A study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University researchers reported that vaping aerosols tend to contain thousands of chemicals and substances which are unknown and not disclosed by manufacturers.
Titled, “Characterizing the Chemical Landscape in Commercial E-Cigarette Liquids and Aerosols by Liquid Chromatography–High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry,” the study reported that the unknown substances can include industrial chemicals and caffeine. “That might be giving smokers an extra kick that is not disclosed. We wonder if they are adding it intentionally,” said lead study author Mina Tehrani, a postdoctoral fellow in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, referring to the caffeine.
Published in the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology, the results suggest that vapers could be exposing themselves to a number of undesired chemicals and their respective adverse health effects. Besides caffeine, the research team team found three industrial chemicals, a pesticide and two flavour substances linked with possible toxic effects and respiratory irritation.
“People just need to know that they’re inhaling a very complex mixture of chemicals when they vape. And for a lot of these compounds we have no idea what they actually are,” Prasse said. “I have a problem with how vaping is being marketed as more healthy than smoking cigarettes. In my opinion we are just not at the point when we can really say that,” added senior study author Carsten Prasse.
Rat study suggests vaping may impair blood vessels
Another recent study, “Titled, “P355 – Comparable Impairment Of Vascular Endothelial Function By A Wide Range Of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Devices,” reported that aerosol from vaping products may impair blood vessels to an extent comparable to that from smoke.
The research team exposed 11 groups of rats with eight rats in each group, to e-cig vapour, cigarette smoke and clean air, and measured their flow-mediated dilation (FMD), an indicator of endothelial function and overall blood vessel health, by ultrasound.
News-Medical said the researchers reported the following findings:
·“After only one five-minute session of exposure, endothelial function in the rats was acutely impaired by aerosols from all vaping products. Vessel dilation fell between 40% and 67% for all groups except the rats exposed to the clean air.
·This blood vessel impairment in vaping products was comparable to the impairment caused by traditional cigarettes (67%).”
A learning module designed for high schools
Meanwhile, the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine has developed a new learning module for high school classrooms, that enables students to test the effects of e-cigarette vapour on living cells.
The module was developed by the Advancing Secondary Science Education Through Tetrahymena (ASSET) program, and funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).”We created this module in direct response to the vaping epidemic spreading among teens and children,” said Dr. Donna Cassidy-Hanley, a senior research associate and program manager of the program.