WEDNESDAY, August. 16th 2023 (HealthDay News) If teens use vapes, their lungs have to pay for the damage, say researchers.
The alarm comes from an in-depth analysis of the habits of smoking that were shared by more than 2000 U.S. teens during a number of surveys conducted over the past year.
The conclusion: When you compare them with teenagers who’ve never used vaping and reported smoking electronic cigarettes within the prior month to the survey their chances of shortness of breath and wheezing increase by around 80 percent.
Vapers had a higher danger of developing symptoms that indicate asthma, according to the study. Most of the threats in respiratory health that were linked to smoking vapes held true in the absence of whether teens also used tobacco or marijuana.
“While e-cigarettes likely have fewer negative health impacts than traditional cigarettes, they are not risk-free, especially for youth or young adults who have never used any other tobacco product,” stated the study’s lead author Alayna Tackett. She’s a child psychologist and researcher at the Center for Tobacco Research at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center located situated in Columbus.
Tackett and her coworkers explored the effects of vaping on the health of respiratory systems by looking at the results of four years’ worth of surveys conducted through the Southern California Children’s Health Study between 2014 and the year 2018.
In total, around 1700 teenagers participated during the annual poll but the analysis was focused on around 2,100 teenagers evenly split between girls and boys at an average teenager age 17.
Each year, adolescents were asked to rate their use of e-cigarettes and traditional cigarette consumption. (Cannabis consumption was also evaluated However, only in 2017 and 2018.) Teens were also questioned whether they had respiratory health issues.
These included wheezing throughout the first year before being assessed and a feeling of having short breath while hurrying around or climbing an ascending slope. The diagnosis of bronchitis in the following 12 months or symptoms that suggested of bronchitis also were noted such as phlegm or congestion without a cold, or constant coughing for three months in a row.
For the period of study, which lasted four years the use of electronic cigarettes increased between 12% and 16% in the sample.
The number of teenagers suffering from bronchitis also was observed to increase during the course of the study increasing from around 20 percent in the year 2014, to 26% by the end of 2018.
The experts found that wheezing as well as breath shortness was 81 percent and 78% respectively, and more common in users of vaping. Vapers were twice as likely to experience bronchitis-related concerns.
Yet, might some of these tobacco-related lung health risks relate to other things such as smoking tobacco, cannabis and exposure to secondhand smoke, or chronic asthma?
It’s not as clear. After weighing all these aspects, the group concluded that, while the connection between vaping and risk for respiratory disease could be “slightly” less strong, it was “significant.” The sole exception was wheezing, a threat for which there was is no longer caused directly by smoking vape.
Tackett and colleagues released their research results in August. 15. issue Thorax.
Researchers did point out that the results were only based on observations made by the self which is why they cannot be regarded as conclusive evidence that smoking cigarettes harms the health of your lungs.
At this point, Gregory Conley, a spokesperson of the American Vapor Manufacturers Association, said he was.
“The reliance on self-reported data and the lack of control over examined variables limit the conclusions that can be drawn,” Conley declared. “Correlation does not equal causation, and more rigorous research is needed to establish a clear link between vaping and respiratory concerns.”
However, determining whether the products that are used to vape result in injury “is premature, given the potential confounding factors and competing body of literature involved,” said the researcher.
However, Tackett said, “it is known that e-cigarette aerosol contains substances that harm the lungs, including flavorings and oxidant metals with known pulmonary toxicity.” This is due to the fact that vaping exploded onto the market in such a short time that researchers are working to catch up to fully comprehend the scope of health risks that smoking vaping is, according to her research.
In the meantime “regulation of these [e-cigarette] products should be done with thoughtful consideration, to balance potential benefits of e-cigarettes as a potential smoking cessation tool and the risk to health, especially for younger users,” Tackett stated.
This idea was echoed by Aruni Bhatnagar who is co-director of the American Heart Association’s Tobacco Center for Regulatory Science as well as the primary investigator of the Cardiovascular Injury Due to Tobacco Use project.
“From a regulatory point of view, it may be important to identify the harmful or potentially harmful substances in e-cigarettes,” the expert stated. “And to minimize their levels in — or their production during — vaping, to decrease the respiratory toxicity and irritation caused by e-cigarettes.”
In the meantime in terms of keeping teens’ lung health in check, “the most effective solution is to stop vaping completely,” suggested Bhatnagar.
At that point, Conley agreed yet again.
“While vaping products offer massive harm reduction for smokers — so much so that the Food and Drug Administration has authorized certain vaping products as appropriate for public health — they are not risk-free and should not be used by youth,” He said.
Additional information
More information on vaping and youth on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
SOURCES: Alayna Tackett, Ph.D., a psychologist for children and researcher at the Department of internal medicine Division of Medical Oncology, Center for Tobacco Research, The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbus; Aruni Bhatnagar, PhD Professor of Medicine in the division of cardiovascular medicine, division of medicine, director of the Diabetes and Obesity Center, University of Louisville, Kentucky and co-director, The American Heart Association’s Tobacco Center for Regulatory Science; Gregory Conley, director of the department of political and external affairs American Vapor Manufacturers Association; Thorax August. 15th 2023