The entire country is in an uproar over the dangers of vaping and there’s newly discovered evidence which for the first time links e-cigarette use to cancer. It turns out the research is in mice. So how did they actually find the evidence?
The answer is that researchers couldn’t exactly get mice to vape — but they could simulate the conditions of inhaling a lot of vapor. "Humans just inhale, so we cannot completely replicate that. The next best is to just put the mice in a closed chamber with no air, and we inject the e-cigarette vapor. It's a closed system, where the only thing they can inhale is the e-cigarette vapor," Dr. Moon-Shong Tang, Professor of Environmental Medicine, Pathology and Medicine at New York University School of Medicine who authored this study tells SurvivorNet.
The E-Cigarette Uproar -- Understanding The Facts
Part of the problem with vaping is that because the science is still unclear, many people believe it’s not actually harmful, and while this study from NYU is a good start, there is still a lot unknown about the impact of vaping. Because vaping is still new, researchers haven’t been able to conduct long-term studies on the physical damage these products can do.
In a previous interview with SurvivorNet, Weill-Cornell thoracic surgeon Dr. Brendon Stiles explained that the need to study these products and their dangers now is urgent — and users shouldn’t assume that products are a safer alternative to cigarettes (as they were marketed to be.
Dr. Brendon Stiles, thoracic surgeon at Weill-Cornell, talks about the need for more research on vaping and lung cancer
“The reason doctors can’t say with certainty that vaping is dangerous is that there simply hasn’t been enough time to study the long-term effects yet,” Dr. Stiles told SurvivorNet, adding that these unknowns make it dire that research on the dangers is started sooner rather than later. “It’s very pressing to start researching this now. If we wait 10 to 15 years until we see the clinical effects in all these kids who are taking up vaping, it’s going to be too late.”
In its latest warning, the FDA acknowledged that there is still much more research to do, but said that there are serious indicators implicating THC-containing vape products as a real danger to a person’s health.
“This is a complex, ongoing and evolving investigation,” the FDA said. “In addition to our own analyses, we are also diligently reviewing published literature of third-party analyses of samples and data, which are beneficial to our ongoing investigation. At this time, the FDA does not have enough data to identify the cause, or causes, of lung injuries in these cases. Additionally, while no one compound or ingredient has emerged as a singular culprit, we do know that THC is present in most of the samples being tested.”
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