Laurent Huber, Executive Director of ASH:
Combustible tobacco products like cigarettes are extremely toxic, killing approximately 6 million people per year. Given that cigarettes are so ridiculously toxic, vaping has the potential of being less harmful. For a smoker who cannot overcome nicotine addiction, even using approved pharmaceutical and other therapies, vaping is likely to be a better alternative than continuing to smoke cigarettes.
However, the scientific community is only beginning to look into the long term impact of vaping on health and, because there are so many vaping products on the market it is difficult to make a blanket statement about the safety of all vaping devices. Some researchers in the public health arena are concerned about claims that vaping is 95% safer than smoking cigarettes, noting that those claims are educated guesses at best. And while vaping may be safer than using combustibles, this does not imply they are a hundred percent safe.
