Cautions for Co-use!
When e-cigarettes arrived in the US, around 2008, I remember thinking that, if regulated, e-cigs might be a useful tool in tobacco cessation. But I had some serious concerns about whether the manufacturers would be content to sell a smoker e-cigs for a few months – as a quit tool.
“Wild Wild West Days”
Sure enough, the e-cig market bloomed and boomed into a huge market, riddled with unsubstantiated health claims. While published claims (think magazine ads or billboards) about the benefits of e-cigs and vaping devices, could be grounds for comsumer complaints and lawsuits, less public claims (think the guy behind the counter) were largely unchallenged.
New devices were great for business. “New and Improved” is good for business and the e-cig/vaping industry has seen lots of innovation – bigger tanks, more flavors, more nicotine strengths. It’s been exciting and nearly impossible to regulate. That’s an environment that’s ripe for misrepresentation and deceit – which can (and did) lead to harm. Not to mention the overt marketing to young people whose lungs and brains are still developing!
Isn’t Vaping Safer?
But, aside from the obvious problems with vaping, most e-cigs and vaping devices generate lower temperatures which usually means fewer chemical compounds are formed. Remember, a natural tobacco leaf typically contains about 60 chemical compounds. But when the tobacco is burned (pyrolization) the chemicals in those 60 compounds are released, changed, recombine into approximately 2000 chemical compounds. Vaping devices heat, but don’t burn the tobacco, reducing the number of chemical compounds that are inhaled.
Commercial tobacco (with fertilizers and additives) can generate several thousand chemical compounds when burned. Vaping devices typically gernerate dozens or a few hundred chemical compounds. Vaping is generally understood to be less harmful than using combustible tobacco (smoking.)
So, especially if someone has tried all of the FDA approved quit meds, I think it’s perfectly reasonable to try an e-cig or vaping device as a temporary measure to escape completely from nicotine.
And if quitting completely isn’t possible, most people will agree that vaping causes less harm than smoking does. And many experts, until recently, would have said that smoking less and vaping at the same time would reduce the harm. But recent studies reveal counterintuitive results!
Smoking and Vaping Together Increases Lung Cancer Risk More Than Smoking Alone
People who both smoke cigarettes and use electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes, e-cigs, or vapes) are 4 times more likely to develop lung cancer than people who only smoke cigarettes, new research finds.
The study found that combining both cigarette smoking and vaping is much more common in people with lung cancer. In fact, people with lung cancer were 8 times more likely to both smoke and vape than people without lung cancer. The researchers also found that both men and women who smoked and vaped had an increased risk of lung cancer. The study was published in the Journal of Oncology Research and Therapy.
“My takeaway from this study is that patients who smoke and vape really need to make efforts to quit both, because it’s very clear that both are harmful to the lungs. And both, particularly in combination, increase the risk of developing lung cancer. Frankly, this is at a degree much higher than I would have expected,” said Ryan Gentzler, MD, an American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) expert and an associate professor in hematology and oncology at the University of Virginia Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Smoking and vaping had overlapping adverse health effects,
dual product use may be worse.
Airway irritation from smoking or vaping appeared to be the source of vascular damage, according to two new studies in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology (ATVB) Journal.
Research Highlights:
- New research finds that the cardiovascular effects of smoking and vaping are likely caused by airway irritation, and inhalation of any foreign substance may cause harmful effects on blood vessel function.
- Although smoking and vaping may have similar harmful cardiovascular effects, they each appear to cause some potentially damaging effects that the other does not, suggesting that dual product use may be worse than using either product alone.
- Results from two studies indicate that vaping is not a harmless alternative to smoking, and future research is needed to investigate the cardiovascular effects of chronic vaping, researchers said.
DALLAS, Oct. 26, 2022 — Two related studies, one in humans and the other in rats, found that the cardiovascular effects of cigarettes and e-cigarettes are strikingly similar, and these harmful effects on blood vessel function are likely caused by airway irritation due to inhalation of a foreign substance, rather than a specific component of the cigarette smoke or e-cigarette vapor (aerosol), according to new research published today in the American Heart Association’s peer-reviewed journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology (ATVB).
Cigarette smoking and e-cigarette vaping are both known to cause endothelial dysfunction, the inability of the large blood vessels to open enough to supply sufficient blood to the heart and other tissues. This can be an early predictor of cardiovascular diseases. Endothelial cells line the inside of all blood vessels and regulate the opening of blood vessels, the exchange of substances between the bloodstream and surrounding tissues, and immune and inflammatory responses.
“The goal of this project was to determine why a growing number of inhaled tobacco products, including combustible cigarettes, heated tobacco products and e-cigarettes, all impair endothelial function despite fundamental differences in these products,” said the lead researcher of both studies Matthew L. Springer, Ph.D., a professor of medicine in the division of cardiology at the University of California, San Francisco. “Thousands of chemicals have been identified in tobacco smoke, some of which are also present in e-cigarette aerosols, either as an original ingredient or as a chemical reaction product of the heating process. We sought to find which specific component of smoke or e-cigarette vapor may be responsible for interfering with blood vessels’ ability to function efficiently.”
Springer and colleagues conducted two studies to assess the effects of smoking and vaping on cardiovascular function in both rats and humans.
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