Key takeaways
- If you have stopped smoking your risk of serious illnesses, including lung cancer will have decreased every year
- If you don’t or no longer smoke, you can still be affected by passive smoking, so ask anyone around you to smoke outside and encourage them to quit
- Smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer. Only 28% of lung cancer cases aren’t caused by smoking.
- Vapes do contain nicotine, which is the addictive substance in cigarettes. Experimenting with vaping can lead to a regular habit.
Smoking is responsible for more than 8 million premature deaths each year. The number of people smoking is declining as the health risks of smoking are better and more widely understood. However, with cancer rates increasing, and electronic cigarettes (vapes) gaining popularity, it’s important that everyone – whether you’ve never smoked or used to smoke – is aware of some key information. In this article, Perci’s Lead Cancer Nurse Specialist Rachel Rawson answers five key questions about smoking and vaping for people who don’t or no longer smoke.
1. I quit smoking. What’s my cancer risk now?
Your risk of getting serious illnesses, such as lung cancer, has decreased every year since you stopped smoking. After 12 years of not smoking, your chance of developing lung cancer will fall to more than half that of someone who smokes. After 15 years, your chances of getting lung cancer are almost the same as someone who has never smoked.
2. Should I be worried about passive smoking and vaping?
Even if you don’t smoke or have quit, it’s possible that your friends and family do. People who breathe in secondhand smoke regularly are at risk of the same diseases as smokers, including lung cancer and heart disease. Pregnant women exposed to passive smoke are more prone to premature birth and their baby is more at risk of low birthweight and sudden infant death syndrome (cot death).
Research suggests that vapes release negligible amounts of nicotine into the atmosphere and the limited evidence available suggests that any risk from passive vaping to bystanders is small relative to tobacco cigarettes.
You can protect yourself from passive smoking by asking those around you to smoke outside. Support your friends and family to quit smoking by pointing them to their doctor or pharmacist, free local stop smoking service, or sharing the NHS Quit Smoking app.
3. I’ve never smoked. Can I still get lung cancer?
Smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer. Only 28% of lung cancer cases aren’t caused by smoking. Long-term exposure to secondhand smoke, air pollution and chemicals, such as asbestos, have also been identified as some of the contributing factors to lung cancer in non-smokers.
The most common symptoms of lung cancer are:
- Having a new cough or a cough most of the time
- Getting out of breath doing the things you used to do without a problem
- Coughing up phlegm (sputum) with blood in it
- Having an ache or pain in the chest or shoulder
- Chest infections that keep coming back or a chest infection that doesn’t get better
- Losing your appetite
- Feeling tired all the time (fatigue)
- Losing weight
It’s important to have anything different or new checked by your GP.
4. Is it safe to experiment with vaping?
‘Vapes’ or ‘E-cigarettes’ are a relatively new product that heat a liquid into an often scented vapour people can breathe in. Some potentially harmful chemicals have been found in e-cigarettes, but levels are usually low. Vapes do not contain cancer-causing tobacco or the other harmful chemicals in cigarettes. This makes vaping safer than smoking.
However, vapes do contain nicotine, which is the addictive substance in cigarettes. This means that experimenting with vaping can lead to forming a regular habit. Evidence also suggests that people who vape are more likely to go on to smoke, exposing them to health risks.
If you have quit smoking and are finding it challenging not to smoke, vapes may be helpful to stop you smoking tobacco. If you currently don’t vape, our advice would be not to start.
While we have ensured that every article is medically reviewed and approved, information presented here is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you have any questions or concerns, please talk to one of our healthcare professionals or your primary healthcare team.
References:
‘Is vaping harmful?’, cancerresearchuk.org, March 2023, https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/causes-of-cancer/smoking-and-cancer/is-vaping-harmful
‘Vaping myths and the facts’, nhs.uk, accessed April 2024, https://www.nhs.uk/better-health/quit-smoking/vaping-to-quit-smoking/vaping-myths-and-the-facts/
Tobacco Atlas: https://tobaccoatlas.org/
‘Tobacco’, World Health Organisation, accessed April 2024, https://www.who.int/health-topics/tobacco
‘How does smoking cause cancer?’, cancerresearchuk.org, June 2023, https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/causes-of-cancer/smoking-and-cancer/how-does-smoking-cause-cancer#tobaccorefs0
‘4 lung cancer myths, busted’, mdanderson.org, November 2021, https://www.mdanderson.org/cancerwise/4-lung-cancer-myths–busted.h00-159465579.html
‘Lung cancer statistics’, cancerresearchuk.org, https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-statistics/statistics-by-cancer-type/lung-cancer#heading-Three
‘Prevention: Lung cancer’, nhs.uk, November 2022, https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/lung-cancer/prevention
‘Passive smoking,’ nhs.uk, May 2022, https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/quit-smoking/passive-smoking-protect-your-family-and-friends/