---
title: "Idiots Are Starting to Vape, Then Switching to Cigarettes"
description: "Compared to the casualties caused by the mysterious vape lung illness, taking up smoking at all is still drastically more deadly."
date: "2019-10-23"
modified: "2019-10-23"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/vape-lung-illness-death-switch-cigarettes"
categories:
  - "Developments"
  - "Health & Medicine"
tags:
  - "medicine"
  - "smoking"
  - "vaping"
---

# Idiots Are Starting to Vape, Then Switching to Cigarettes

![Compared to the casualties caused by the mysterious vape lung illness, taking up smoking at all is still drastically more deadly.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/vape-lung-death-toll-tiny-typical-smoking-deaths.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: analogicus via Pixabay\</em\>*

So far, nearly 1,500 American vapers have fallen ill with the [mysterious lung illness](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/uk-avoided-vape-lung-epidemic>) that's killed at least 33.

It's a national tragedy, but the death toll is just a small fraction of the people who will die prematurely because they tried vaping and ended up getting hooked on nicotine, [according to the *Los Angeles Times*.](<https://www.latimes.com/projects/vaping-deaths-long-term/>)

The *LA Times* [cites 2018 research](<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29538396>) that determined that some 495,000 non-smoking Americans between the ages of 12 and 29 tried vaping and ultimately became regular cigarette smokers. That's nearly half a million people who, if it weren't for vapes, probably wouldn't have started smoking at all.

The *LA Times* broke down the numbers of how smoking tends to kill people and applied it to that 495,000-person cohort. For instance, existing statistics on the health implications of smoking suggest that nearly 7,000 of the 495,000 will die prematurely due to a stroke, and just over 44,000 will [die of lung cancer](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/vape-nicotine-mice-lung-cancer>).

None of that, of course, should minimize the impacts of the ongoing vape lung crisis — just because it's killed fewer people doesn't make it less of a tragedy. If anything, the *LA Times*' data visualization project should serve as a reminder that vaping or smoking nicotine is dangerous, whether or not it's tied to a mysterious long condition.

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)