E-Cigarettes Linked With Long-Term Risk of Respiratory Disease, Study Shows

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In previous reports of Latin Post last month it was highlighted that the number of vape-related deaths had surged in the recent months. This is because e-cigarettes contain a toxin that is called Vitamin E acetate, which is very harmful when inhaled.

In the same article, it was reported that young adults and teenagers are most likely to be affected by the effects of e-cigarettes or vaping. There have been many calls to ban the use of e-cigarettes worldwide due to its pandemic effect.

In an article published in CNN Health, a new study found that the use of e-cigarettes for a long period is associated with respiratory diseases that include Chronic Obstructive Pulomonary Disease or COPD. This study is among the first of its kind in establishing a significant relationship between the use of e-cigarette and respiratory diseases. This study is published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine on Monday. Moreover, the study is the result of three years of examination and empirical observation.

Senior author of the study and director of University of California in San Francisco's Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education Stanton Glantz said: "I was a little surprised that we could find evidence on incident lung disease in the longitudinal study because three years is a while but most studies that look at the development of lung disease go over 10 to 20 years." 

He also said that this study took them three years to establish the link between the use of e-cigarettes and respiratory diseases and if given to conduct a study in another five years, the result will even be bigger. In the said study, the data were collected from 2013 to 2016 from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health. The study involved 32,320 adults who were asked if they were told by professionals that they have a lung problem and if they were using e-cigarettes or combustible tobacco.

Glantz said: "The risks of e-cigarettes and cigarettes are independent of each other, and so if you're a dual user -- meaning you're smoking and using e-cigarettes at the same time -- you have the risks of smoking multiplied by the risks of e-cigarette use," He also added that "The odds of developing lung disease for the e-cigarette users was increased by about a factor of 1.3, and for the smokers, it was about 1.6. If you're a dual user, it's 3.3." 

However, the methodology of the study is somehow questioned because the data is based on self-reported and not from their personal physicians which somehow lends showing bias. The pediatrician and medical director of the Substance Use and Prevention Program in "even these components that seem like they should be safe, we have no idea what they do once they're heated up, aerosolized and broken down into their byproducts, and what effect those have, especially when they're broken down into teeny tiny ultrafine particles that can go into deep parts of the lung." a Children's Hospital in Chicago, Dr. Maria Rahmandar, said that they are still learning so much about e-cigarettes. 

She also said that when it comes to vaping e-liquids, "even these components that seem like they should be safe, we have no idea what they do once they're heated up, aerosolized and broken down into their byproducts, and what effect those have, especially when they're broken down into teeny tiny ultrafine particles that can go into deep parts of the lung."