[lunchbucket]

It's a serious concern and switching to synthetic nicotine products may prolong your life. All tobacco products are highly carcinogenic. Contrary to what was said earlier it is not really about the smoking (though of course that makes things worse).

Nicotine products aren't safe; they are highly addictive and may exacerbate tumors that are already there. But they're far less addictive than tobacco products and they probably won't kill you.

[derektank]

>it is not really about the smoking

I agree with you that tobacco is uniquely harmful, but smoking by itself is also bad by itself. Even exposure to smoke from campfires, if chronic, will elevate your risk for COPD, cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, etc.

[lunchbucket]

Smoking/smoke inhalation is not safe, it leads to all the bad outcomes you mention, and I encourage everyone to seek out alternatives like oral nicotine pouches and cannabis gummies. They will almost certainly improve your healthspan and may well improve your lifespan. I personally stopped smoking because my wife told me she wanted me around longer. I am all aboard the "smoking is bad for you" train.

But the role of the smoke itself is overemphasized which leads to a false sense of security. Switching from cigarettes to dip does lead to a significant improvement in mortality. But the real step change is moving to oral nicotine pouches, gum, patches, etc.

I'd also point out the risk from campfires and from cigarettes is not at all comparable. They are several orders of magnitude apart. Even smoking marijuana isn't nearly as dangerous as smoking tobacco. (Smoking marijuana is not safe, that just goes to show how ridiculously dangerous cigarettes are.)

[dyauspitr]

You’re conflating danger and addiction. In this case nicotine is highly addictive but close to harmless.

[lunchbucket]

Becoming addicted to a substance is harm, so being addictive is a risk.

Nicotine is not harmless. It is a teratogen, it may exacerbate cancers you already have, it can harm brain development in young users, it can cause high blood pressure, etc. And as stated previously - it is not good to be addicted to something! That is a bad health outcome in and of itself!

I occasionally use synthetic nicotine products, I don't judge people for using them, but let's not misrepresent what this is. It is a drug. If you take a look at the risks and decide it's worth it more power to you. But don't tell people it's harmless, that is dangerous misinformation.