E-cigarettes ‘are NOT safe for your lungs’: Scientists discover vapers are nearly TWICE as likely to wheeze which can lead to acid reflux, heart failure and even cancer
- Vapers are 1.7 times more likely to wheeze as non-users and non-smokers
- Nearly 13% of adults in the US have tried vaping and 4% still use e-cigarettes
- In the UK, 19.4% of adults have tried them and 5.5% are regular vapers
E-cigarettes are not safe for your lungs, researchers have declared on the back of another worrying study into vaping.
Scientists found vapers are nearly twice as likely to suffer wheezing and difficulty breathing than those who do not smoke or use e-cigs.
These symptoms occur when the airways become inflamed and narrow, which can lead to COPD, acid reflux, heart failure and even lung cancer.
While e-cigarettes are generally thought to be less harmful than cigarettes, studies have linked their use to heart disease and cancer.
E-cigarettes ’cause signs of lung damage’, scientists have warned (stock)
The latest research, by the University of Rochester Medical Center, adds to the growing fears over the devices.
‘The take-home message is electronic cigarettes are not safe when it comes to lung health,’ study author Dr Deborah Ossip, a professor in the department of public health sciences, said.
‘The changes we’re seeing with vaping, both in laboratory experiments and studies of people who vape, are consistent with early signs of lung damage, which is very worrisome.’
Vaping is on the rise, with nearly 13 per cent of adults in the US having tried e-cigarettes, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.
And in the UK, 19.4 per cent of adults have tried an e-cig and 5.5 per cent still vape, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Figures have also shown a dramatic uptake of vaping among young people, with e-cig use rising by 78 per cent last year in those aged 14-to-17 in the US.
To better understand the safety of vaping, the researchers analysed 28,171 adults from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health study.
Of which, 641 were vapers, 8,525 were smokers, 1,106 were ‘dual users’ and the remaining 17,899 did not use e-cigs or tobacco.
Results – published in the journal Tobacco Control – revealed vapers were 1.7 times more likely to experience wheezing and other respiratory symptoms.
This remained true even after adjusting for factors like BMI and secondhand smoke exposure.
But the vapers were less at risk than the smokers and dual users were just as at risk as the smokers.
The researchers stressed, however, they relied on the participants’ memories, with them being asked to recall whether they suffered wheezing after vaping.
There is also no evidence that e-cigarettes directly cause breathing difficulties, with the scientists just finding a link between the two.
Diet and activity levels can also influence our wheezing risk, and were not included in the study.
Despite the study’s limitations, author Dr Irfan Rahman – professor of environmental medicine – maintains the results are worrying.
Small, sleek vaping devices like Juuls, which are used alongside flavoured nicotine pods, may lead to allergies and poor immunity, he claims.
E-cigarette emissions and flavourings have previously been linked to lung cell damage.