Everything You Need to Know About Vape Pens

E-cigarettes are booming in the UK and abroad. People are flocking to them as an alternative to cigarettes, with 18,000 people using e-cigarettes to quit smoking last year alone. Here, we give you a rundown of one of the most popular types of electronic cigarette: the vape pen.
What is a Vape Pen?
A vape pen is a type of e-cigarette used to inhale e-liquid. It creates a plume of vapour — not smoke — when you exhale.
As well as the standard vape pen, there’s a more advanced option in the form of “mods”. These are chunkier, customisable e-cigarettes that let you swap out the batteries and dial in custom controls.
You could say vaping is a bit like smoking — minus 95% of the harmful side effects, the stench, the tobacco, the yellow fingers, the huge cost, and so on.
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What is E-Liquid Made Of?
E-liquid is usually made up of a few simple ingredients, namely propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin. Those ingredients might sound a little off-putting, but they’re used in tonnes of the food products we consume every day, such as vanilla extracts and food colourings.
Most e-liquids also include nicotine to help beat cigarette cravings, but there are nicotine-free options available.
Is Vaping Harmful?
Public Health England (PHE) found that e-cigarettes are 95% less harmful than traditional cigarettes. Worryingly, they also noted that 22% of the population think that electronic cigarettes are equally or more harmful than smoking. This disparity is probably due to e-cigarettes being new to the market and the mixed messages coming from certain media outlets.
Some have suggested that vape pens and cig-a-likes are a gateway for children and non-smokers to start smoking. The same Public Health England study mentioned above found no evidence for this. None at all.
Why is Vaping so Popular?
As well as being a stop-smoking aid, e-liquid is available in a huge variety of flavours that make kicking your tobacco addiction a tasty affair.
Electronic cigarettes have also been endorsed by some of the UK’s biggest public health bodies, like the NHS and PHE.
Will a Vape Pen Help Me Quit Smoking?
In 2015, 18,000 people in the UK said they used vape pens to successfully quit smoking. In the same year, 53% of smokers said they vaped to help them ditch tobacco. The success rate varies, but the NHS has given some valuable advice: vape more if you want to quit smoking.
To wean yourself off of traditional cigarettes, it’s worth choosing e-liquid with a higher nicotine content and then reducing it later on. After all, the nicotine isn’t the harmful aspect of smoking — it’s the tar, carbon monoxide, and a bunch of other carcinogenic compounds.
How Do I Get Started With a Vape Pen in the UK?
Getting started with vaping is easy. All you need is a basic vape pen and some e-liquid. Once you’re comfortable with the whole process, you can start experimenting with custom mods and different battery voltages.