‘Second-hand vaping’ can be unhealthy – could public bans be coming? | Health Info

By Dennis Thompson Health Day Reporter

TUESDAY, Jan. 11, 2022 (HealthDay News) – Second-hand vapor from e-cigarettes is harmful to others, causing symptoms of bronchitis and shortness of breath in young passers-by, according to a new study.

Secondary exposure to steam increased the risk of adolescent bronchitis symptoms by 40% and shortness of breath by 53%, according to results published online Jan. 10 in the journal. Thorax.

The effect was even worse on people who didn’t vape and smoke. They were three times more likely to develop symptoms of bronchitis and twice as likely to develop wheezing or shortness of breath, the researchers found.

“These people are really suffering a lot more,” said lead researcher Dr Talat Islam. He is an Assistant Research Professor in Population and Public Health Sciences at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. “The effect of secondary exposure to vaping was much greater” in people who have never vaped or smoked.

The health effects of second-hand vapor are of a similar magnitude to those associated with secondhand smoke and should prompt more U.S. locations to ban vaping in public places, Islam and colleagues concluded.

Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have added e-cigarettes to their indoor air quality laws, according to the American Lung Association. Overall, 28 states have comprehensive indoor air quality laws.

This study adds to the growing evidence that e-cigarettes are not as safe as has been said, said Dr. Laura Crotty Alexander, section chief of pulmonary critical care medicine at the VA San Diego Healthcare System.

“Some people still believe that the vape contains water-based aerosols and that there is no water at all. These are pure chemicals, some very similar to antifreeze,” Alexander said. , who co-wrote an editorial accompanying the study.

“Typically about 50 to 100 chemicals are in these e-cigarette aerosols, and your lungs don’t like it,” she continued. “It is not healthy for your lungs. It damages the lungs and causes disease.”

For this study, Islam and his colleagues analyzed data collected by the Southern California Children Health Study, an ongoing study that interviewed a group of adolescents and young adults each year from 2014 to 2019.

In each survey, participants were asked whether they had suffered from bronchitis, daily cough, congestion, phlegm, wheezing, or shortness of breath in the past year. They were also asked if they had been exposed to second-hand vaping or smoke.

The percentage of teens and young adults exposed to second-hand vaping increased from 12% to 16% between 2014 and 2019, while the percentage exposed to vaping passive smoking rose from 27% to 21%, the investigators noted.

Researchers reported that people exposed to second-hand vaping had an increased risk of bronchitis and shortness of breath, even after taking into account other possible lung health factors like active vaping or exposure to cigarette smoke. tobacco or grass.

Of the nearly 2,100 teens included in this study, almost 1,200 said they had not smoked or vape in the past month. These are the young people whose lung health has been most strongly affected by second-hand vaping, the results showed.

“Children are at high risk because parents are unaware of the risks,” Alexander said. “People really understand the dangers of cigarette smoke to a fairly large extent, so people would be careful not to smoke around their children. They would quit smoking in their cars and inside their homes.”

But, she continued, “When they started adding electronic cigarettes, because the perception of these devices was that they were safe, they were vaping in cars and at home.”

According to the American Lung Association, chemical products included in the e-cigarette vapor may include:

“When people vape, the spray that comes out may or may not contain nicotine, but it also comes with a lot of other things,” Islam said. “These chemicals, they can be very harmful to respiratory health.”

SOURCES: Talat Islam, MD, PhD, assistant professor, population science and public health research, University of Southern California, Los Angeles; Laura Crotty Alexander, MD, section chief, pulmonary critical care medicine, VA San Diego Healthcare System; Thorax, Jan. 10, 2022, online

Copyright © 2022 Health day. All rights reserved.