E-cigarettes may inflame lungs as much as cigarettes do
Indicator of lung inflammation changes as much after ‘vaping’ as after smoking
By Janet Raloff
Using electronic cigarettes has the same short-term effects on the lungs as smoking conventional tobacco cigarettes, a study finds. Both products triggered sharp reductions in exhaled nitric oxide among 25 volunteers. Toxicologists view drops in the gas as a marker of inflammation that signals airway damage.
After ‘vaping,’ or inhaling e-cigarettes’ vapors, volunteers exhaled 2.2 to 3.2 parts per billion less nitric oxide than when exhaling normally. The bigger drop came after volunteers vaped a nicotine-free fluid. Smoking regular cigarettes dropped nitric oxide values by 2.8 parts per billion. An earlier study found a similar trend but couldn’t rule out nicotine as the culprit in the larger drop.