In addition to the well-documented risks of smoking and vaping, a new UCLA study has revealed that a short vaping session can affect the cells of even healthy younger nonsmokers.
According to their study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, a single 30-minute vaping session can significantly increase cellular oxidative stress, which occurs when the body has an imbalance between free radicals, and the antioxidants which neutralise them.
“Over time, this imbalance can play a significant role in causing certain illnesses, including cardiovascular, pulmonary and neurological diseases, as well as cancer,” said the study’s senior author, Dr Holly Middlekauff, a professor of cardiology and physiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
E-cigarettes, devices that deliver nicotine with flavouring and other chemicals in a vapour rather than smoke, are popularly seen as a safer cigarette alternative, but research by Prof Middlekauff and others has demonstrated that vaping is associated with a number of adverse changes in the body that can presage future health problems.
For the present study, 32 male and female study participants, aged 21 to 33, were split into three groups: 11 nonsmokers, nine regular tobacco cigarette smokers and 12 regular e-cigarette smokers. The researchers collected immune cells from each individual before and after a 30-minute vaping session to measure and compare changes in oxidative stress among the groups.
The researchers repeated this with a control session where participants spent 30 minutes “sham-vaping,” or puffing on an empty straw.
In nonsmokers, oxidative stress levels were found to be two to four times higher after the vaping session than before. Among the regular cigarette and e-cigarette smokers, the same 30-minute exposure did not lead to an increase in oxidative stress, the researchers noted, most likely because their baseline levels of oxidative stress were already increased.
“We were surprised by the gravity of the effect that one vaping session can have on healthy young people,” Prof Middlekauff said. “This brief vaping session was not dissimilar to what they may experience at a party, yet the effects were dramatic.”
The researchers noted that these results are especially troubling due to the increasing popularity of vaping, particularly among the youth. In a 2020 study, nearly a third of high school students reported e-cigarette use during the previous month.
There is still more to be understood about what exactly causes the changes in oxidative stress levels, whether it is caused by the nicotine or non-nicotine elements in e-cigarettes, which will be the subject of future research.
“While there’s a perception that e-cigarettes are safer than tobacco cigarettes, these findings show clearly and definitively that there is no safe level of vaping,” Prof Middlekauff said. “The results are clear, unambiguous and concerning.”
Source: UCLA
