rather similar. However, e-cigarettes are presented as cheaper, less dangerous and perhaps more socially acceptable than the old-fashioned gasper.
In fact, some of their fiercest advocates are former smokers who switched as a way to kick their habit or transition to something less risky.
But are they actually less dangerous for you?
There really isn't enough information to know for sure yet. They are so new that it hasn't been possible to gauge their long-term health effects. Some researchers worry that e-cigarettes containing nicotine could be dangerous because the drug is being sprayed into the lungs rather than absorbed through a patch or lozenge.
This is why the National Health and Medical Research Council is funding research at the moment to find out how safe e-cigarettes are and if they can help you quit.
However, last year a British government study found e-cigarettes slashed health risks of smoking by almost 95 per cent. It also found the devices could help smokers quit but that the evidence here was still a bit scant.
Quit Victoria director Sarah White says electronic cigarettes are likely to be less harmful than cigarettes but they are not harmless. She says there is also evidence to suggest vaping can cause inflammation of the lungs, which can lead to breathing problems.
What's the price difference? I'm on the scrounge for a good reason, man. Apart from, you know, dying.
E-cigarettes are certainly cheaper and can be purchased at a fraction of the cost of tobacco cigarettes. A pack of 20 of the most popular brand of smokes costs $25, and the average smoker consumed about 18 cigarettes per day in 2011. That ends up setting someone back about $675 a month.
If a smoker switched to vaping and kept up that same pace, the liquid would cost between about $50 and $105 each month, depending on the fillings used. This figure does not include the initial purchase of the device and charger, which can cost up to $100 for a high quality device.
So... can e-cigarettes help you quit smoking?
There is still not enough conclusive evidence (noticing a trend here?) and the studies so far have been contradictory. At the moment, the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Therapeutic Goods Administration and the Word Health Organisation do not recognise e-cigarettes as a quitting aid.
As a result, most doctors would be reluctant to prescribe the device and would most likely encourage other quitting aids.
How many people are still smoking?
In Australia, about 2.6 million people are daily smokers, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show. This is still a lot, but the number and the proportion of smokers is dropping. About 17 per cent of men were smokers last year, compared with 27 per cent 20 years ago. And among women, 12 per cent of women smoke, down from 20 per cent in 1995.
Smoking rates have steadily been decreasing in Australia Photo: Australian Bureau of Statistics
Smoking's popularity has dropped off most dramatically among younger Australians in recent years. In 1995, about six out of every 20 people aged between 18 and 24 were smokers, but now it stands at about three in 20.
Among smokers, e-cigarettes are growing in popularity. In Australia, 6.6 per cent of current and former smokers admitted to using the devices in 2013, up from 0.6 per cent in 2010. And separate surveys show younger smokers were more likely to have tried e-cigarettes.
Is vaping reducing smoking rates?
That's hard to say. In the United States the number of teens smoking increased in 2014 for the first time in years – and vaping was behind the increase. It seems that teenagers there are jumping straight into vaping, although one teen interviewed by the New York Times said he had used e-cigarettes to beat his former smoking habit. This trend hasn't been demonstrated in Australia – but vaping isn't as easy to access here.
So younger people are ditching tobacco for these hipster fake cigarettes. That seems safer so what's the problem?
There's a fear that e-cigarettes are not an alternative to traditional cigarettes but the gateway drug.
There has been a large effort in recent years to make smoking uncool and the message has certainly got through to young people. But now the act of smoking a cigarette is being repackaged into vaping – a trendier and less risky e-cigarette. Public health groups fear people will be more open to ciggies and eventually opt for tobacco.
And since it will take longer to gauge the health impacts and work out if vaping is indeed safe, they don't want to risk a resurgence of the habit.
But, again, we don't know yet if vapers are evolving into smokers or if the long-term risks will be as serious.