Defenders e-Sigs have moved from denying that they can cause any harm to tobacco to recognizing that if nicotine vapesYes, they can be dangerous. For this reason, many followers of this new way of smoking make sure to buy mixtures that do not contain addictive substances. It is true that this is the cause of many of the harmful effects of this habit. However, a new study conducted by scientists from Anglia Ruskin Universityin the United Kingdom, shows that risks of vaping for the lungs they go far beyond nicotine.
This is an important finding because e-cigarettes are especially in vogue. among teenagers. In many cases, this is their first introduction to smoking. They think it’s completely harmless. Sometimes even their parents report this, but they believe that there is no danger if nicotine is not added to the liquid in the device.
But the risks of vaping depend on many other substances. In fact, this was already intuitive, but this study provides new data that once and for all we should not look the other way.
More and more teenagers are smoking cigarettes
E-cigarettes are a new problem among teenagers. In accordance with National Youth Tobacco SurveyAccording to a US study, the number of young people aged 11 to 18 who have ever tried vaping increased from 1.5% in 2011 to 75% in 2018.
In Spain, a survey RESEARCH The 2018-2019 academic year showed that 48.4% of young people from 14 to 18 years old Have you ever tried electronic cigarettes? Except, 67.1% He reported that he consumed liquids without nicotine. This is because many people still think that the risks of vaping are associated with this substance. True, these are polls from 2018, but in subsequent years the situation has not improved much. For this reason, many countries, including Spain, are already considering the possibility of regulating these products by law in much the same way as tobacco. But why such caution?
Known risks of vaping and new discoveries
The risks of vaping are mainly due to the fact that the liquids used contain substances that, when heated, become irritating to the respiratory tract or even carcinogenic. This is the case, for example, with carbonyls such as formaldehyde or heavy metals such as lead or chromium.
However, the authors of the study, which was just published in Microvascular studies discovered another danger in liquids without nicotine. They did this after analyzing refills of a very popular brand of e-cigarettes without this addictive substance.
When liquid comes into contact with human lung cell culture, have noticed that this contributes to oxidative stress. This occurs when an unstable molecule, whose atoms have lost electrons from their last shell, tries to steal electrons from nearby molecules. This is a normal process in the body, but certain events can make it worse, causing both cell damage and inflammatory response huge. In the long term this oxidative stress This can ultimately lead to diseases such as cancer.
It is known that oxidative stress is common in smoking. But is nicotine the only culprit? It seems not.
In case of this liquid without nicotine Oxidative stress also increased. As expected, this resulted in severe inflammation as well as rupture of blood vessels. All this if it were given in natural conditionsand not in cell cultures, may cause lung damage and respiratory diseases.
Thus, this experiment showed that the risk of vaping is not only associated with nicotine. But then what else is there to be afraid of?
Protein as a possible culprit
Another discovery from this study was the unusual abundance of a protein called ARF6 in nicotine-free liquids e-Sigs. This protein has many functions, among which are the transport of vesicles across cell membranes and the replacement of their lipids. It also appears to be involved in the formation of new blood vessels.
It is unknown how this excess protein may relate to the risk of vaping. However, these experiments indicated that it is the culprit in the damage caused to lung cells. More research on this protein will be needed in the future, but one thing is clear. nicotine-free liquids They are not the solution, and that should be made abundantly clear to consumers and parents of teens who decide to vape to play adult.
Source: Hiper Textual
