American Heart Association says vaping is just as bad for the heart as smoking cigarettes

E-cigarettes can be just as dangerous as traditional tar-filled cigarettes, according to the leading heart health medical organization.

The influential American Heart Association warned that vape devices contain a cocktail of nicotine, thickeners, solvents and flavors likely to pose the same serious cardiovascular health risks, including raising blood pressure, as cigarette smoking.

The AHA’s policy of discouraging the use of e-cigarettes, once touted as viable smoking cessation products, is one of the strongest by an influential medical association in years.

The organization’s position is supported by growing evidence pointing to heart and lung damage, science that in 2019 formed the basis for similar policies from the American Medical Association and the American Lung Association.

E-cigarettes with high nicotine concentrations contain other compounds that have been shown in laboratory studies to increase heart and lung disease in animals. And more research on their long-term effects is needed, especially given that more than 2.5 million young people are currently vaping.

Dr. Rose Marie Robertson, the AHA’s deputy chief of science and medicine, said: ‘E-cigarette companies have suggested that their products are a way to quit smoking traditional cigarettes. There is no strong evidence to support this beyond any short-term benefit.

“The lack of long-term scientific safety data on e-cigarette use, along with the potential for addiction to e-cigarette products among youth, are some of the reasons why the American Heart Association does not recommend e-cigarette use for quitting.”

For people who are eager to quit nicotine in any form, the AHA recommends that people use an FDA-approved method such as nicotine replacement gum or patches that remain on the skin for up to 24 hours at a time.

Dr. Robertson added, “And all of this should be undertaken with the understanding that quitting often takes many attempts, and any failures should be seen as mere episodes to learn from on the way to finally beating a powerful addiction for good.”

More research is needed into the long-term effects on the heart, lungs and blood vessels and further research is also needed in people who report smoking traditional cigarettes in addition to e-cigarettes – the so-called dual-users – compared to e-cigarette users and non-smokers.

E-cigarettes were introduced in the US in the early 2010s and quickly caught on as millions of people believed manufacturers’ arguments that the products were a safer way to get a nicotine fix than smokable cigarettes.

Dr. Jason Rose, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and chair of the AHA’s scientific statement writing committee, said: “Because e-cigarettes and other vaping systems have only been around in the U.S. for about 15 years, we don’t yet have enough information about their long-term health effects, so we have to rely on short-term studies, molecular experiments and animal research to try to assess the true risk of e-cigarette use.”

But while the devices generate a vapor free of acrid smoke and tar, the AHA’s heart and lung health experts said they still know far too little about the effects of years of using the vape devices. Doctors on the ground have already seen significant damage to health in 2019 in the form of acute lung injury.

Dr. Rose said: ‘E-cigarettes introduce numerous substances into the body that are potentially harmful, including chemicals and other compounds that the user is unlikely to be aware of or understand.

“The long-term risks of e-cigarette use are unknown, but if the risks of chronic use are similar to combustible cigarettes, or even if the risks are reduced but still present, we may not see them for decades.”

“What is equally concerning is that studies show that some young people who use e-cigarettes go on to use other tobacco products, and there is also an association between e-cigarette use and substance use disorders.”

The 2019 lung injury outbreak saw more than 2,800 hospitalizations. Fifteen percent were under the age of 18.

This led to a strong warning from the highly influential American Medical Association against the use of e-cigarettes, as well as a call for a blanket ban on products not approved as smoking cessation aids (there were no FDA-approved devices at the time).

In addition to high concentrations of the addictive chemical nicotine, often as high as five percent, e-cigarettes contain risky additives, including flavorings, glycerol and metals that are released into the fluids as the battery heats up.

Prolonged exposure to diacetyl and acetylpropionyl, two flavor additives, has been linked to shortness of breathchronic cough, asthma and blocked airways.

For example, the authors of the statement cited evidence that exposing the cells lining the airways and lungs to aerosol produced by eight different types of flavored Juul pods increased inflammation, caused damage to the cells’ DNA and decreased the function of the lung’s protective barrier.

Another common ingredient in e-cigarettes under scrutiny is glycerol, a carrier for flavors and the compound that causes the tickle in the back of the throat that many smokers crave when looking for a non-cigarette alternative.

The AHA experts wrote, ‘Glycol mixtures are used to create theatrical fog and smoke, and long-term occupational exposure is associated with higher reports of wheezing and chest tightness.

“Short-term exposure to glycol mixtures is associated with acute dry cough and throat irritation, as well as decreased lung function in individuals with higher exposures.”

A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention produced a shocking finding: that more than 2.5 million American youth are addicted to nicotine in e-cigarette devices.

Manufacturers and retailers have expressed a willingness to market products that entice young people, even those who otherwise would not have picked up a nicotine product, drawing the ire of medical experts and parents.

The rate at which U.S. high school students regularly used e-cigarettes rose 25 percent between 2021 and 2022, largely due to disposable devices like the mega-popular Elf Bar.

Juul also seemed to mimic advertising styles used to great effect by tobacco companies, an example of the burgeoning industry taking a page out of the latter’s playbook.

It took decades of pressure and scrutiny from the medical and research communities to hold the tobacco industry accountable for falsely claiming that their products were non-addictive.

The US Surgeon General first warned of a link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer in 1964, but it wasn’t until the late 1980s and 1990s, when people began to get seriously ill after years of smoking, that attitudes began to change.

A similar campaign appears to be playing out for e-cigarettes, with industry big hitters such as Juul now being enemy number one for helping to addict about 2.6 million American teens to nicotine.

Now, just as focused on the idea that more needs to be done to regulate access to cigarettes and the companies that make them, influential groups such as the AHA and the AMA have called for stricter rules about who can buy them, use them and where.

There was a brief time when e-cigarettes were accepted in indoor public places, even hospitals, an idea that MAY seem strange, but at second glance may not, given that smoking was only banned in bars and restaurants about 20 years ago.