Recent studies have found that harmful substances in many vaping products could increase the risk of heart attack, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and addiction, especially among teens. The use of electronic cigarettes has gained a lot of steam over the past several years, most notably among teens and young adults.
Full Answer
What are the negative health effects of vaping?
The short-term side effects of using nicotine vapes are usually:
- Lingering aftertaste
- Light-headedness
- Sweating
- Headache
- Nausea and vomiting
- High blood pressure
- Increased heart rate
What are the health hazards of vaping?
- Scientists are still learning about the long-term health effects of e-cigarettes.
- Some of the ingredients in e-cigarette aerosol could also be harmful to the lungs in the long-term. ...
- Defective e-cigarette batteries have caused some fires and explosions, a few of which have resulted in serious injuries.
Why vaping is bad for health?
Vaping can increase your exposure to chemicals that could harm your health (e.g. cause lung damage). Vaping could also expose you to nicotine, which is addictive. There are also concerns about the appeal of vaping products among youth and their potential to promote tobacco use. If you are a smoker, vaping is a less harmful option than smoking.
What are the health concerns of vaping?
Vaping Health Risks. There are many health risks associated with vaping. Vape products often contain high levels of nicotine, which can lead to addiction and even serious illnesses. The batteries used in some vape products can also explode, causing burns, scarring, and death.
Why is vaping so difficult?
How to help a teenager who is vaping?
Why is vaping so popular among teens?
How long does a vape last?
What is an e-cigarette?
How to tell if a child is vaping?
Is vaping bad for teens?
See 4 more
About this website
4 Major Health Risks Linked To E-Cigarette Use - WebMD
E-cigarette use, or "vaping," has been linked to lung, heart, brain, and gum illnesses. While using e-cigarettes ("vaping") may be healthier than smoking traditional cigarettes, users still face ...
Health Risks Of Vaping: Let's Stick To The Science And Speculate Less
A growing body of evidence gathered over the last 15 years has shown that using an electronic cigarette ("vaping") is probably far safer than smoking and likely to help smokers quit their deadly habit forever. Certain segments of the public health establishment have reacted oddly to these results—they've ignored them and treated vaping as a serious threat.
What are vaping devices?
Vaping devices, also known as e-cigarettes, vape pens, and e-hookahs among other terms, come in many shapes and sizes. Some look like traditional cigarettes, cigars, or pipes. Others are shaped like every-day objects, such as pens or USB memory sticks.
What chemicals are in vaping?
Vaping exposes the lungs to a variety of chemicals. These may include the main active chemicals in tobacco (nicotine) or marijuana (THC), flavorants, and other ingredients that are added to vaping liquids. Plus, other chemicals can be produced during the vaporizing process.
How old do you have to be to vape?
New laws are aimed at curbing vaping among teens. People must now be 21 to buy any tobacco product, including vaping products. And companies can no longer produce and sell flavors that appeal to children like fruit and mint. If you’ve already started vaping or smoking cigarettes, it’s never too late to quit.
Can nicotine be inhaled in a vaporizer?
Plus, other chemicals can be produced during the vaporizing process. “If the liquid has nicotine in it, then the user is inhaling nicotine along with the other ingredients in the liquid,” explains Dr. Thomas Eissenberg, an expert on tobacco research at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Is vaping harmful?
So how safe is vaping? Studies suggest nicotine vaping may be less harmful than traditional cigarettes when people who regularly smoke switch to them as a complete replacement. But nicotine vaping could still damage your health.
Is it too late to quit smoking?
If you’ve already started vaping or smoking cigarettes, it’s never too late to quit. See the Wise Choices box for tips on stopping.
Is vitamin E acetate harmful?
One harmful chemical may be a thickening agent called Vitamin E acetate, which is sometimes used as an additive in THC-containing vape products. The CDC identified it as a “chemical of concern” among people with vaping-associated lung injuries.
Who invented vaping?
The invention of vaping is attributed to Herbert Gilbert, a cigarette smoker and scrap metal dealer from Pennsylvania. Gilbert’s device was battery-powered to vaporize a liquid for inhalation, very similar to modern electronic cigarettes. He admitted to the Smithsonianmagazine that he believed it to be a breakthrough alternative to cigarette smoking to save people from tobacco’s harmful effects as it did not contain nicotine. After multiple permutations, the device was never mass-produced but its patent has been cited by many companies since then. He actually proposed an alternative use for the device for people that were dieting and believed that they could vaporize the tastes of their favorite foods to quench food cravings. He initially proposed a handful of flavorings including cinnamon, rum, orange, and mint.1–2A year after the patent was submitted in 1963, the Surgeon General Luther Terry released his report “Smoking and Health” on the potential health consequences of cigarette smoking. This was the first report implicating cigarettes in a causal relationship with lung cancer and heart disease as well as laryngeal cancer and chronic bronchitis.3
What is the basic design of vaping?
The basic design of the device, in the case of vaping both tobacco and marijuana, is largely unchanged from the original patent by Gilbert. There is a reservoir that holds an oil or liquid, a mouthpiece, and a heating element. Theoretically, vaporizing the liquid does not combust it and saves the person va ping from exposure to byproducts generated by high heat . However, there is no regulation of these devices and no agreed upon standard temperature. There appears to be a wide variance in the quality of the components of these devices depending on the price of purchase.2,10,11,16,28
Is vaping harmful?
Good clinical evidence is lacking regarding the potential harm of vaping or the potential benefits. There are some problems with studying something like vaping. For one thing, any research has to make a distinction between vaporizing marijuana and vaporizing tobacco and this is not always possible. Additionally, the methods by which people vaporize tobacco and marijuana differ. As far as tobacco devices go, there are many brands with many different compositions and construction designs. Regarding the vaporization of marijuana, there are no standardized devices and there are no standard formulations.
Is vaping safer than smoking?
With the current body of evidence and the outbreak of EVALI in 2019, it is incumbent upon all healthcare practitioners to advise patients that vaping should not be considered safer than smoking and that there are very real and new dangers associated with vaping that still require further study. Providers must learn more about the dangers of vaping and identify adverse health effects from this practice in patients. An evidence-based approach to smoking cessation based on established data and practice patterns is needed.
Is vaping bad for you?
All of the medical dangers of vaping are unknown. Only a small number of people who admit to vaping marijuana are doing so for medical reasons, and there are almost no studies. A large number of people believe that vaping tobacco is a healthy way to quit, and this belief has been fostered by the tobacco industry.6,14There is no strong clinical signal in the direction of using electronic cigarettes as an effective method of quitting smoking. It is difficult to hold an informed discussion with patients about the potential risks and benefits of vaping. Potential risks come from multiple places: device specific concerns, the makeup of the liquid products being vaporized, and the potential for toxicity of both nicotine and marijuana when inhaled in concentrated forms.
Is vaping marijuana safe?
The studies on the safety or dangers of vaporizing marijuana are limited in number because the marijuana itself is difficult to acquire. There were a small number of the plants released in the early 90s for clinical research.12Most of those studies utilized the same device, manufactured under the name “Volcano”. This device is expensive and is drastically different from any of the modern handheld devices for vaporizing marijuana and tobacco. It does not serve as a good facsimile for comparison to modern day vaporization technology. Many of the clinical research studies available focus on aspects of vaping such as the amount of nicotine or marijuana delivered but there’s not a great deal of evidence on the analysis of other toxins released both from vaporizing tobacco leaf products and marijuana. With all of these limitations, most of the available studies are non-clinical or have very small numbers of study subjects. A strong and thorough assessment of the potential dangers of vaporizing tobacco and marijuana products has not been forthcoming.12,13
Is vaping a good way to quit smoking?
A final cultural consideration of vaporization of tobacco is the misunderstanding that vaporizing tobacco is somehow a viable way to quit smoking cigarettes. No clinical trials have been able to show that vaping helps reduce cigarette smoking, but there are some trials that show that dual-use is common and that many people who start vaping with the intention to quit smoking end up smoking cigarettes and vaping tobacco. They are acquiring the risk profiles of both activities without benefit.8It is common to see patients in this group feel somehow encouraged that through vaping they have been able to reduce their intake of combustible cigarettes, with no consideration to the unknown possible dangers of vaporizing.9
Is smoking in school decreasing?
The basic data are already familiar to anyone who has followed youth tobacco research. Smoking prevalence among school-age children has been in steady decline for many years, with the NYTS data indicating that it still had not bottomed out as of 2020. Use of smokeless tobacco, never very popular among teens, also fell. But the widespread availability of e-cigarettes beginning in about 2013 fueled a surge in use by high-schoolers and, to a lesser extent, middle-school students.
Can nicotine synergize?
Many people use multiple types of nicotine products, which may synergize in unknown ways
Is vaping harmful to kids?
That's not all. When the researchers factored in the probability that vaping is less harmful than conventional cigarette smoking, the adjusted exposure to risk from nicotine products stabilized or even fell from 2014 t0 2020, at least for high-school kids. This despite the massive increase in vaping seen during that interval.
Is vaping a gateway to smoking?
Besides the limitations already cited, the analysis did not take into account the potential for vaping to serve as a "gateway" to conventional smoking, which several studies have indicated does occur.
Is vaping a bioavailable product?
Vaping products vary widely in nicotine content and bioavailability
Why do electronic cigarettes explode?
Injuries. Electronic cigarettes use lithium-ion batteries to heat coils and produce an aerosol. On rare occasions, those batteries can malfunction, causing the device to overheat, catch fire, or even explode.
How many teens are vaping in 2018?
Health Risks Among Teens. An estimated 3.6 million middle school and high school students reported vaping in 2018, up from 2.1 million the year before. If trends hold steady, that number will continue to rise. Teens and young adults are particularly vulnerable to the effects of vaping products, especially those containing nicotine.
What is electronic cigarette?
Commonly referred to as “vaping,” these products use an aerosolized vapor infused with flavors or nicotine that are then inhaled by the user.
How does an e-cigarette work?
Unlike cigarettes that work by burning to bacco and producing smoke, e-cigarettes heat up liquid to create vapor. A lot of different companies make e-cigarette products, and the kinds of ingredients found in some liquid cartridges can differ from one brand to the next. Some of the most common harmful substances found in vaping products include ...
Is vaping legal in 2020?
As of Feb. 1, 2020, the FDA has banned the manufacture and sale of flavored vaping products (excluding menthol and tobacco). 1 . However, the criteria for product acceptance can still be as loose as it “ does not raise different questions of public health ” compared to an existing tobacco product.
Does vaping affect blood flow?
Another concern flagged by recent research is the potential harm vaping might have on cardiovascular health. Some chemicals found in e-cigs, such as nicotine, can affect blood flow. Studies show that regular use of electronic cigarettes could increase your chances of heart attack, stroke, and even heart disease. In fact, research shows e-cig users are almost twice as likely to experience a heart attack compared to non-users, even when analysts controlled for other known risk factors, including smoking status.
Do electronic cigarettes affect health?
Not much is known about how electronic cigarettes affect long-term health. They’re still too new, and a lot more research is needed. Recent studies, however, have started to find connections between using electronic cigarettes and serious or chronic health issues, including COPD and heart attacks.
TEEN VAPING: A NATIONWIDE EPIDEMIC
In December of 2018, the Surgeon General Jerome Adams issued a rare advisory. He declared e-cigarette use among youth a national epidemic.
BUT DOES VAPING LEAD TO OTHER DRUGS?
A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that teenagers who try e-cigarettes are more likely to begin smoking traditional cigarettes later on. Take this conclusion with a grain of salt: the authors note there’s just a strong association, not necessarily causation.
VAPING: THE HARD FACTS
As a parent or guardian, it’s important to understand the risks associated with vaping. Here are some quick facts.
WHAT CAN PARENTS DO?
As always, open and honest communication is key. It may feel easier to rely on scare tactics and misinformation, but for this topic, the truth is already convincing. Start a conversation with your teen with these tips as a guide:
SOURCES
Adolescent Exposure to Toxic Volatile Organic Chemicals From E-CigarettesU.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2018: Surgeon General releases advisory on E-cigarette epidemic among youth
Why is vaping so difficult?
This is due to the difficulty in correctly identifying what they inhaled, especially when they are intubated or unconscious.
How to help a teenager who is vaping?
Encourage your teen to look into the warnings and media stories related to vaping, or reach out to his or her primary care provider with questions.
Why is vaping so popular among teens?
First publicized as a safer alternative to smoking tobacco, vaping caught on because it didn't contain the carcinogens or tars found in most smoking tobacco products. Also, vaping was supposed to eliminate the dangers of secondhand smoke to those nearby.
How long does a vape last?
Did you know most cigarettes are smoked within two to five minutes? E-cigarettes on the other hand can last up to 20 minutes, delivering more nicotine and damaging chemicals to the lungs. In addition, some vaping mixtures can contain 20 times the nicotine that a single cigarette contains.
What is an e-cigarette?
E-cigarettes are battery-operated devices that heat a liquid solution — usually, but not always, containing nicotine — turning it into a vapor that can be inhaled . If the base nicotine mixture is not palatable, many flavors, such as mint, apple and others, can make vaping attractive, especially to adolescents.
How to tell if a child is vaping?
Talk with your kids about the dangers of vaping, but also look for warning signs including: 1 Changes in emotions 2 Trouble sleeping 3 Scents of fruity odors on skin, breath and clothes 4 Strange cylinders, chargers or batteries lying around
Is vaping bad for teens?
Adolescents often feel that bad things happen to everyone else, but the risks associated with vaping are real. Many teens are taking things a step further, adding cannabis, CBD oils and other dangerous additives to vaping devices.
