Vaping, an emerging public health concern in South Asia: a short communication

Electronic cigarettes, or "vaping," are battery-operated devices that heat a liquid containing propylene glycol, nicotine, and some flavoring agents, which aerosolize to produce vapors that the user inhales. They were introduced in 2003 and became popular worldwide as a less irritating alternative to combustible cigarettes. While they were initially advertised as smoking cessation aids, their use has taken the shape of an epidemic in some regions of the world. Vaping prevalence is high in South Asia, where a significant number of people use tobacco and smokeless tobacco. According to data from Pakistan, 6.2% of the population uses vaping/e-cigarettes, while 15.9 million (12.4%) use smokeless tobacco. Vaping may be a safer alternative to cigarette smoking, as e-cigarettes do not contain all the toxins that regular cigarettes do, and the aerosol from e-cigarettes has no appreciable cytotoxic, genotoxic, or inflammatory effects when inhaled. However, nicotine addiction is a concern, as it is the main culprit behind smoking addiction, and e-cigarettes may become a new pathway toward nicotine addiction. Hence, their effectiveness in smoking cessation is still debatable, and their role as a tool for smoking cessation needs further research.