The defenders of electronic cigarettes have gone from denying that they can cause any of the harms of tobacco to recognizing that, in the case of nicotine vapesYes, they can be dangerous. For this reason, many followers of this new way of smoking make sure to buy formulas that do not include the addictive substance. It is true that this is responsible for many of the harmful effects of this habit. However, a new study, conducted by scientists at the Anglia Ruskin Universityin the United Kingdom, shows that risks of vaping for the lungs they go far beyond nicotine.
This is an important finding, since electronic cigarettes are in fashion especially among adolescents. In many cases, this is their first exposure to smoking. They believe it is totally harmless. Sometimes even their parents are informed, but they think 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 reality, it is something that was already intuited, but this study puts new data on the table with which, once and for all, we should not look the other way.
More and more teenagers are vaping
Electronic cigarettes are an emerging problem among adolescents. According to National Youth Tobacco Surveyconducted in the United States, the number of young people between 11 and 18 years old who have ever tried vaping has risen from 1.5% in 2011 to a 75% in 2018.
In Spainthe survey STUDIES of the 2018-2019 academic year showed that the 48.4% of young people between 14 and 18 years old Have you tried e-cigarettes at some point? Besides, 67.1% He reported using liquids without nicotine. This is because many still think that the risks of vaping are due to this substance. It is true that these are surveys from 2018, but the situation has not improved much in subsequent years. For this reason, many countries, Spain included, are already considering legislating these products in practically the same way as with tobacco. But why is there so much 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, for example, the case of carbonyls such as formaldehyde or heavy metals such as lead or chromium.
Nevertheless, the authors of the study that has just been published in Microvascular Research have found another danger in liquids without nicotine. They have done so after analyzing the refills of a very popular brand of electronic cigarettes without this addictive substance.
By putting the liquid in contact with a human lung cell culture, observed that it promoted oxidative stress. This occurs when an unstable molecule, whose atoms have lost electrons from their last shell, tries to steal electrons from these nearby molecules. It is a normal process in the body, but some phenomena can make it worse, causing both cellular damage and a inflammatory answer immense. In the long run, this oxidative stress It can end up leading to diseases such as cancer.
It is known that oxidative stress is common with tobacco. But is nicotine the only culprit? It seems not.
In the case of this nicotine free liquid Oxidative stress was also enhanced. As expected, this led to great inflammation, but also the rupture of blood vessels. All this, if it were given in vivoand not in cell cultures, would cause lung lesions and respiratory diseases.
Therefore, with this experiment it was clear that the risks of vaping are not only due to nicotine. But then what else is there to fear?
A protein as a possible culprit
Another finding of this research was the unusual abundance of a protein called ARF6 in non-nicotine liquids electronic cigarettes. This protein has many functions, among which the transport of vesicles across cell membranes and the replacement of their lipids stand out. It also appears to be involved in the formation of new blood vessels.
It is not known how this excess protein may be related to the risks of vaping. However, these experiments pointed to it as the culprit for the damage experienced by lung cells. Moving forward, more research is needed on this protein, but one thing is clear. The nicotine-free liquids They are not the solution and that must be very clear to consumers and parents of teenagers who decide to vape to play at being adults.