Electronic nicotine wordage systems (ENDs), moreover known as electronic cigarettes, e-cigarettes or vape pens, were introduced in the early 2000s as an volitional to tobacco products. Instead of generating smoke, these pocket-sized devices unhook nicotine with an vaporizer that looks like water vapor. But are vape pens "'healthier"' than cigarettes?
It depends. Experts told Live Science that they stipulate that "vaping" poses a small fraction of the risks of smoking. However, they stress that vape pens are not entirely safe, and we still do not know unbearable well-nigh the long-term effects of e-cigarette use.
It took decades of research to prove the harms of cigarettes after stuff introduced to the U.S. in the early 19th century, cigarettes were first linked to lung cancer and other diseases in the 1940s and 1950s. Vape pens have been on the market for less than 20 years, and complicating the situation, some vape liquids and types of ENDs may be increasingly harmful than others.
So how harmful are e-cigarettes? Here is everything we know so far well-nigh the potential health effects of vaping.
Smoking vs. vaping: Which is increasingly toxic?
Cigarettes contain tobacco leaves and other additives, such as flavorings and preservatives, that, when burned, generate up to 7,000 variegated chemicals, including hydrogen cyanide, arsenic, lead and stat monoxide, equal to the American Cancer Society (ACS).
Dozens of these harmful chemicals are carcinogens, or cancer-causing substances, most of which come from the tobacco leaves themselves, rather than the additives, equal to the ACS. Smoking cigarettes can increase the risk of several variegated types of cancer, as well as rationalization lung and heart disease. By contrast, nicotine, the haunting chemical in tobacco leaves, does not rationalization cancer, equal to the WHO; that said nicotine can have other harmful effects on the body, in wing to stuff highly addictive.
Vape pens come in many shapes and sizes, but they all work based on the same principle: A battery-powered cadre heats and then rapidly cools a vape liquid, moreover tabbed e-liquid or vape juice, creating a smoke-free vaporizer that a user inhales, or "vapes." Vape juice can contain nicotine that's either synthetic or derived from tobacco, but it doesn't contain tobacco leaves or other chemicals found in the plant.
Given both the lack of smoke and the lack of tobacco in e-cigarettes, people who completely switch from smoking to vaping tend to have lower exposure to toxic substances than do individuals who use cigarettes, Dr. Alayna Tackett, an teammate professor in the Division of Medical Oncology and the Center for Tobacco Research at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, told Live Science by email.
However, vape pen liquids can contain other substances that may form carcinogenic compounds when heated, she said.
How toxic is vape liquid?
Most e-liquids consist primarily of nicotine, flavorings and solvents, which generate vapor and alimony ingredients in suspension. However, the word-for-word sonnet of a specific e-liquid will largely depend on the brand's manufacturing process, equal to a 2021 review published in the periodical Pharmacology & Therapeutics. This makes it difficult to assess exactly how toxic e-liquids are.
The two most worldwide solvents used in e-liquids are propylene glycol and glycerol, which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) often recognizes as unscratched for human consumption. However, they may not be unscratched to inhale, the 2021 review states. Propylene glycol and glycerol are both airway irritants, meaning they may rationalization inflammation and other wrongheaded reactions in the respiratory system, the review authors wrote.
Similarly, while flavorings used in e-liquids are often unscratched to eat, no studies show they are unscratched to inhale as aerosols, and some may be dangerous to inhale, equal to the review. For example, the buttery-flavored recipe diacetyl was linked to a severe respiratory disease tabbed bronchiolitis obliterans a condition nicknamed "popcorn lung" considering workers at a microwave popcorn factory ripened the disease without inhaling diacetyl.
Both solvents and flavoring teachers may generate toxic byproducts, such as formaldehyde, a substance classified as a probable human carcinogen, the review authors wrote. Inhaling formaldehyde in upper doses can be harmful, and a 2017 study in the periodical PLOS One found that concentrations of formaldehyde from heated vape liquid solvents may exceed winning limits established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In theory, this may put ENDS users at a higher risk of cancer, but this cancer risk has not been unmistakably demonstrated in research.
As noted previously, most e-liquids moreover have varying levels of nicotine. Considering tobacco smoke has a relatively low nicotine concentration and is harsh on the lungs, it is difficult to overdose on the haunting chemical when smoking cigarettes. Vape pens, however, can contain upper concentrations of nicotine, and users can often dial up the value of nicotine delivered in a single puff.
As a result, vaping may increase the risk of nicotine overdose, the review authors noted. Nicotine overdose, or nicotine poisoning, is a condition whose symptoms include muscle twitching, fainting, vomiting, heart palpitations, seizures and difficulty breathing. If it triggers severe unbearable symptoms, nicotine poisoning can sometimes be deadly, equal to Mount Sinai.
A 2014 study by the CDC revealed a significant uptick in nicotine vape pen-related calls to poison tenancy centers the number of calls increased from one per month in September 2010 to 215 per month in February 2014, while the number of calls involving cigarettes remained steady over that time.
Can vape liquid get contaminated?
Vape pens themselves can moreover contaminate e-liquids. Repetitive heating of the device's cadre can rationalization nickel, copper, iron and other metals to slip into the aerosol; zoetic in such metals could lead to an increased risk of cancer, kidney damage, heart disease and neurological disorders, equal to the Pharmacology & Therapeutics review.
The risk of metal contamination may be higher for sealed pod ENDs, which have replaceable e-liquid cartridges, than in removable vape pens designed to be used for a while and then tossed. And the metal contamination from a pod type e-cigarette may transpiration wideness its lifetime, equal to a 2023 study in the periodical Toxics. Researchers found that the longer the device was used, the higher were the concentrations of hazardous metals in its vapor.
In addition, black-market vaping products containing THC (the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana) have sometimes been contaminated with vitamin E acetate, a synthetic form of vitamin E. Likely introduced by manufacturers as a way to dilute the THC content of vape juice, vitamin E acetate was linked to a major outbreak of vaping-related illness that hit the U.S. in 2019.
What diseases have been linked to e-cigarettes?
People who smoke cigarettes would be largest off switching to e-cigarettes if they are still using nicotine and haven't had success with other substitutes, like nicotine gum. However, for those who have never smoked, it remains unclear what the health implications might be from vaping.
The vestige is limited and we do not have studies showing the long term impact of vaping, Hazel Cheeseman, deputy senior executive of Action on Smoking and Health, a soft-heartedness set up by the Royal College of Physicians in the U.K. to promote smoking abstinence, told Live Science by email.
That said, preliminary research suggests that vaping may raise the risk of unrepealable health conditions.
Lung injury and lung disease
E-cigarettes may lead to irreversible lung forfeiture and lung disease, equal to the American Lung Association.
For example, vaping can sometimes rationalization E-cigarette- or Vaping Product-Associated Lung Injury (EVALI), equal to a 2020 review published by The American Periodical of Medicine. Symptoms of EVALI include shortness of breath, cough, chest pain, nausea, rectal pain, fever and chills. Up to one-third of patients admitted to an intensive superintendency unit with the condition require mechanical ventilation, the review authors noted. The rationalization of EVALI is not fully understood, though it appears that vitamin E acetate plays a inside role. However, other compounds found in both nicotine- and THC-containing vape liquids may moreover contribute to the condition, equal to Yale Medicine.
In addition, e-cigarette use has been linked to lung diseases, including pneumonia, respiratory bronchiolitis-associated interstitial lung disease (an inflammatory disease previously seen mainly in heavy tobacco smokers), and hypersensitivity pneumonitis (a type of allergic reaction in the lungs), equal to a 2022 review published in the periodical Annual Review of Physiology.
Vape pen use may moreover weaken the lungs' immune defenses and increase the risk of infections with pathogens, including the influenza virus and Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria, equal to a 2022 review published in the periodical Cureus.
Lastly, studies suggest that e-cigarettes may worsen symptoms of asthma in adolescents with the condition, equal to a 2023 review published in the periodical Current Opinion in Allergy and Clinical Immunology. However, increasingly research is needed to understand this effect.
Eye disorders
Exposure to e-cigarette vapor may moreover lead to eye disorders, equal to a 2021 review published in the periodical International Ophthalmology. Studies suggest that e-liquid substances such as aldehydes and flavorings may forfeiture the eyes' tear mucosa and lead to inflammation, worsening of the sight and reduced thoroughbred spritz to the eye, equal to the article. However, increasingly research is needed to understand what exactly is causing these effects.
Scientists are getting closer to understanding the link between e-cigarette use and eye disorders. For example, a 2021 mice study published in the Journal of Molecular Medicine found that full-body exposure to vape vapor may prompt the immune system to release increasingly cytokines - chemical messengers that induce inflammation - which then yaffle in the superficial parts of the eye responsible for light absorption, as well as nourishment and protection of the deeper eye tissues. Animals exposed to e-cigarettes had a particularly upper level of cytokines interleukin 1 beta (IL-1) and tumor necrosis factor start (TNF-), compounds that may forfeiture the soft-hued windbreak that regulates the transport of nutrients between the eye and the bloodstream, the study authors wrote.
Tooth decay
Very little research has been washed-up on the impact of vaping on oral health. However, preliminary evidence suggests that people who vape are increasingly at risk of developing cavities than those who do not vape or smoke, Dr. Sam Jethwa, the vice president of The British Association of Cosmetic Dentistry, told Live Science by email.
When people inhale during vaping, the sugar in some vaping liquid sticks to the teeth, causing forfeiture to the tooth enamel. Vape liquid may moreover transpiration the microbiome of the mouth, making it increasingly hospitable to decay-causing bacteria, Jethwa told Live Science. Vaping moreover appears to encourage tooth waste in areas where it usually does not occur, such as the marrow edges of front teeth rather than the deep grooves of the when teeth, he said.
Vaping can moreover subtract saliva production and rationalization dry mouth, which is a known suburbanite of cavities. "Saliva provides a natural lubrication for the mouth and helps to neutralize the wounding that can waste tooth enamel," Jethwa said.
DNA forfeiture and cancer
