How safe is it to vape?

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How safe is it to vape?

Lots of people have questions about vaping and its effect on health.

Here are some facts:

  • Vaping or using e-cigarettes as a teenager or young adult increases your risk of smoking regular cigarettes in the future.
    • One study showed teenagers using e-cigarettes in high school were 7 times more likely to smoke cigarettes approximately 6 months later, when compared to students not using e-cigarettes.
  • 2,807 people were hospitalized for lung problems from vaping by February 2020 in the United States.
  • Almost all vape products have nicotine, even if they say “Nicotine Free.”
  • Vape products have high amounts of nicotine compared to cigarettes. This means they are more addictive than cigarettes.
    • 1 JUUL pod = 20 regular cigarettes

Vaping is still pretty new, so not all the side effects are known. Side effects are experienced by people vaping and those who breathe the air around them (like secondhand smoke). Most of the known side effects are from the chemicals in the vape liquid. This includes nicotine which can cause addiction, heart problems, and harm brain development. There are also other chemicals, like heavy metals or carcinogens (chemicals that cause cancer).

Overall, vaping or using e-cigarettes is not safe and is not recommended for teenagers and young adults. If you have questions about vaping, talk to your healthcare provider or go to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website to learn more.

Our health guides are developed through a systematic, rigorous process to ensure accuracy, reliability, and trustworthiness. Written and reviewed by experienced healthcare clinicians from Boston Children's Hospital, a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital and consistently ranked as a top hospital by Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report, these guides combine clinical expertise, specialized knowledge, and evidence-based medicine. We also incorporate research and best practices from authoritative sources such as the CDC, NIH, PubMed, top medical journals, and UpToDate.com. Clinical specialists and subject matter experts review and edit each guide, reinforcing our commitment to high-quality, factual, scientifically accurate health information for young people.