I don’t mind arguing, I was told this is what the internet is about.
And I’m glad it improved the health of your boyfriend. And your… Relationship with him.
And for that reason I’m glad they exist. As either a harm reduction or de-nicotining pathway.
More to the point, here is one of the latest meta-analyses on the subject: https://www.medicaldaily.com/vaping-causes-lung-oral-cancer-unsw-sydney-carcinogenesis-review-2026-475743
Some interesting excerpts:
On the animal side, one of the most striking findings came from a study by Tang and colleagues, cited in the review, in which mice exposed to e-cigarette aerosol for 54 weeks developed lung tumors at a dramatically higher rate than controls. Nine of 40 aerosol-exposed mice, 22.5%, developed lung adenocarcinomas; only 1 of 40 control mice developed a lung tumor. The aerosol exposure condition was designed to parallel human vaping behavior.
On the chemical side, research published in peer-reviewed journals has found that e-cigarette aerosols contain aldehydes including formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, volatile organic compounds, and heavy metals — all established carcinogens associated with DNA damage, oxidative stress, and chronic inflammation. A 2023 study found that exclusive vapers showed levels of DNA damage in oral epithelial cells comparable to cigarette smokers, with damage increasing based on frequency of use and flavor type.
At the human clinical level, published research has documented oxidative stress markers rising measurably after a single vaping session. The UNSW team noted the “consistency of findings across disciplines” as particularly striking, convergence across animal, mechanistic, and human clinical data that mirrors the early patterns seen in tobacco research decades before the full mortality picture emerged.
Overall though, this shouldn’t even matter: the e-cig situation is disrespectful to non-smokers whichever way you slice it. Even if one discards the evidence (this isn’t you I hope), it would be a situation where you are exhaling untested gases at people.
It’s not because it’s less bad for smokers to switch to it that it becomes okay for the others to breathe in toxic/untested gases. The social norm about emitting weird gases far away from others should still apply.
And anecdotally, it makes my throat physically irate, I can’t imagine the kinds of damage it’s doing to my body 😨…
Smoking does feel worse but vaping always irritates my throat, sometimes worse. It’s really not okay to make me feel this way non-consensually.