E-cigarettes STILL damage your health – even if they don’t lead to tobacco use
A record number of adolescents now use e-cigarettes, but - even if they don't graduate to real smoking - they suffer persistent coughs, bronchitis and congestion or phlegm, assert the American Thoracic Society.
It's one of the health industry's biggest trends with an estimated 2.8million users, many of them teenagers.
But, despite their alleged health benefits, e-cigarettes still pose a risk for adolescents - regardless of whether they act as a gateway for smoking actual tobacco, new research finds.
Professor Rob McConnell, from the University of Southern California, conducted detailed analysis into the effects of youth usage for The Children's Health Fund.
His newly-published report, entitled , found that many teenagers who smoke e-cigarettes still suffer from persistent coughs, bronchitis and congestion or phlegm.
The reason for this, he says, is that the content of the vapours still agitate the tissue lining of the respiratory system - much like traditional cigarettes do.
"E-cigarettes are known to deliver chemicals toxic to the lungs, including oxidant metals, glycerol vapor, diketone flavoring compounds and nicotine," Dr. McConnell said.
The researchers analysed responses to a 2014 questionnaire completed by 2,086 teens. Investigators categorised respondents as never e-cigarette users (76 per cent), past users (more than 30 days earlier, 14.4 per cent) and current users (at least once within the past 30 days, 9.6 per cent).
The study found that, when compared to those who never tried e-cigarettes, the risk of the respiratory symptoms was approximately 85 per cent higher among past users, and double among current users.
"The Food and Drug Administration recently banned the sale of e-cigarettes to children under 18 years of age, and California just prohibited sale to young adults under 21," Dr. McConnell said.
"Our results suggest that these regulations may reduce the burden of chronic respiratory symptoms in youth.
"However, because e-cigarettes are relatively new, additional study is needed to fully understand their long-term effects."
His findings are the latest in a long line of data which suggests e-cigarettes are not as body-friendly as they may appear.
In August, a trial revealed that vaping triggers similar levels of damage to blood vessels as smoking tobacco.
Meanwhile, last week, a study showed that just one drag of a flavoured e-cigarette exposes a smoker to “unacceptably high” levels of cancer-causing chemicals.
Dr Andrey Khylstov, of the Desert Research Institute, Las Vegas, found toxic aldehydes, including formaldehyde, are produced during the chemical breakdown of flavoured e-liquid during the rapid heating process that happens inside e-cigs.
He said: “One puff of any of the flavoured e-liquids that we tested exposes the smoker to unacceptably dangerous levels of these aldehydes, most of which originates from thermal decomposition of the flavouring compounds.”