Duncan Garner: Don't be fooled by vapes, the so-called 'alternative' to cigarettes

OPINION: Is vaping safe? Well, short answer, no. Does it look cool? Only if you're totally deluded.

Phone in one hand, sucking on the end of some toxic tool in the other - just don't drive like that, you may find it all a bit of a distraction.

These vapes, what are they and are they better than cigarettes?

Vapes are aerosols and we are told yes, they are better than cigarettes which hold thousands of cancer-causing addictive toxins.

But it's a low bar, a very very low bar as cigarettes have directly caused hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide.

If you want to die early, start smoking. So we hit smoking hard and in came vapes, a so-called alternative.

But don't be fooled by them, either.

In America, a person died this week from a respiratory disease that could be due to vaping, and here in New Zealand, we have tobacco company Phillip Morris attempting to give away vaping devices to the poor.

Of course they are. They are trying to keep their business alive, but be wary of tobacco companies bearing gifts.

We have rushed to these vapes thinking everything will be ok, at least it's not smoking, and that's true, but these vapes reportedly have cancer-causing ingredients too, and I'm bloody angry we've just allowed them to take hold.

Someone in their teenage years and very close to me who shall not be named has taken this up. Why? I have no idea. Let's investigate more into these vapes.

Tell us the truth about them, put the information in front of the public. Then decide - if they are the answer, then open the floodgates by all means, but until then, we just don't know.

They have snuck into New Zealand as the answer to our smoking woes, and I'm totally unconvinced.

Duncan Garner is host of The AM Show.