arminstaudt/123RF
Vaping is on the rise especially among teens who are hitting their Juuls before, during and after class. This newfound adolescent experimentation has kicked off a renewed interest in the safety of vaping. Often touted as a safer alternative to cigarette smoking, there is a lot of hysteria and misconceptions surrounding vaping and its health effects. Is vaping safe? We combed the recent medical and scientific literature to see what the latest science has to say. Here’s what we found.
E-cig vapor contains fewer toxic substances than cigarette smoke does
It’s been well documented that cigarette smoke contains a variety of poisonous and carcinogenic compounds, but what about the vapor from e-cigarettes? A 2014 study tested 21 different e-cig liquids and found that e-cigarette vapors did contain toxic compounds, but at a level that was 9–450 times lower than cigarette smoke. In fact, many of the vapors were no higher than the reference product which served as the baseline for measurement. That’s good news for people who are quitting smoking and vaping instead.
Toxins in e-cig vapor may be absorbed into the body
Previous studies show that e-cig vapor contains low amounts of toxic and carcinogenic compounds, but what happens to these substances when these are inhaled? A March 2018 study published in Pediatrics examined the urine and saliva of adolescent subjects to find out. Their research showed that teens who both smoked cigarettes and vaped had the highest levels of toxins and carcinogens when compared to e-cig user and non-smokers. Teens who only smoked e-cigs were not spared as they also had elevated levels of potentially harmful compounds such as acrylonitrile, acrolein, propylene oxide, acrylamide, and crotonaldehyde.
“The presence of harmful ingredients in e-cigarette vapor has been established; we can now say that these chemicals are found in the body of human adolescents who use these products,” concluded the authors of the study. We still don’t know whether the levels of these toxic an carcinogenic chemicals will have a long-term effect on the body. Only time will tell.
Vaping may increase your risk of heart attack
Vaping may give you a buzz and calm your nerves, but what it does to your cardiovascular health is concerning. A small study by researchers at Karolinska Institute revealed that vaping with nicotine produced a significant increase in heart rate, blood pressure, and arterial stiffness. A combination that later in life can lead to heart attack and stroke.
A follow-up study in 2018 by UCSF professor of medicine Stanton Glantz expanded the scope of the research by looking at the survey results from 70,000 people. After taking into account other demographics and health factors such as hypertension, diabetes, and high cholesterol, Glantz found that daily e-cig use doubles your chance of a heart attack. This risk is only slightly lower than daily cigarette use which triples your risk.
The worst combination is vaping and smoking cigarettes every day, which increases your heart attack risk fivefold. There is a silver lining, though: If you only use e-cigs occasionally, then you have little to worry about as your heart attack risk does not significantly change. Another piece of good news? This risk disappears as soon as you stop vaping.
Flavorings taste good, but they’re not good for your lungs
The favorite flavoring agent Cinnamaldehyde is the chemical that gives cinnamon its characteristic smell and taste. It’s deemed safe for use in food products, and has therefore found its way into many popular e-cigarette flavors — but little research has looked what happens to Cinnamaldehyde when is it vaporized and inhaled.
A team of researchers University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill explored this question and discovered that Cinnamaldehyde disrupted the function of the cilia in lung cells that were grown in a lab. Inside our bodies, these cilia are critical to our respiratory system because they remove bacteria and other foreign substances from the lungs, Without functional cilia, people are at significantly higher risk of developing bronchitis and lung infections.
Lead study author Phillip Clapp, Ph.D. points out that most flavoring agents are reactive aldehydes that are similar to Cinnamaldehyde. They also are added in very high concentration. If Cinnamaldehyde has this profound of an effect on the lungs, then it is possible these other flavorings may have the same deleterious effect, too. Further study is needed to either confirm or refute these findings — though it’s worth noting that lung damage isn’t necessarily the only harm flavorings might cause. Other experiments suggest that flavoring compounds might also be harmful to blood cells.
Vaping often leads to cigarette use in teens, but not adults
Vaping was introduced as a way for people to kick the smoking habit without giving up their love of smoking. They could inhale the tasty liquid vapor of an e-cigarette and avoid the harmful toxins and carcinogens that come from tobacco smoke. While adults often stick to e-cigs after giving up regular cigarettes, teens often do the opposite. Teens are turning up their noses at cigarettes and choosing to vape instead. Once they start using e-cigs, teens are six times more likely than non-smokers to start smoking once they reached legal age, according to a 2016 study by researchers at the University of Southern California.
Editors’ Recommendations
- The best e-cigarettes
- The best vaporizers for flower and concentrates
- The numbers don’t lie: Facebook is faltering. So what will eventually replace it?
- The ThinkPad X1 Extreme might be my dream laptop
- The MacBook’s keyboard sucks, so use this mechanical keyboard instead