With the continuous increase in the number of e-cigarette users around the world, e-cigarettes have become a hot research subject for public health experts, scholars and research institutions, and e-cigarettes and traditional tobacco are often compared in the same study.
However, it is worth noting that most of the research seems to focus only on the “health risks of e-cigarettes”. It is relatively rare for environmental impacts and other types of research, which has led many to ignore the benefits of e-cigarette development. Not only based on health.”
Recently, there have been two studies published on helptoquit and dw, which can explain how e-cigarettes help the traditional smokers’ mental health and the global environment, and also break the “smoking can relieve stress” myth
Electronic cigarettes help smokers mitigate mental illness
A study from helptoquit found that traditional smokers must reduce their levels of depression and anxiety after they have completely quit. The NHS also suggested that switching to e-cigarettes would be beneficial to traditional smokers over-stressing smoking cessation years.
When smokers feel stressed or anxious, they often use more tobacco products to calm down. However, despite satisfying the desire for nicotine, investigations have shown that these behaviors are likely to cause these symptoms to worsen, so smoking addiction is cyclical.
In addition, the data also shows that once smokers successfully quit smoking, positive emotions will increase by 40%, and the symptoms of mental illness will be greatly reduced. From the data point of view, the stress and depression index after smoking cessation decreased by 27% and 25%, respectively.
Electronic cigarettes also help reduce environmental hazards
Before talking about the comparison of environmental hazards, it is necessary to understand the source of pollution of traditional cigarettes – cigarette butts. Cigarettes are basically non-biodegradable, so by evaporating the e liquids instead of igniting the cigarettes, more cigarettes can be prevented from circulating in nature.
In a person’s life, an ordinary smoker will discard about 430,700 cigarettes. These seemingly harmless cigarettes are actually very toxic. When the cigarette butts are disposed of, more than 600 chemicals are released into the environment for each cigarette, as each smoker processes 7,300 cigarettes per year. In other words, each smoker leaks 4,380,000 chemicals per year. Into the environment.
It should be noted that there is currently no centralized treatment for tobacco waste in the world. At most, it is discarded as general waste and finally sent to a garbage disposal site for incineration. Although the pollution is reduced compared to the landfill disposal method, the residue in the incineration process and after incineration still causes a lot of damage to the environment.
However, what if switch to e-cigarettes to improve the environment? Here are a few merits:
1. Prevent excessive cigarettes from depositing into the environment
2. Most of the components of e-cigarettes can be recycled and reused.
3. Prevent large numbers of trees from being felled
4. Reduce carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere
5. Prevent chemical substances from leaking into soil, oceans, lakes and rivers
E-waste management needs to be strengthened
On the other hand, although the switch from traditional smokers to e-cigarette users may have a positive impact on the environment, the previous article of the Vape hk also mentioned that “irresponsible e-cigarette producers may cause harm to the environment.
Yogi Hale Hendlin of the Center for Tobacco Control Research at the University of California has said:
“Electronic waste is a huge problem on a global scale. Any time we produce one-off things, we basically steal the environmental life from the future.”
Hendlin cited the 2017 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention research report that in 2015, more than 58 million e-cigarette products were sold in grocery stores and convenience stores. About 19 million of these products are designed for one time use.
But sadly, the resulting e-waste is usually not disposed of locally, but is shipped from the West to developing countries, so that these countries with lower economic levels can pick up the aftermath. How much harm is caused by garbage to the environment is beyond imagination.
Researcher at the American Journal of Public Health wrote:
“Most of these devices don’t contain instructions on how to handle the product. Actually, dealing with e-waste often requires a complicated process, and if it is simply sent to incineration, it is not a good ecology at all.”
In summary, the radiation range of tobacco hazards is really quite extensive, which not only seriously harms the heart and lung function of the human body, but also has a very large impact on mental conditions and public health. Perhaps e-cigarettes are not the best choice for breathing fresh air, but if traditional smokers who are unwilling or unwilling to quit, they can switch to e-cigarettes, it will be a great boon for themselves, others and the environment.
In addition, the author still wants to emphasize, “I hope electronic cigarette manufacturers try to find environmental solutions for disposable electronic cigarette devices. When choosing products to be listed, please remember the harm of our choices to the environment. Not just considering the impact on public health.”
VINN e-cigarette recycling plan – Protect the nature after vaping
