23 3.6 Types of smoking and ways of exposure
Types of smoking
- Traditional smoking: burning tobacco leaves in cigarettes (or other tobacco products).
- Vaping (electronic smoking): heating a liquid that contains nicotine with an electronic device to produce an aerosol (vapour) that is inhaled.
- There is a common misconception that vaping is less harmful.
- It has been shown that both cause severe and direct damage to the lungs and heart.
- Vaping liquids often contain high concentrations of nicotine, which causes rapid addiction and may cause acute heart and nervous problems.
Exposure to smoking products
- Active smoking: the smoker deliberately inhales smoke from burning tobacco or the aerosol from a vaping device.
- Passive smoking: a non-smoker inhales the smoke exhaled by a smoker, or the smoke that rises from the burning tip of the cigarette. That smoke has not passed through the filter, so it can contain higher concentrations of toxic and carcinogenic gases. Non-smokers are therefore exposed to the same heart and respiratory diseases as active smokers.
- Comparison of situations: a person who smokes (active), a non-smoker sitting beside him (passive), and a person who vapes (active, with aerosol released into the air).
- All three inhale harmful substances; the differences are the method (burning versus heating a liquid) and whether the person chose to inhale.