Thousands of smokers reach a point where they start wondering what life would look like on the other side of the habit. They notice the growing vaping trend around them, feel curious about it, and eventually decide to give it a try.
Switching isn’t always instant or effortless, but for most people, life does change in noticeable ways once cigarettes are replaced with a vape. To understand why, it helps to look at the two sides of the story: what life was like as a smoker, and what changes once the switch is made.
Life Before: What Smoking Looks Like Day to Day
As a smoker, the routine is simple but costly, both for the body and the wallet.
Health. Cigarettes release thousands of chemicals when burned, and many of them are poisonous, with up to 70 known to cause cancer. Regular smoking sharply raises the risk of serious conditions. It is the single biggest cause of cancer worldwide, it is behind roughly 70% of lung cancer cases, and smokers under 40 are around five times more likely to have a heart attack than non smokers. Smoking is also one of the leading preventable causes of premature death in the UK, linked to around 78,000 deaths a year.
Money. A pack of 20 cigarettes in Malta costs around €5.50, so someone smoking a pack a day can end up spending close to €2,000 a year just to keep the habit going.
Daily experience. Beyond the health and financial toll, smoking dulls the senses over time (taste and smell are typically less sharp), and it can leave smokers short of breath more easily than non smokers.
The Switch: What Changes in the Transition
The transition itself will look different depending on the person. Some smokers put their pack of cigarettes down almost immediately after their first vape. Others find it takes longer to adjust, partly because vaping simply works differently: instead of lighting up, it means choosing a device, an e-liquid, and a nicotine strength, and doing a bit of routine maintenance.
It’s also common to notice a couple of short lived side effects early on:
- Dry mouth. The propylene glycol and vegetable glycerine in e liquids absorb moisture, which can leave the mouth feeling drier than usual. Drinking more water usually helps until the body adjusts.
- A bit of coughing. Vapour can feel thicker than smoke to a new vaper, so some coughing in the first few days is normal and tends to settle quickly.
Getting proper guidance from a specialist vape shop when choosing a first device and e liquid tends to make this early phase much smoother, and helps avoid spending money on the wrong setup.
Life After: What Actually Changes
Health. According to the NHS, nicotine vaping is not risk free, but it is substantially less harmful than smoking. A 2022 UK expert review of the international evidence concluded that, in the short and medium term, vaping carries only a small fraction of the risks of smoking, since most of the harmful substances in cigarette smoke, including tar and carbon monoxide, aren’t present in vape aerosol. People who switch completely from smoking to vaping reduce their exposure to the toxins linked to cancer, lung disease, heart disease, and stroke. Vaping is also one of the most effective tools for quitting: NHS reviewed evidence suggests smokers who use a vape to quit, alongside some face to face support, can be up to twice as likely to succeed as those using patches or gum. Cancer Research UK confirms that legal e cigarettes are far less harmful than cigarettes, while noting that, since vapes haven’t been around long enough, their long term effects still aren’t fully known.
Money. After the initial outlay for a device, coils, and e liquid, ongoing vaping costs are generally much lower than a daily cigarette habit. How much lower depends largely on personal choices, since some vapers stick to a simple, low cost setup while others enjoy upgrading their devices regularly.
Everyday experience. Once the adjustment period passes, most former smokers report the process becomes second nature fairly quickly, with a much wider range of options (device styles, nicotine strengths, and flavours from tobacco to menthol to fruit) allowing people to tailor the experience, including stepping away from the tobacco taste entirely if they choose to.
What Will Family and Friends Think?
Reactions from people close to you often come down to how much attention they’ve paid to media coverage of vaping, or simply their personal views. It’s worth knowing that misconceptions are common: research on smokers in England found that more than half wrongly believe vaping is as harmful as, or more harmful than, smoking, a misunderstanding that health researchers say may actually discourage people from making a switch that could meaningfully reduce their health risks.
In Conclusion
Based on the current evidence from health authorities like the NHS and Cancer Research UK, switching completely from smoking to vaping is very likely to leave you better off, trading a habit linked to serious, well documented health risks for one that carries substantially less harm, alongside real savings over time. It isn’t risk free, and it isn’t right for non smokers or under 18s, but for an adult smoker, it’s one of the more effective ways to move away from cigarettes for good.
As with smoking, some rules still apply. Vaping isn’t permitted on planes or in various public places, so it’s worth checking local regulations wherever you are. Doing a little research up front, and getting advice from a specialist on the right device and e liquid, makes the switch considerably easier.
Sources: NHS (“Vaping to quit smoking,” “Vaping myths and the facts,” “Using e cigarettes to stop smoking”), Cancer Research UK (“Is vaping harmful?”), UCL/University College London research on smokers’ harm perceptions in England (2024), and cost of living data for cigarette prices in Valletta, Malta (2025).
