Vaping may be more dangerous to the body than cigarettes – putting long-term users at risk of dementia, heart disease and organ failure, according to the author of a bombshell study.
Inhaling nicotine vapour from E-cigarettes has been described by the NHS as “substantially less harmful than smoking.” But Dr Maxime Boidin, leader of the world’s first controlled study into vaping’s long-term effects at Manchester Metropolitan University – which concludes in March – believes the health threat to vapers is even worse.
He adds: “Smokers tend to go outside and smoke, and once a cigarette is finished they have to light up another to keep going. But with vapes, you just keep going and it’s much harder to know how many puffs you’ve had. It’s much easier to vape continuously because you can do it in places where smoking might be less acceptable.”
Shocked by his own findings, he says: “What we have found is the dangers for someone who keeps vaping are no different from smokers.
“At the beginning (of the study) I also believed that vaping was more beneficial than smoking. You see a lot more people vaping these days because they don’t think it’s too bad. Many will be horrified to know the truth.”
During the study at the university’s Institute of Sport, participants – aged between 18 to 45, with an average age of 27 and similar levels of fitness and physical activity – were given regular stress tests to measure the elasticity of their blood vessels and the speed of blood flow to their brains.
For 12 hours prior to testing, they consumed only water and desisted from vaping, smoking and exercise. According to Dr Boidin, the mediated dilation (FMD) test, in which a cuff is placed on the participant’s arm and inflated to restrict the blood flow, before being released to measure how much the artery expands as more blood is passed through it, produced the starkest results.
We joined the study in its final weeks and saw that smokers and vapers achieved a flat reading, signalling damaged artery walls that can no longer dilate – an almost certain sign of future serious cardiovascular problems. Further tests proved that the blood flow in smokers and vapers is similarly impaired, making them at risk of developing cognitive dysfunction, including dementia.
Dr Boidin, senior lecturer in cardiac rehabilitation, believes the damage is due to inflammation caused by nicotine, as well as the metals and chemicals found in vapes, which include propylene glycol, vegetable glycerine. Substances in the chemical flavourings such as carbonyl compound are known to cause inflammation and oxidative stress, which can lead to artery inner wall damage and cell death.
He says: “When you put this mixture of metals and chemicals into your body you can’t expect nothing to happen.” Vaping use in the UK has exploded since the first electronic cigarettes arrived here in 2005. There are now 5.1million people aged 16 or over in Britain – about one in ten – using vapes, according to figures last year from the Office for National Statistics. Vaping rates were highest among those aged 16 to 24, at 15.8%.
One million people in England now vape, despite never having been regular smokers, a seven-fold increase in three years, according to a University College London study published in The Lancet Public Health Journal. And, despite recent vaping scares, like the death this year of Hollyoaks star Paul Danan, aged 46, who months earlier revealed he’d had to be revived after suffering respiratory failure caused by excessive vaping, Public Health England is still advising that “vaping poses a small fraction of the risks of smoking”.
Other shocking cases have emerged of collapsed lungs, fainting or vomiting ominous green liquid, linked to heavy vaping. Dr Boidin, whose study results will be published soon, says he has evidence that levels of fitness, even in young vapers, can be impaired.
One of the study volunteers Adam Petrulevic, a 25-year-old masters student studying strength and conditioning at the university, says he vapes “without stopping”. “I never really smoked, but I started vaping two years ago,” he says. “I always thought it was much less harmful than smoking.
“I take a puff every few minutes and only stop when I go to sleep. A 500-puff vape used to last me a few days but now it’s not even a day. Now I’m on 3,500-puff vapes which should be more than a week, but I finish them in three days.”
A volunteer known only as Marine, 33, started vaping three years ago to wean herself off smoking and uses a heated tobacco device. She says: “I didn’t smoke in the house but now I vape all day long. I decided to take part in the study because I wanted to know what it was doing to me. I’ve noticed that I’m out of breath more, I feel that it’s not so good for my health.”
Both volunteers were alarmed by Dr Boidin’s negative findings. Adam says: “It’s definitely an incentive for me to stop.”
Many will have been convinced that taking up vaping won’t be prejudicial to their health, thanks to oft-repeated advice including from Public Health England which states that “vaping poses a small fraction of the risks of smoking”. The agency, however, admits that “evidence is mostly limited to short and medium term effects and studies assessing longer term vaping are necessary.”
That advice has not changed despite recent scares, including the tragic death this year of Hollyoaks star Paul Danan, aged 46, who months earlier revealed how he had to be revived after suffering respiratory failure caused by excessive vaping.
Other shocking cases have emerged of collapsed lungs, fainting or vomiting ominous green liquid, linked to heavy vaping. Dr Boidin, who intends to publish his results as soon as possible after the study concludes, says he also has evidence that vaping impairs people’s levels of fitness, even in young vapers.
He believes vaping can actually be more dangerous than smoking because it’s much harder to know when to stop. “Smokers tend to go outside and smoke, and once a cigarette is finished they have to light up another to keep going. But with vapes you just keep going and it’s much harder to know how many puffs you’ve had.
Marine adds:“I’m going to quit. I never expected vapes to be as bad as cigarettes.” The Government has announced that disposable vapes – colourfully packaged devices that come in candy-like flavours and have been blamed for an increase in teenage users – will be banned from June.
But Dr Boidin says all vapes should only be available on prescription in Britain, to avoid a “health emergency.” He says: “The only benefit of vaping is to help people quit smoking, but if they keep vaping the result is going to be the same. I think doctors should be able to prescribe vapes for a certain time, so they could be used as a transition tool, but only for a short time.
“We now know the long-term effects of vaping, and if we don’t act now we will see a health emergency in the next ten, 15 years.” Rachael Maskell, Labour MP for York Central who has called for tighter restrictions on vapes, says: “This study adds to the body of evidence that vaping can cause significant harm to a person. The government should take stricter measures in ensuring that vapes are only accessible to people who currently smoke as a smoking cessation intervention.”
But Dr Marina Murphy, scientific spokesperson for the UK Vaping Industry Association, dismisses the study’s findings, saying: “Millions of people have been using vaping products safely for many years. All the available data suggests that vapes are unlikely to exceed 5% of the health risks associated with cigarettes.”