Some e-cigarette users also smoke marijuana and/or conventional cigarettes, and it is important to know if e-cigarette use alone can lead to breathing problems, independently of other types of smoking. 2,4 While there have been warnings about the possible risk of e-cigarettes for a decade, it was not expected that they could cause such severe damage in such a short period of time. In contrast, in 2019 it became clear that vaping could cause seizures and serious lung damage after just a year, possibly less, based on CDC reports of patients hospitalized for lung damage caused by vaping. While smoking can cause lung cancer, breast cancer, emphysema, heart disease, and other serious diseases, those diseases usually develop after decades of smoking. Traditional cigarettes contain a laundry list of chemicals that are proven harmful, and e-cigarettes have some of these same chemicals. But, it isn’t just the tobacco in cigarettes that causes cancer and other serious diseases. The key difference between traditional cigarettes and e-cigarettes and related products is that the latter don’t contain tobacco. 4 Is Vaping Safer than Smoking Traditional Cigarettes? Because e-cigarettes heat a liquid instead of tobacco, what is released is considered smokeless. These electronic products allow nicotine to be inhaled, and they work by heating a liquid cartridge containing nicotine, flavors, and other chemicals into a vapor. It is the nicotine in cigarettes that makes smoking so addictive, and the same is true for most vaping and juuling. The brand-name products contain nicotine, an addictive drug that is naturally found in tobacco and that stimulates, causes stress during withdrawal, and then feels relaxing as continued exposure follows withdrawal. Some look like flash drives or highlighter pens, making it easy for teens to hide them in plain sight. What are E-cigarettes?Į-cigarettes are battery-operated devices that were initially shaped like cigarettes, but now include vape mods, Juuls, and vape pens. The big questions are: Are they safe? Will they reverse the decline in smoking-giving new life to an old habit-or can they help people quit smoking? Here is what you need to know. The focus of this article is on e-cigarettes because most of the research that exists has been done on them, but much of the information below is relevant to these other products as well. Some contain high levels of nicotine, while others contain marijuana or just contain flavoring. There are brand name products (Juul is the most widely used) and “home-made” versions. Until these reports of hospitalized teens and adults are scrutinized in greater depth, we won’t know what types of vaping are most dangerous and under what circumstances.Į-cigarettes come in a variety of forms and include vape mods, Juuls, and vape pens. 2 Many of the patients report vaping marijuana products or marijuana and nicotine products, but others only vaped nicotine products. The CDC has reported that Vitamin E acetate is a potential cause for the outbreak, but it might not be the only one. 3 Although the FDA did not express concerns about an immediate hazard, they were concerned about the longer term safety from the use of JUUL devices or pods, raising questions about whether the possible benefits of reducing smoking outweigh the risks from these products. 1,2 On Jthe FDA ordered Juul to stop selling their e-cigarettes in the US, citing concerns about the company’s “insufficient and conflicting data” on toxicity. By February 2020, reports of 68 deaths and more than 2,800 vaping-related hospitalizations due to lung illnesses have made it clear that vaping can be even more dangerous than smoking. Laura Gottschalk, PhD, John-Anthony Fraga, Jared Hirschfield, Diana Zuckerman, PhD, National Center for Health ResearchĮlectronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, are being marketed as the “safe” new alternative to conventional cigarettes.
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