Horizons
More Evidence Against Vaping
The similarities to cigarettes keep mounting: A new study ɿnds vaping
makes the lungs as vulnerable to infections as smoking the traditional way
amid more than 50 deaths
and thousands of hospitaliza-
tions in the U.S. attributed to e-cig-
arette- or vaping- associated lung
injury, and the CDC’s recommen-
dation to refrain from all vaping
products pending their investiga-
tion, comes a new study.
Scientists found that vaping may
carry the same risk as cigarette
smoke when it comes to making the
lungs more susceptible to infections,
and they published this research in
mid-December in the journal Respi-
ratory Research.
Vaping is the inhalation of a
heated liquid, which becomes aero-
solized. It was intro-
duced to the market in
the U.S. in 2007, and
according to Euromon-
itor International, the
number of vapers has
increased from about 7
million in 2011 to 41 million in 2018.
To reach their conclusion,
researchers grew bacteria in a lab and
exposed them to e-cigarette vapor
and cigarette smoke.
The bugs in question—Haemoph-
ilus influenzae, Streptococcus pneu-
moniae, Staphylococcus aureus and
Pseudomonas aeruginosa—can live in
the lungs without causing problems.
But the bacteria can cause a “toxic
mix of infection and inflammation” in
the lungs of people who already have
conditions such as Chronic Obstruc-
tive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), bron-
chitis and asthma, study co-author Dr.
Deirdre Gilpin of the School of Phar-
macy at Queen’s University Belfast
told Newsweek.
“This can result in the lungs becom-
ing damaged and not able to function
well,” Gilpin said.
However, when the team exposed
the bacteria to cigarette smoke and
e-cigarette vapor, they became more
virulent, or potentially harmful, in a
way that could cause diseases such as
COPD and asthma, Gilpin explained.
While she didn’t expect this, Gil-
pin found the changes in bacteria
exposed to e-cigarette vapor to be
the same—and sometimes greater—
than those seen with cigarette smoke.
“This suggests that vap-
ing may carry the same
risk as cigarette smoke
in increasing the sus-
ceptibility to bacteria
infection,” Gilpin said.
However, she also
highlighted that both the smoke and
vapor were generated in the lab in
the same way. But in real life, people
smoke and vape differently, as the
latter requires a deeper inhalation,
and people may vape for longer at
each session.
“It’s possible that the effects we
observed with vape could be poten-
tially greater in real life,” she said.
Gilpin added that there are thou-
sands of different e-cigarette fla-
vors on the market, some of which
are toxic. Investigating these in the
future and with more patient sam-
ples is “really important,” she said.
BYKASHMIRA GANDER
@kashmiragander
HEALTH
PASCAL.I
S=2Nʔ
*ETT<42 NEWSWEEK.COM JANUARY 17, 2020