Smoking vs Vaping in Thailand.

Do you smoke or vape, in Thailand?  Maybe a change in habit and lifestyle is on the cards.

All my life, I have grown up with people smoking around me, whether it be cigarettes, cigars or pipe and tobacco.

When one is young of course, we are going to try it out. Yes, some members of my family and friends have resumed that “habit” and others have not.

Back in the day, it was the norm in movies and various adverts to show people smoking. Remember the Marlboro man adverts?

 

               

 

The Marlboro brand was the top-selling cigarette brand in the country throughout the 70’s decade, known for its iconic “Marlboro Man” advertising campaign. The Camel brand was another popular choice among smokers in the 1970s, with its iconic camel mascot and the slogan “I’d walk a mile for a Camel”

As I grew older and frequented bars etc, it was part of the atmosphere and it sure disguised the smell of spilt alcohol on the bar carpeted floor. Those were the “good ol’ days”!

 

What was not so pleasant was coming home after spending time in the company of smokers, whether at work or a bar, and having to wash your clothes and have a bath before going to bed. The smell of your clothes was a bit too much.

The change in attitude towards smoking started to become more prevalent. Electronically hazing out scenes of cigarettes in movies, banning smoking in certain areas. That then expanded to now “all public areas”. I recall them even trying to ban smoking on your property. Seriously!! That was a bit too far, even for me as a non-smoker.

Yes, cigarettes had different flavours and strengths. From the mild lady’s cigarettes to the darn strong cigars.

Remember the Virginia Slims brand that was marketed toward women? Virginia Slims  were “tailored for your hands—for your lips.” And they were, in all that, “slimmer than the fat cigarettes men smoke.”

There were health risks aimed at women, not smoking whilst pregnant, not smoking around infants, etc.

Trends in Cigarette Smoking Rates

	1965	1980
Total	42.4	33.2
Sex
Male	51.9	37.6
Female	33.9	29.3

Between 1980 and 2009, the prevalence of current smoking decreased from 32.8% to 15.5% for men and from 32.7% to 12.2% for women (P < . 001 for each).

 

The report of the US Surgeon General’s first Smoking and Health in 1964 was seen as the landmark report that made it known to a wide public that smoking cigarettes has dangerous health effects, including lung cancer and heart disease.

 

Aside from the health risks, eg lung and throat cancer, there were also fire hazards, falling asleep with a cigarette in your hands and that falls onto a carpet and whoosh, a fire starts. Burnt marks on your coffee table and carpets, overflowing ash trays, yellow stained ceilings, and smelly curtains.

Cigarette butts in the ashtray on wooden tableReports found that smokers today are more likely to develop lung cancer than those who smoked 50 years ago, as 70 chemicals in cigarette smoke are known carcinogens. Women’s risk increased 10-fold while men’s risk doubled.

A carcinogen is a substance, organism or agent capable of causing cancer. Carcinogens may occur naturally in the environment (such as ultraviolet rays in sunlight and certain viruses) or may be generated by humans (such as automobile exhaust fumes and cigarette smoke)

What is the most harmful carcinogen?

Smoking tobacco is associated with nearly 90% of lung cancer deaths. It’s also believed to be the largest preventable cause of cancer, with links to bladder, blood, colorectal, cervical, kidney, liver, pancreatic, stomach and other cancers.

Whilst the concept of smoking has somewhat diminished, there is a rise in the now” alternative” – vaping.

Were it for “seasoned smokers” to have a “healthier” alternative, It seems that it is now a fashionable trend to vape, amongst the youth of today.

What is perceived to be “healthy, is not so.

Is VAPE worse than smoking?       

Are e-cigarettes less harmful than regular cigarettes? Yes—but that doesn’t mean e-cigarettes are safe. E-cigarette aerosol generally contains fewer toxic chemicals than the deadly mix of 7,000 chemicals in smoke from regular cigarettes.

How many puffs of a vape is equal to a cigarette?

One estimate assumes an average smoker finishes a cigarette in around 10 to 15 puffs in 5 to 8 minutes. Considering a vaper using a 5% nicotine e-liquid in a basic refillable pod device, they may need somewhere between 30-50 puffs to ingest a similar amount of nicotine.

There is a higher prevalence of e-cigarette use among younger participants, females (49 vs. 38) in comparison to traditional smokers (P < 0.0001). The e-cigarette users have a lower prevalence of cancer compared to traditional smoking (2.3% vs. 16.8%; P < 0.0001), but they were diagnosed with cancer at a younger age.

Are you more likely to get lung cancer from smoking or vaping?

Although the long-term health effects of e-cigarettes are not yet well understood, research studies performed to date clearly indicate vaping is not a safe or healthy alternative to smoking. Furthermore, vaping can increase the risk of lung cancer.

Is vaping or smoking worse for the lungs?

A: Overall, there’s not much difference between smoking and vaping. Commonly, smoking was thought to be more harmful because the product is being burnt and smoke inhaled into the lungs. Medical practitioners are finding very similar damage from heating vaping solutions and inhaling that vapor into the lungs.

According to the latest report of the Global Cancer Incidence, Mortality and Prevalence published in 2018, lung cancer is noted to be the most common type of cancer in Thailand and accounted for 14.1% of all types of cancers (of which, 70% were diagnosed in the advanced disease stage).

 

Cancer deaths by type, World, 2019  ( 1990 – 2019 )

Total annual number of deaths from cancers across all ages and both sexes, broken down by cancer type.

Tracheal, bronchus, and lung cancer ………………………………….     2.04 million

Esophageal cancer  ………………………………………………………….      498,067

Prostate cancer  ……………………………………………………………..       486,836

Liver cancer  …………………………………………………………………..       484,577

Lip and oral cavity cancer   ……………………………………………        199,398

Larynx cancer   …………………………………………………………………      123,356

Thyroid cancer  ………………………………………………………………        45,576

Data source: IHME, Global Burden of Disease (2019) – OurWorldInData.org/cancer

Almost half – 46% in 2017 – of all people who die from cancer are 70 or older. Another 41 percent are between 50 and 69 years old – so that 87% of all cancer victims are older than 50 years.

The distribution of deaths across the age spectrum has changed notably since 1990. The share of deaths that occur in those aged over 70 has increased by 8 percentage points, whilst the share in those aged 50-69 and 15-49 has fallen.

Lung cancer is diagnosed more frequently than any other type of cancer in both men and women and while smoking remains the predominant cause, recent studies reveal that lung cancer rates among people who have never smoked are higher in women than in men. https://www.bangkokhospital.com/en/content/lung-cancer-in-women-caused-by-smoking 

 

Recently, e-cigarettes have become widely used amongst Thai smokers. According to a national survey of Thai e-cigarettes users in 2017, the number of smokers that used other smoking methods aside from conventional tobacco cigarettes, including e-cigarettes, had increased from 6,466 to 23,337 people.

( According to Thailand- Global Youth Tobacco) Survey 2015 conducted amongst 1721 students aged 13 to 15 years old,15.0% of students were active users of any tobacco products, and 3.3% of overall students were e-cigarette smokers.

Regarding the participants’ smoking behavior, most e-cigarette smokers started using e-cigarettes at the age ranging from 15 to 24 (38.5%) and 25 to 34 years (39.1%); however, some smokers initiated their e-cigarette use aged less than 15 years old. The initial age did not differ between males and females.

Source: Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 8229 – {https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph}

 

Are you at risk? I suppose we all are. Some more than others.

Will 2024 be a healthier year for you?  Are you a smoker? Maybe now is the time to quit.

Another important factor to take into consideration is how will you cover the medical costs for cancer treatment and other medical-related treatments.

Depending on what stage of cancer you have, treatments can be expensive. The costs also depend on which hospital you get treated at, eg King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital – Lung cancer: 141,100 – 197,600 baht

If you don’t have health insurance, you might pay between $10,000 to $200,000 or more.

The best and easiest manner is to have coverage through a private medical Insurance policy.

Have a policy already in place. Ensure that you are covered for Cancer treatment.

No policy in place and living in Thailand. I would suggest you contact us to recommend a policy best suited to your needs.

Click here for a no-obligation, free quote and help you to have a healthier year and time ahead.