The use of e-cigarettes, also known as vaping, has only continued to increase in popularity over the years. In the U.S., e-cigarettes are the second-most common form of tobacco use. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), over one million middle and high school students identify as e-cigarette users, with the percentage of adult users increasing from 4.5 percent in 2019 to 6.5 percent in 2023.
When it comes to traditional “combustible” cigarettes, the health risks are long-studied and well-defined. However, there is a lack of long-term studies on the health effects of vaping, especially for adults.
A new study out of Johns Hopkins Medicine gives us important insights into the health risks associated with e-cigarettes.
“There remains great uncertainty about the relative harm of e-cigarettes as compared to traditional smoking,” says Michael Blaha, senior author of the study and professor of cardiology and epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in a press release. “Until now, there has been scant longitudinal data in large, high-quality datasets linking exclusive e-cigarette use to new-onset cardiometabolic health conditions.”
Vaping and COPD
The study, published in Nicotine & Tobacco Research, confirms the link between e-cigarette use and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This counteracts some claims that e-cigarettes are the “safer” option when compared to traditional cigarettes.
It is well-documented that traditional cigarettes carry a host of health risks, including COPD, heart disease, heart failure, heart attack, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. In the U.S., eight out of ten COPD-related deaths can be linked to smoking traditional cigarettes, as reported by the CDC.
Although the risk of developing COPD while smoking traditional cigarettes is higher than vaping-only, researchers found a significant association between e-cigarettes and COPD. They also found that vaping minimally increases your risk for hypertension, as well.
These results align with previous studies that have found vaping can increase your chances of developing asthma, along with a general higher risk for new respiratory disease symptoms.
Read More: Is Vaping Healthier Than Smoking? Here's What One Lung Specialist Can Tell Us
Largest Vaping Study
A study of this scope and scale has not been conducted before on the health effects and risks associated with vaping in adults. For this analysis, medical information was gathered on a diverse group of almost a quarter-million people ranging in age from 30 years to 70 years old.
Out of the people studied, 3,164 reported that they exclusively smoked e-cigarettes, while 8,316 commonly used both e-cigarettes and traditional cigarettes. Another 33,778 were traditional-only smokers, and the remaining 203,932 didn’t smoke at all.
The research team followed up on the medical records of these individuals four years after the initial report. They found that there were 23,745 new cases of hypertension, 13,179 cases of type 2 diabetes, 9,801 cases of heart failure, and 7,925 new cases of COPD.
There was no significant correlation between those who only smoked e-cigarettes and an increase in type 2 diabetes or heart failure. But there was a notable increase between e-cigarette smoking and COPD diagnosis that researchers think deserves long-term attention.
“These results are a critical stepping stone for future prospective research on the health effects of e-cigarettes. While in this short-term study there was no association between exclusive e-cigarette use and cardiovascular events, there was an association with incident COPD and possibly hypertension that will need to be closely watched over longer term follow-up,” continues Blaha in a press release.
The authors of the study hope these results will be used in future regulations and policies surrounding the health risks of vaping.
This article is not offering medical advice and should be used for informational purposes only.
Read More: What Happens to Your Body When You Quit Smoking?
Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
Nicotine & Tobacco Research. E-cigarette Use and Incident Cardiometabolic Conditions in the All of Us Research Program
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Electronic Cigarette Use Among Adults in the United States, 2019–2023
As the marketing coordinator at Discover Magazine, Stephanie Edwards interacts with readers across Discover's social media channels and writes digital content. Offline, she is a contract lecturer in English & Cultural Studies at Lakehead University, teaching courses on everything from professional communication to Taylor Swift, and received her graduate degrees in the same department from McMaster University. You can find more of her science writing in Lab Manager and her short fiction in anthologies and literary magazine across the horror genre.
