The common misconception is that using a bong, or any type of water pipe, causes cancer. This stems from the fact that bongs are often used with tobacco, which contains many carcinogens. But the truth is that most cancer risk comes from inhaling smoke and not from the device.
To start, let’s be clear on what exactly happens when we inhale smoke. When we take in smoke, it goes through our nose and into our lungs, where it then travels to our heart and circulates throughout our body. There, it can cause damage to cells, causing DNA mutations and ultimately leading to cancer.
But this process doesn’t happen all at once. The majority of our exposure to smoke occurs while we exhale. So when you’re smoking a joint, you might think that the only issue is inhalation. However, the act of taking in smoke is actually far more harmful than the act of exhaling it.
How smoke enters your lungs
When smoke hits your lungs, it enters in three parts:
Particles – These are small pieces of dust, soot, and other debris that have been suspended within the smoke. They come in a wide variety of sizes and can travel at different speeds. Particles are smaller than 5 micrometers (about 0.00025 inches) in diameter, but some particles are much larger, reaching up to 100 micrometers in size. Particles with diameters less than about 7.5 micrometers are considered “ultrafine.”
Lines – Lines are long-lasting streams of smoke that are created by burning material at high temperatures. Lines can range from 1 to 50 meters in length, depending on how they were produced. Because lines contain a larger amount of particulate matter than other types of smoke, they tend to be more dangerous than other forms of smoke.
Gaseous compounds – Gases are formed during combustion, and they are present in both cigarette smoke and cannabis smoke. While gaseous compounds may not be as dangerous as particles, they still make their way into the bloodstream and can cause lung problems. Some of these gases include carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, acetone, ammonia, and hydrogen cyanide.
So if you thought that your chances of getting sick were limited to when you inhaled smoke, you were wrong. In addition to being inhaled, smoke also makes its way into your blood.
This is why people who use vaporizers, like e-cigarettes, don’t get cancer. Vaporized nicotine is filtered out of the smoke before it reaches the bloodstream, so there is no chance of it harming your lungs, brain, or DNA. And because the majority of the chemicals in vaporized nicotine are found in the liquid vial, there is little or no residue left behind after the vaping session is over.
What does smoking do to your liver?
While many of us think of the effects of smoking on our lungs, it’s important to know that smoking can also affect other areas of our bodies. One such area is the liver. If you regularly smoke cigarettes, you’ve probably heard that you should watch your alcohol consumption closely, as drinking too much will increase your risk of developing liver disease. Smoking, however, has an even worse effect on your liver.
Just like with cigarettes, the more you smoke, the greater your likelihood of developing liver problems. This is because smoking increases the levels of certain toxins in your blood, including acetaminophen and ethyl alcohol, two substances that are found in most anti-inflammatory pain medicines. Your liver absorbs these poisons from your blood and then converts them into something called bilirubin, which your body uses to fight infection. Bilirubin builds up over time in your liver, causing it to become inflamed and eventually scarred.
Smoking also affects the ability of your liver to detoxify itself. As mentioned above, smoking increases your blood level of acetaminophen, which is a toxin that damages your liver. Acetaminophen binds to certain proteins in your liver, preventing them from doing their job. Not only that, but smoking also reduces your liver’s capacity to conjugate glutathione, a substance that helps protect your liver from damage. Finally, smoking reduces the activity of enzymes that remove toxic substances from your blood, which means that more of those poisonous chemicals get absorbed by your liver.
As a result of all this, smoking can cause chronic inflammation in your liver, resulting in cirrhosis. Cirrhosis is a condition in which scar tissue develops in your liver, making it hard for it to function normally. Over time, cirrhosis can lead to liver failure and death.
Now that you understand the dangers of smoking, let’s talk about the risks of using a bong. You might be wondering that whether a gravity bong kit is good for lungs or not. basically, a gravity bong is filtered completely and provide a very less effect on human health. If you will inhale dry smoke then it will irritate throat but through a gravity glass bong, you will be able to get the best and smoothing experience.
Are bongs safer than smoking?
Bongs, or devices designed to help smokers inhale smoke, don’t actually reduce your risk of dying from cancer. Bongs are generally made of glass, which blocks off ultraviolet light, but they don’t block out visible light (which includes UV light). Visible light is responsible for photo-oxidation, which leads to free radicals that can attack your DNA, causing mutations and ultimately leading to cancer.
Some claim that bongs are safer than regular cigarettes because they contain fewer active ingredients. For example, some say that bongs are safer because they don’t contain nicotine. However, this isn’t true. Even if a bong doesn’t contain nicotine, it still contains tar, water, and other carcinogenic substances. These things are just as dangerous as nicotine, and they’re present in both regular cigarettes and bongs.
In fact, research has shown that using a bong is just as harmful as smoking cigarettes. A 2012 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) showed that bong users suffered from a higher rate of respiratory infections, similar to regular smokers. This suggests that bongs aren’t safe either, since they encourage you to inhale smoke.
