A person uses a Juul vaporizer in Atlanta, Georgia, Sept. 26, 2019.
Elijah Nouvelage | Reuters
Young individuals are vulnerable to experiencing significant respiratory symptoms, including bronchitis and shortness of breath, after just 30 days of electronic cigarette use, according to a latest study released Tuesday.
Researchers from the Center for Tobacco Research at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Southern California Keck School of Medicine used 4 years of knowledge from online surveys to examine the health impact of e-cigarettes — which create a vapor containing nicotine and other harmful substances — on teens and young adults.
They said the study, partly funded by the National Institutes of Health, contributes to existing evidence that e-cigarette use is related to an increased risk of respiratory symptoms. Drug regulators should consider the findings and work to minimize the negative health impact of e-cigarette use on young people, the researchers added.
E-cigarettes have hooked a latest generation on nicotine in lower than a decade, putting the health of thousands and thousands of kids, teens and young adults in danger while threatening years of progress in reducing youth tobacco use.
E-cigarette usage is now substantially higher among youths and young adults than it’s among adults overall within the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sales of e-cigarettes jumped nearly 50% in the course of the first two years of the Covid pandemic, mainly driven by disposable products in sweet and fruity flavors which have long been popular among teens.
That surge in sales got here despite a federal crackdown that placed more restrictions on the marketing and flavors of tobacco products.
Manufacturers are still flooding the market with 1000’s of addictive products which might be often sold illegally. Brands reminiscent of Puff Bar, Elf Bar and Breeze Smoke aren’t approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and a few have surpassed vaping pioneer Juul in popularity.
“A vital point for consumers is just that e-cigarettes aren’t risk-free,” Alayna Tackett, a pediatric psychologist and researcher on the Center for Tobacco Research. “We absolutely want to eliminate the initiation and use of e-cigarettes among young people. I believe that is a critical public health goal.”
She noted that the study examines only teens and young adults, and that within the demographic of all adults, people “often switch from using cigarettes to using e-cigarettes with likely fewer risks.”
“I believe we want to be thoughtful about policies to protect those young people, while also supporting adults who’re considering selecting a potentially less harmful alternative to cigarettes,” Tackett added.
What does the info say?
Researchers followed greater than 2,000 young individuals with a median age of 17.3 years from the Southern California Kid’s Health Study.
In 2014, they asked the participants to complete a web based survey about their respiratory symptoms and e-cigarette, traditional cigarette and cannabis use. Around 23% of participants reported a history of asthma on the time of the initial survey.
Researchers collected follow-up data from the vast majority of those participants during three additional survey waves, in 2015, 2017 and 2018.
Participants were specifically asked in the event that they had ever used each of the three products. In the event that they indicated yes, they were asked in regards to the variety of days that they had used a product previously 30-day period.
Those that had never tried a product were classified as “never users,” while participants who had used a product on at the very least one in all the past 30 days were classified as “past 30-day” users.
Past 30-day e-cigarette users were at an 81% higher risk of experiencing a symptom called wheeze than never users after accounting for survey wave, age, sex, race and parental education. Wheeze was defined as wheezing or whistling within the chest within the previous 12 months.
Past 30-day users were also at a 78% increased risk of experiencing shortness of breath and a 50% higher risk of experiencing symptoms of bronchitis, an infection of the essential lung airways that causes them to change into irritated and inflamed.
A saleswoman helps a customer as she shops for an electronic cigarette on the Vapor Shark store in Miami.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
The link between e-cigarette use and respiratory symptoms was barely weaker when researchers accounted for 2 aspects: co-use of e-cigarettes with traditional cigarettes or cannabis, and secondhand exposure to any of the three products.
For instance, past 30-day e-cigarette users were at a 41% higher risk of experiencing wheeze than never users if in addition they used traditional cigarettes or cannabis at the identical time or experienced secondhand exposure to any of the products.
“Wheeze was not significantly related to the respiratory symptoms related to e-cigarette use after we controlled for co-use of cigarettes and cannabis,” Tackett said. But she noted that bronchitis symptoms and shortness of breath remained significant.
The link between e-cigarette use and respiratory symptoms was persistent in a sub-analysis that excluded participants with a history of asthma. That indicates that the negative health effects of e-cigarette use were present in all participants, not only those with asthma, according to the study.
Tackett noted that there are limitations to the study that future research could address.
Additional studies could more objectively measure respiratory symptoms and product use as an alternative of using surveys that participants filled out themselves, according to Tackett.
She added that future studies, including one she’s currently working on, could further assess the “complex relationship” between the use of e-cigarettes and traditional cigarettes or cannabis.