Va­p­ing is a con­tentious top­ic in Trinidad and To­ba­go, but it can be chal­leng­ing to dis­cern what is ac­cu­rate when so much mis­in­for­ma­tion is cir­cu­lat­ing. Mis­un­der­stand­ings about va­p­ing hold back smok­ers who want to quit cig­a­rettes, but are not in­formed enough about al­ter­na­tives. It’s time to clear up some of the most talked-about myths, based on sci­ence.

The most per­sis­tent myth out there is that va­p­ing is equal­ly or more harm­ful than smok­ing. This could not be fur­ther from the truth. Pub­lic Health Eng­land and a re­view by King's Col­lege Lon­don both found that va­p­ing is at least 95 % less harm­ful than smok­ing. Smok­ing caus­es dam­age be­cause of the tar and count­less tox­ins that come from burn­ing to­bac­co, which va­p­ing does not pro­duce. If smok­ers switch to va­p­ing, their ex­po­sure to can­cer-caus­ing chem­i­cals and risks for heart or lung dis­eases plum­mets. Pro­fes­sor Michael Rus­sell summed it up best al­most 50 years ago: peo­ple smoke for nico­tine, but they die from tar.

An­oth­er claim that con­fus­es is the idea that va­p­ing is worse than smok­ing be­cause it is more ad­dic­tive and doesn’t help peo­ple quit cig­a­rettes. Ac­tu­al­ly, the sci­en­tif­ic ev­i­dence points in the op­po­site di­rec­tion. Promi­nent health ex­perts in the UK, France, Cana­da and New Zealand say va­p­ing is one of the most suc­cess­ful tools for quit­ting smok­ing. In fact, a clin­i­cal tri­al run by Queen Mary Uni­ver­si­ty found it was twice as ef­fec­tive as tra­di­tion­al nico­tine re­place­ment meth­ods. Most vapers who were smok­ers say us­ing a vape helped them leave cig­a­rettes be­hind, which would not be the case if va­p­ing didn’t work.

The fear that va­p­ing with nico­tine caus­es can­cer is al­so based on a mis­un­der­stand­ing. It’s not the nico­tine that is re­spon­si­ble for can­cer, but the oth­er chem­i­cals in cig­a­rette smoke. The British Na­tion­al Health Ser­vice is clear that the harm from smok­ing comes from the thou­sands of tox­ins in smoke, not the nico­tine. Nico­tine helps smok­ers switch away from cig­a­rettes. It has long been used as a safe quit-smok­ing aid in tra­di­tion­al Nico­tine Re­place­ment Ther­a­py, like patch­es or gums. Nico­tine re­mains un­changed whether vaped or chewed.

Then there’s the claim that va­p­ing is a gate­way to smok­ing, mak­ing young peo­ple more like­ly to start smok­ing cig­a­rettes. This myth per­sists, de­spite stud­ies from var­i­ous coun­tries show­ing the op­po­site. Where va­p­ing has be­come more com­mon, smok­ing rates have gone down. The re­spect­ed health­care group Cochrane, as well as da­ta from the US and the UK, show that va­p­ing has helped peo­ple quit and that on­ly a tiny num­ber of non-smok­ers have tak­en up va­p­ing reg­u­lar­ly. Smok­ing rates in the UK and else­where are at his­toric lows, which lines up with the rise of va­p­ing, not the oth­er way around.

Fi­nal­ly, flavours in va­p­ing prod­ucts are of­ten blamed for en­tic­ing young peo­ple, but re­search shows this is not why flavours mat­ter. Adults make up the vast ma­jor­i­ty of peo­ple who use non-to­bac­co flavours. These flavours are ac­tu­al­ly a big part of what helps smok­ers switch and stay off cig­a­rettes. Ac­cord­ing to a study by Yale, us­ing flavours means adults are al­most two and a half times more like­ly to quit smok­ing for good. If flavour re­stric­tions come in, five in ten vapers say they would go back to smok­ing or turn to un­reg­u­lat­ed black mar­ket prod­ucts.

Smok­ers in Trinidad and To­ba­go de­serve clear, ev­i­dence-based in­for­ma­tion. Mis­in­for­ma­tion stops smok­ers from switch­ing to far less harm­ful op­tions. Va­p­ing is not risk-free, but sci­ence says it is much less risky than smok­ing. Quit­ting smok­ing al­to­geth­er is al­ways the best choice, but for those strug­gling to quit, switch­ing to va­p­ing can of­fer a re­al and sig­nif­i­cant health

ben­e­fit, backed by top ex­perts around the world. It’s time the myths were set aside so smok­ers can make in­formed choic­es.