E-Cigarettes Found To Harm Lungs, Immune System

E-cigarettes might harm the lungs and make them more susceptible to respiratory infections. Scientists studying the effect of e-cigarette vapors on mice found traces of free radical toxins in e-cigarettes, which are similar to the toxins found in cigarette smoke.

The PLOS One study found that e-cigarette vapor produced mild effects on the lungs, including inflammation and protein damage. E-cigarettes are popularly thought to be less harmful than cigarettes. While research is needed to prove how harmful they actually are, studies have found that they are not as harmless as they have been assumed to be.

When exposure to e-cigarette vapors was followed by bacterial or viral infection in the mice, the harmful effecs of e-cigarette vapors became even more pronounced. The study divided mice into two groups and exposed one of the groups to vapor from e-cigarettes. After two weeks, it was found that the mice in the exposed group were unable to effectively clear bacteria from their lungs. The viral infection they had been introduced to caused the mice in the exposed group to lose a lot of weight and in some cases killed the mice. The mice in the exposed group had a compromised immune system and were unable to fight off infection.

The scientists, led by Thomas Sussan, lead author of the study and assistant scientist in the department of environmental health sciences at Johns Hopkins University, said that further research is needed in people with a lung disease called chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to see how they were affected by switching from cigarettes to e-cigarettes. The scientists also disovered free radicals in e-cigarette vapor, but these were at 1 per cent the level found in normal cigrattes. Free radicals are highly reactive toxins that can damage DNA or other molecules within cells leading to cell death.

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