The best thing you can do for your health is to be Smokefree.
Vapes can help some people quit smoking.
For someone who smokes, vaping is less harmful than smoking tobacco (such as cigarettes, roll-your-owns and cigars). People who switch completely from smoking to vaping dramatically reduce the risk to their health.
Vaping may help some people to quit smoking as it replaces the addictive nicotine in tobacco. You can control the quantity of nicotine in your vape and reduce it over time.
Vaping to quit is more successful when combined with support from a stop smoking service.
For free ongoing support to quit smoking, contact your local stop smoking service (this includes Māori quit services) or call Quitline free on 0800 778 778, text 4006, quit.org.nz. They can help you find the best method to quit that may include nicotine products, vaping or medicines.
Full health benefits only happen if you switch entirely from smoking to vaping. Even smoking one or two cigarettes is harmful.
Vapes are not the same as heated tobacco devices which still contain tobacco.
What’s the difference between vapes and heated tobacco?
- Heated tobacco contains dried tobacco sticks and use an electric battery to heat them. Tobacco is heated to a lower temperature than a traditional cigarette and creates an aerosol (not smoke) that is inhaled. They may contain lower levels of dangerous chemicals than traditional cigarettes, but because they contain tobacco, they come with all the long-term health concerns of cigarettes, roll your own’s and cigars.
- Vapes do not contain tobacco. They heat a liquid that may contain nicotine, which makes them addictive, but they do not contain the dangerous chemicals tar and carbon monoxide (a toxic gas) found in tobacco. Vapes contain some harmful substances but at much lower levels than cigarettes and other tobacco products.