Study Shows “Secondhand Vapour” Isn’t Real

Here’s a topic that we’ve heard before. In fact, it has been in the conversation with vapour ever since electronic cigarettes and other vapour products started becoming popular. There were those who looked for any reason they could to tie vaping to smoking, and one way was to talk about so-called “secondhand vapour.” If smoking has secondhand smoke, vaping must have secondhand vapour. Right?

Well, that’s some pretty flimsy logic to come to any conclusion. Yet, it was talked about as if it was simply obvious. More than that, it was talked about in terms that would scare people from going anywhere near vapour. People will do and say some pretty odd things when they’re scared. Even if, and maybe especially if, these fears aren’t based in any facts.

Thankfully, there is science. Eventually, the truth comes out. That’s exactly what happened with this idea of secondhand vapour. This time it comes from a study out of San Diego State University that wasn’t even looking at this topic. The research was on general indoor pollutants. Scientists tried to understand what exactly was going on in the air of people’s homes. So, they monitored 300 households that were home to a variety of people. Some of those households contained smokers, some contained people who vaped, and some neither.

At the end of the research, they happened to glean some facts about vaping that they hadn’t even set out to find. Their monitors scanned the air for particulates that were sized between 0.5 and 2.5 micrometers. This is the level in which you can pick up fungal spores and dust, as well as the byproducts of combustion and vehicle emissions. They chose this range of size because it relates directly to human health. At this tiny size, particulates can penetrate deeply into the lungs and can lead to health issues depending on what is being inhaled.

No Apparent Difference

In this study, the magic three words were “no apparent difference.” That’s how the researchers termed the air when the homes where people vaped were compared to those who did not. That’s right, the particulates in the air of those home, likely filled with vapour on a normal evening, showed up with no remnants in the air. Walk into those homes, and you’ll be breathing the exact same thing as you would in one that never had vapour inside of it.

Perhaps we can safely throw this entire “secondhand vapour” idea in the rubbish. Science is proving that it is nothing more than that. It’s not the first time we’ve heard it, or read studies that pointed to it, but it is another notch in the wall. It makes us wonder why there is so much misinformation that appear to be nothing more than scare tactics. If you want to make people fearful of something relatively new like vaping, you should enlist those who aren’t the target audience and make them worry it might affect them as well.

That is what seemed to be happening with this secondhand vapour idea. We hope this puts the issue to rest, or at least convinces a few more people. It should also give you the opportunity to feel freer in your own home to vape away. You won’t be affecting anyone else by doing so, that is what this study shows us. Of course, if you are in someone else’s home, it is always best to be polite and ask if you can vape.

Perhaps take this opportunity to do just that. To get the word out and point people toward the science. If someone has a hesitancy about vaping indoors, it’s time they know that vapour isn’t even caught at the size of 0.5 to 2.5 micrometers. When you see it dissipate, it does just that. Vanishing into thin air. It’s the magic of vapour, and more and more we are finding just how amazing it is. Along the way, we’re able to break a few myths, like the very concept of secondhand vapour.