New Health Risks Linked to Vaping
WASHINGTON – Today, many smokers have tried their hand at electronic cigarettes in hopes that it will help to reduce the cancer and heart risks associated with conventional cigarettes and tobacco products. However, a recently conducted student appears to show otherwise, where a trio of toxicologists reported on February
11 and 12 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting.
E-cigarettes might have value if it is used as a mean to wean people off conventional tobacco products, states Ilona Jaspers of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. However, there are unpublished data that she and the others presented at the annual meeting had linked e-cigarette products to a hosts of possibly new risks. It would be undesirable if e-cigarettes introduced a hosts of new risks, and this would completely defeat the purpose of it.
Ilona Jaspers’ group examined some scraped cells extracted from noses of individuals with a history of smoking, vaping, or neither. The researchers had measured the activity levels in these cells of 594 genes which are associate with the body’s ability to fight infections. Among the smokers, the activity of 53 genes was substantially diminished, compared with people who neither smoked nor vaped. Among the vapers however, those 53 genes showed significantly diminished activity as well, similar to smokers, as reported by Jaspers. What this means is that the lung tissue as well as nasal tissue of smokers, and especially vapers, may be more susceptible to any kind of infection.
However, in order to confirm that possibility, Jaspers’ team had collected immune cells from healthy human volunteers, and exposed them to flavoured liquids used in e-cigarettes. The tested cells included blood neutrophils and lung macrophages, which are both used in killing bacteria in the body. Some of the liquids had proved to be disturbingly effective at disrupting the ability of those immune cells to do their job.
Another researcher was conducted by Judy Zelikoff of New York University’s Langone Medical Center in Tuxedo, who looked at genes affected by the vapor from e-cigarettes. Judy’s group had exposed mice developing in the womb, and for a month after birth, to vapors at concentrations and intensities that were calculated as comparable to what a person who vaped might encounter. Then she tracked the activity of genes in the frontal cortex of the animal, which is the region of the brain associated with planning, analyzing and integrating the senses to understand the environment.
The extreme difference between affecting the genes or not lies in the liquid itself, whether it contains nicotine or not. Male mice exposed to nicotine-laced vapors showed no gene-activity changes. Among females, vapours laced with nicotine gave the impression of altering activity levels of all 148 genes in the brain’s frontal cortex. But among rodents exposed to nicotine-free vapours, a whopping 830 over genes based in the frontal cortex has shown a significant alteration in activity — whether it was with regards to much higher or lower than in the mice that were left unexposed. In this situation, both males and females were about equally affected.
“Was I surprised by this exaggerated effect of the no-nicotine group? We were so surprised,” Zelikoff said, “that we repeated the [experiment] two more times.”
Based on Zelikoff’s opinion, the changes in the nature of the genes suggested that affected animals would exhibit behavioral alterations, which included changes associated with mental illness. To probe that a bit further, her group teamed up with several brilliant researchers at the University of Rochester in New York. Based on both the mice present in the nicotine and the no-nicotine group displayed significant behavioral changes. When adult mice that had been exposed to e-cigarette vapors in the womb made movements, these mice had a tendency to do so at approximately twice the pace as unexposed mice if the vapors had no nicotine. They moved faster still if they had been exposed to some nicotine. It was also observed that both groups of mice were more high in energy which was displayed through jumping more. And mice exposed to vapors also stood on their hind legs a significant amount more than those which had not been exposed to vapor. All of these “are behaviors that are reflective of increased — or hyper — activity,” Zelikoff stated, “and possibly agitation.” Her group is now exploring possible effects on memory and the possibility of any mental disorders.
Zelikoff’s group were also responsible for discovering reproductive issues in young-adult males exposed to e-cigarette vapors in the womb. The sperm counts within the young-adult males were approximately half of the value as those in unexposed mice. And the motility of their sperm was examined to be only one fifth as high when compared to the unexposed males.
Finally, the exposure of the mice to e-cigarette vapors increased plaque buildup, which is often a sign of emerging atherosclerosis, mentioned Daniel Conklin of the University of Louisville in Kentucky. Further, it was noticed that cigarette smoke also did increase the plaque buildup. In both instances, Conklin noted, it appeared as though the toxic aldehydes, such as acrolein, formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, act as contributors. Accordingly, a conclusion was met in that it appears electronic cigarette vapors “could adversely impact the cardiovascular health of users.”
Nevertheless, as these observations are only the icing on the cake, there is no way of really knowing whether or not e-cigarettes really pose these new health risks. The e-liquid used is very objective, as different kinds of flavouring has different components, and it would be illogical to generalize all liquids.