A thorough study was conducted on a group of vapers who use e-cigarettes on a daily basis for a number of years and the result showed that these vapers suffered no form of lung damage when compared to non-smokers.
Professor Polosa, Director of the Institute of Internal Mestudy at the University of Catania and received an INNCO Global Award last June.
Preliminary evidence to back up the debunk the health risk claims of long-term vaping
“some preliminary pieces of evidence show that the long-term use of ECs is unlikely to raise any significant health concern in young users is shown by this study” even though the sample size is small.
Prof Riccardo and his teammates followed a small sample of vapers who had never smoked before but used use E-cigs on a regular basis. They monitored these vapers for approximately 31/2 years and the results were compared with a group of smokers who have never tried e-cigarettes.
The author reported that “We observed no changes in markers of lung inflammation in exhaled air, reductions in spirometric indices, trace of respiratory symptoms or results of any lung damage on HRCT when placed in comparison with a group of non-EC users.” The researcher went further to ascertain that there were no changes in blood pressure or heart rate and the no signs of lung damage or inflammation in the heaviest of users.
Polosa’s study addressed concerns about arterial stiffness
Many medical researchers had linked vaping to arterial stiffness but this finding has answered many concerns raised about this claim. In fact, a study conducted at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) International Congress held at Milan in September 2017, had pointed out that arterial stiffness and one’s vital signs can be increased with momentary vaping. The study claimed that most vapers are likely to have arterial stiffness if they persist on this act for so long. This is basically attributed to the nicotine content of these products.
Prof. Peter Hajek, the Tobacco Dependence Research Unit director, at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), responded to the above claim and pointed out there are other things that are considered irrelevant in terms of health but have the same effect. “The popular stimulant effect of nicotine has little significance to health. Drinking coffee can also cause the same effect on the body (as does seeing a fascinating football match on TV).” Therefore the claim that vaping is the major cause of arterial stiffness is erroneous and needs further clarification.
Further studies with larger samples required
Polosa’s study concluded that despite the small sample size of this study, “the finding is enough to show everyone including younger vapers that the long-term use of ECs is unlikely to raise significant health concerns” This study was published on scientific reports and concluded that further studies need to be conducted by researchers on larger sample sizes to buttress these findings.