If you’ve been vaping for a while, it might be hard for you to remember a time before this industry was born.  But the truth is that vaping has only been around for about a decade, and it’s only been a mainstream hobby for a handful of years.  Because of this, we just don’t have access to long-term studies and data regarding its effects and its impact on the population.

But, now that vaping is maturing as an industry, we can finally start to understand it better thanks to clinical research and statistics.  Vaping has finally been around long enough for researchers to be able to note its unique effects on the body after a person has consumed e-liquid for several years.  And, most importantly, we’re finally able to get a better picture of how this activity compares to smoking and other forms of tobacco use.

The problem, however, is that our country isn’t the most vape-friendly environment at the moment.  That means that while researchers are eager to study the effects of vaping, the funding just isn’t there.  This is a shame as countries like England have been able to promote vaping thanks to the various studies that have shown this activity in a positive light. 

Some Myths Just Won’t Die

One of the reasons why funding is so important is because the general public still believes a lot of myths about vaping despite the fact that they’ve been anecdotally and statistically proven false.  To this day, many people still think that vaping will give them popcorn lung, that e-liquids are carcinogenic, and that vaping doesn’t really work as a smoking cessation tool.

If researchers had proper funding, they could disprove these myths to a wide audience so that they could disappear into oblivion at last.  After all, these myths are holding the industry back because they stop people from vaping.  And, until we have access to clinical studies, most people will continue to believe what they want to believe while clinging onto their tobacco cigarettes.

FDA Doesn’t Have the Vaping Industry’s Back

One of the biggest problems in the vaping industry right now is that the FDA doesn’t want it to succeed.  Over the last few years, the FDA has had a tumultuous relationship with the industry, especially after the launch of JUUL, the pod mod system that the FDA believed was marketed toward teens with no prior tobacco experience.  It should go without saying that this product was in fact launched as a way to give smokers an effective way to quit cigarettes by supplying them with the same amount of nicotine.

As long as the FDA maintains its belief that vaping is a dangerous hobby, we’re not going to see a generous amount of funding given to researchers who want to study the effects of this activity.  The FDA doesn’t want the general public to consider vaping a better alternative to smoking, and so that funding will continue to go toward the development of other types of smoking cessation products. 

The Debate is Heating Up

It seems like the debate regarding whether or not vaping is a better alternative to smoking is hotter than ever before.  This has a lot to do with the development of salt-based nicotine, a type of nicotine that provides users with a much more potent hit than other types of vaping devices.  This type of nicotine has become so popular that more Americans are vaping than ever before.  And because of that, the industry is under more scrutiny than it has been in the past few years.

Now would be a great time for the government to fund studies on vaping in an effort to once and for all establish whether or not it should be considered an effective smoking cessation tool.  With the proper funding, we could analyze the long-term effects of vaping on a person’s health while studying how effective it is at getting people off cigarettes for good.

Studies in England Have Helped Smokers Quit

While America is a bit behind when it comes to research on vaping, England is drastically changing the public’s view on this activity by funding lots of studies regarding its effects.  Thanks to studies performed in the United Kingdom, we now know that vaping is a highly effective smoking cessation tool and that it’s not as toxic as cigarette tobacco.  Because of the success of these government-funded studies, British doctors are suggesting e-cigarettes to their patients who have been smoking for a long time.

Continued Funding is Key

The bottom line is that Americans deserve to know the truth about vaping, and that won’t happen until proper funding is in place.  As the industry continues to grow, the FDA is going to have to start considering the fact that this activity is here to stay.  And, with the right studies, vapers will be able to feel confident that their hobby is better than the smoking habit that they gave up in favor of e-cigarettes.