Vaping increases the risk of developing asthma by more than 200 percent, a major new analysis has found.
Researchers at the University of Texas analyzed the health data of more than 40,000 people of all ages over five years.
At the start of the 2022 analysis, none of the participants had asthma.
At the end of the study, they found that about ten in every 1,000 adults had developed the common respiratory condition.
However, those who had used e-cigarettes in the 30 days before the final analysis had a 252 percent higher risk of developing asthma early in life, before age 27, compared to those who did not use e-cigarettes. .
E-cigarettes have been recognized as a safer alternative to smoking. In fact, researchers have found that its use dramatically increases the risk of developing asthma.
In adolescents, there was no significant link between e-cigarette use, according to data drawn from the long-term national Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study.
Dr. Adriana Pérez, a data scientist and author of the study, said her team’s findings may help them “motivate users to stop.”
The report was published in the magazine Open JAMA Network.
The myth that vaping is a safer alternative to smoking has been busted in recent years with rising rates of e-cigarette use linked to increasing lung problems.
Vaping is believed to send thousands of irritants and metal particles through the trachea, including chromium, manganese, nickel and lead.
Asthma, which affects about 25 million Americans, causes the airways to become inflamed, narrow and swollen, and produce extra mucus, making it difficult to breathe.
Johns Hopkins Medicine research concludes almost 11 percent of e-cigarette users reported having asthma, compared to eight percent of those who had never used the devices.
Jackson Allard vaped since he was 14, mainly nicotine, but also marijuana vaporizers. He developed a lung infection that filled his chest with fluid.
Permanent damage to her lungs required a double transplant, something rare for someone so young.
Additionally, of those who said they used e-cigarettes, about 11 percent said they had chronic bronchitis, emphysema or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, compared to 5.6 percent of people who said they had never used e-cigarettes.
Vaping nicotine has been cited as a safer way to smoke, as it does not produce the carcinogenic smoke of a traditional cigarette.
But a wide range of experts across the United States have warned about the irreversible lung damage seen in their young patients who use e-cigarettes.
One of those patients was 22-year-old North Dakota native Jackson Allard, who had to undergo a rare double lung transplant after years of vaping caused a serious infection that left lasting damage.
He was on life support for 70 days before undergoing surgery in January.
Allard’s grandmother, Doreen Hurlburt, said: “At one point a doctor said he had a 1 percent chance of living and we said, ‘He’s fighting, he’s fought for how many weeks are we going to give him a fighting chance,'” “We are not going to stop any procedures or anything.”
This week, Allard issued new warnings to young people to stay away from e-cigarettes and marijuana vaporizers that he says caused his lifelong health problems.