Smoking isn’t good for you. However, e-cigarettes, with their sleek, USB bodies and fruit-flavored cartridges, promised a sweeter, safer future, with no tar, no combustion, and no problem. But that picture is getting more and more complicated. We have warned you about the health risks of vaping on numerous occasions.
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced that it is opening an investigation into the health effects of smoking e-cigarettes, after nearly one hundred teenagers in fourteen states reported lung illnesses related to vaping. The cases, which were primarily reported among teenagers and young adults, were so severe that some patients were hospitalized and put on ventilators, yet e-cig are routinely marketed toward teens.
RELATED STORY:
A study out Tuesday in the journal Radiology comes not a moment too soon. In it, researchers show that inhaling e-cigarette vapor – just the vapor, without any nicotine or flavorings—has an IMMEDIATE and NEGATIVE impact on the vascular system. For example, it found changes in blood flow within the femoral artery in the leg after just one use.
Still, not much is known about the harms associated with e-cigarettes. Obviously nicotine is harmful even when it isn’t smoked, and vaping nicotine is still highly addictive. It can harm the development of adolescent brains, and can even cause seizures. However, e-cigarettes contain more than nicotine, and so far most of research has overlooked how these other ingredients affect users.
RELATED STORY:
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine tried to break it down. They removed nicotine and flavorings and just looked at what inhaling that basic vapor does to a person’s blood vessels. According to Felix W. Wehrli, study author and professor of radiologic science and biophysics:
After a few minutes, everything normalizes. One could say, big deal, nothing happens. But if someone vapes regularly there’s a possibility that, over time, things might not go back to normal as readily. The changes his team measured in 31 people, who had never vaped or smoked, reflect “the same processes … known to be initiating steps in the development of cardiovascular disease, including atherosclerosis. But that takes years to develop.1
E-cigarettes first appeared on the market in 2007 and in the years since, widespread vaping among teens has become a major problem. The CDC estimates that one in five high school students use e-cigarettes. From 2017 to 2018, e-cigarette use among teenagers increased by more than 75 percent. In fact, the US Surgeon General has called it an “epidemic.”
RELATED STORY:
Dr. Robert Jackler, founder of Stanford Research Into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising, said at a congressional hearing last month:
Nobody knows what it does to the human lung to breathe in and out aerosolized propylene glycol and glycerin over and over. It’s an experiment, frankly. We will find out, years from now, the results.1
RELATED STORY:
Erika Sward, a spokesperson for the American Lung Association says inhaling chemicals into your lungs is dangerous. The organization does not recommend that anyone use e-cigarettes. The ALA recommends patches, gums, or counseling for those looking to quit smoking, rather than turning to e-cigarettes. Sward added:
E-cigarettes are guilty until proven innocent and we are very much in the guilty stage.1
The scientific evidence is mounting, but it is not keeping up with the growth of the e-cigarette market. On Monday, a regulatory filing showed that Juul raised another $325 million to expand its business worldwide.
