Is vaping healthier than smoking?

Blog: Thursday 14 May 2026

Over one‑third of cardiovascular disease-related deaths in people under 65 in Australia are attributed to smoking.

You’ve probably heard people say that vaping is a ‘safer’ alternative to smoking cigarettes. You may even know someone who swapped cigarettes for vapes to protect their heart or general health. But is vaping really safer than smoking? Let’s find out what the research reveals.

Smoking and your heart

Smoking is one of the biggest risk factors for heart disease, heart attack and stroke. It damages your blood vessels, increases blood pressure, makes your blood ‘sticky’ so it’s more likely to clot, and reduces oxygen supply to your heart.

The chemicals contained in cigarettes cause damage to your cells and increase your risk of heart problems including heart failure, abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmias) and heart attack.

The good news? Quitting smoking has immediate, long-term benefits for your heart. After just a few weeks of giving up cigarettes, your heart rate and blood pressure improve.

After one year of quitting smoking, your risk of stroke or heart attack is almost halved, and your chances of developing heart disease are significantly lower. And as time goes on, your risk of heart disease continues to drop.

Cigarettes contain tobacco which produces toxic gases when burnt, like carbon monoxide – the very same gas produced by a car exhaust. This is delivered directly into your lungs and bloodstream when you smoke a cigarette.

And carbon monoxide isn’t the only offender. More than 6,000 chemicals have been identified in cigarette smoke, many of which have been shown to cause damage to your heart and blood vessels.

Tobacco also naturally contains nicotine, one of the key components that makes cigarettes so addictive. Nicotine impacts your heart by:

• increasing your heart rate and blood pressure
• putting stress on your heart, forcing it to work harder
• stiffening or narrowing your blood vessels so blood can’t move around your body as easily as normal
• increasing your risk of heart problems over time.

What about vaping?

Vaping is often marketed as being ‘less harmful’ than smoking, as it doesn’t involve burning tobacco. But while vaping may not expose you to some of the most harmful chemicals contained in cigarette smoke, it is not harmless.

Vaping still delivers hundreds of chemicals into your body including nicotine (often at very high doses) and heavy metals. These substances are known to damage your cells and DNA and trigger inflammation, all of which are key risk factors for heart disease.

Some vapes contain as much nicotine as multiple cigarettes – often without users even realising. Many people buy vapes via the ‘black market,’ meaning they’re not regulated or checked by Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and their nicotine content remains unknown. Even when they’re sold as ‘nicotine-free’, vapes are often found to contain nicotine.

On the other hand, the vapes you can purchase from a pharmacy as a smoking cessation aid contain a specific concentration of nicotine, which can be gradually reduced to help you quit smoking.

There’s still so much we don’t know

We know that immediately after vaping, your:

• heart rate and blood pressure rise
• arteries stiffen (this is associated with higher risk of heart disease)
• blood vessel function is compromised.

Research indicates that vapes containing nicotine have very similar short-term effects on blood vessels as smoking, even in young people without heart disease.

Since vaping hasn’t been around as long as smoking, we’re still learning about its long-term effects on health. But a growing amount of evidence shows that people who vape are at higher risk of:

• stroke
• coronary heart disease
• other major cardiovascular events including heart attack.

Let’s return to the core question: is vaping healthier than smoking?

The short answer is this:

• For people who already smoke, switching completely to vaping may reduce your exposure to some harmful substances found in cigarette smoke, but it does not eliminate the risk to your heart and general health.
• If you don’t smoke, starting to vape will introduce significant risk to your heart health, which wasn’t there before.
• When prescribed by a doctor and purchased through a regulated, approved channel (like a pharmacist), vaping can be a valid strategy for some people to help them quit smoking for good. However, it’s crucial that vaping is only used to help you quit smoking.

The highest risk

Dual users (people who smoke and vape) experience the greatest risk to their heart and general health. This is important to understand, because many people turn to vaping to help them ‘quit’ smoking, only to end up maintaining both habits.

Both vaping and smoking are addictive, and data shows that more than half of adults who vape in Australia also continue to smoke.

Vaping is also being adopted by many young people who have never smoked previously, increasing their risk of taking up smoking down the track too.

The healthiest option for your heart

While completely switching from smoking to vaping may be slightly less harmful for your heart, vaping still exposes your heart to nicotine and other dangerous chemicals.

The answer to our original question is clear: vaping is definitely not harmless or healthy for your heart, and the long-term health consequences are still uncertain. Completely quitting (or avoiding) smoking and vaping is one of the very best things you can do to protect your heart and overall health, and lower your risk of heart disease. Reducing your use of cigarettes and vapes won't offer the same benefits.

Of course, quitting either habit may not be ‘simple’, but you don’t have to do it alone. Help is always available. Ask your GP or local clinic for personalised advice and support options such as nicotine replacement therapy, medicines, and referrals to other healthcare professionals. You can also visit the Quit website or find further support to help you quit here.