[mike10921]

Nicotine itself is not more harmful than coffee or similar products. It is the smoking that is the main health risk. Assuming that vaping is less harmful, that would make it a win if one was to choose between smoking and vaping. Of course, doing neither is the absolute best choice.

[klik99]

Slight clarification: Nicotine at normal doses is not more harmful than coffee - though at high volumes it is pretty bad. In the context of this conversation though what you said is totally true.

[toolz]

I think we have to be more nuanced with health than this. Vaping can be the absolute best choice if it helps you maintain a healthy weight and/or a healthy career which keeps your health insurance activated.

There are plenty of people who swear by chemicals like nicotine and caffeine that help them achieve indirect benefits and I can't imagine they're all wrong.

[opan]

Gwern has some good writing on Nicotine if anyone's curious. He basically used it in small doses as a nootropic.

https://gwern.net/nicotine

[DrThunder]

Excuse me? That's irrevocably false. Where did you pull that misinformation from? The big vape industry?

https://www.verywellhealth.com/what-is-nicotine-5075412

" There are many health risks and side effects associated with using nicotine. Some of the health risks include:

    Nicotine contributes to the development of emphysema—a type of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease— in smokers.
    It’s potentially carcinogenic. Chronic nicotine use is linked to lung, gastrointestinal, pancreatic, and breast cancer.
    Nicotine use is associated with peptic ulcer disease (PUD) and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). 
    Nicotine use increases the risk of hypertension and cardiovascular diseases.
    Nicotine use during pregnancy increases the likelihood of complications and adverse outcomes like miscarriages and stillbirth.9
    Children exposed to nicotine in the womb are more predisposed to health problems throughout their lifetimes. These health problems affect their endocrine, reproductive, neurologic, respiratory, and cardiovascular systems.9
    Nicotine use can cause cardiac arrhythmia—a cardiovascular condition characterized by an irregular heartbeat.10"

[klik99]

We're talking about nicotine, not smoking. There is no evidence that nicotine is carcinogenic.

https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/causes-of-canc...

> Nicotine is the chemical that makes cigarettes addictive. But it is not responsible for the harmful effects of smoking, and nicotine does not cause cancer. People have safely used nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) to stop smoking for many years. Nicotine replacement therapy is prescribed by doctors or is available from pharmacies.

The risks for hypertension, etc is true for nicotine, because it's a stimulant, so same risks exist for coffee. There is very little conclusive evidence that nicotine (not talking about smoking or vaping) has any health effects that aren't also caused by coffee/stimulants.

The best thing you can say about vaping is that it's very understudied and long term effects are unknown, and likely has some long term effects that are bad for you.

Smokeless nicotine (swedish snus-variety) is considered very safe.

The problem is smoking and nicotine have been so intertwined for so long that when they say "Nicotine causes x" most of the time what they mean is "Smoking causes x" and maybe also "Vaping could potentially cause x"

[Veen]

These are all health risks associated with smoking, not with nicotine itself. If you click through to the pages those risks link to, you'll see they are talking about smoking, not nicotine. There are some risks from nicotine (high blood pressure and faster heart rate), but it does not cause emphysema or cancer.

[fatfingerd]

Do we really know what portion of this isn't just correlation between nicotine and the fact that it has to be administered which usually involves smoke, fiberglass irritation, etc?

I think the main problem with nicotine is its addictiveness and the fact that that will lead you to accept risks in administration via cigarettes, toxic fluid vapors, chew with fiberglass, etc.