The American Heart Association says that vaping is not safer than smoking cigarettes. MPB's Kobee Vance reports on a new study that talks about the long term effects of vaping.
Two new studies found that vaping has side effects that can have long-term impacts on the circulatory system. The study also says vaping leads to higher cholesterol levels and lower blood flow compared to cigarettes. Both studies are being presented at the 2019 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Michael Hall is an associate professor of medicine and cardiologist at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. He says vaping is not the solution to quit smoking.
“There’s nicotine replacement products that have been out in the market for years. Gums, patches, those things are definitely, or at least appear to be safer than vaping. And then there’s other types of medications that require prescriptions. But certainly, there are other alternatives rather than vaping.”
Bill Wikstrom is the President of the Mississippi Vaping Advocacy Association and owner of Vaporized in Pearl. He says the formulas in vape fluid are not as harmful as traditional cigarettes.
“When you’re talking about tobacco harm reduction, we’re talking about vaping versus combustible tobacco. And as I pointed out, 4,000 to 7,000 different chemicals with the combustible tobacco versus just the vapor. So when you have something like say an inhaler that has albuterol, it’s really not all that much different. Except, you may have a medicine versus nicotine in it.”
Wikstrom says he understands vaping is not 100 percent safer than cigarettes. However, he cites a 2016 study by the Royal College of Physicians that shows vaping is at least 95 percent less harmful than smoking tobacco.
The American Heart Association says if people plan to use vapes to quit smoking tobacco, they should also plan to quit vaping. They say there is no long-term data on the safety of vaping, but there are decades of data on the dangerous effects of nicotine and smoking.
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