14 June, 2017
New York, June 12, 2017: Electronic cigarettes loaded with nicotine-based liquid are potentially as harmful as tobacco cigarettes when it comes to cancer-causing DNA damage, new research has found. Testing the effects of electronic cigarettes or e-cigarettes, in a new study that has yielded some game-changing, but not altogether unexpected, results. At the time, PHE called for Global Positioning System to be able to prescribe e-cigarettes on the NHS to help people quit smoking.
UConn's scientists chose to look into whether the chemicals in e-cigarettes could cause damage to human DNA while testing a new electro-optical screening device they developed in their lab.
The recent study from the University of CT is not without its own other interests either. Although the use of e-cigarettes - called vaping - is believed by many experts to be less toxic than cigarette smoking - and could even help some people quit smoking - recent research at Penn State College of Medicine and other institutions indicates that inhaled aerosols produced by vaporizing e-liquids are not harmless.
They introduced liquid samples to a specialized tool that would allow them to interact with human enzymes and DNA, .
Scientists looked into whether the chemicals in e- cigarettes could cause damage to human DNA while testing a new electro-optical screening device they developed in their lab. The more damaged the DNA was, the higher the risk for cancerous cells to form.
The same PATH participants will continue to be surveyed to determine if experimental e-cigarette users eventually become traditional smokers.
"The study also found that vapor from non-nicotine e-cigarettes has many "chemical additives", causing cellular mutations" that can lead to cancer.
Researchers found that potential DNA damage from e-cigarettes increased with the number of puffs people took.
He stated that at the time of the report, e-cigarettes were the most common tobacco-based product used by young Americans, an achievement that was nowhere near to be accomplished in 2010 when someone smoking an e-cigarette was an odd sight.
E-cigarettes are widely promoted as a safer replacement for tobacco. Of the e-cigarette users, 93 per cent once regularly smoked cigarettes and about 7 per cent experimented with cigarette smoking.
"We suspect that most e-cigarette users are either experimental users or dual users of e-cigarettes and at least one type of traditional tobacco product, like cigarettes", Liu said. Among those, about 5 percent exclusively used e-cigarettes and about 95 percent exclusively smoked cigarettes. In younger people, it may cause damage to memory, attention span, and arteries.
While there are hundreds of chemicals in e-cigarettes that could potentially be contributing to DNA damage, Kadimisetty targeted three known carcinogens found in tobacco cigarettes for comparative purposes. "But from a practical view, they're probably on the order of 80% to 85% less unsafe, at least", states Kenneth Warner, a tobacco policy specialist at the University of MI.
