Troubling Vaping Studies
Some studies produce information that is unsettling, and certain pieces appear to be carried out for that reason.
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by Dave Cross
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“Electronic cigarette smoking increases aortic stiffness and blood pressure in young smokers,” claim researchers in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The team from the 1st cardiology department at Athens Medical School, Hippokration Hospital, Greece, believes that they have demonstrated electronic cigarettes create aortic and blood pressure conditions similar to those found when smoking cigarettes.
Having studied twenty-four 30-yr-old smokers across 96 sessions, the doctors link measurements of blood vessel stiffness to the use of ecigs. It is possible that different responses may have been discovered had they used ex-smokers or never smokers. Further questions might be raised by their methodology as the conditions studied included vaping for 5 and 30 minutes. Who vapes solidly for a thirty minute period?
They said: “With the strong tendency of [e-cigarettes] to spread worldwide, especially within younger ages, our findings have important implications that could aid recommendations regarding the use of [e-cigarette] smoking.”
The dubious findings come at the same time when Dr Andrew Higham from the University of Manchester is stating in the Respiratory Research journal that ecig vapour contains formaldehyde, “similar to traditional cigarettes”.
"Our research shows quite clearly that there are risks associated with long-term use of these devices in terms of pulmonary inflammation. There has been a lot of public discussion on e-Cigarettes. But we think that the public needs to be aware of the potential harm these devices may cause which will empower users to make informed decisions," writes Higham.
The Department of Forensic Science lab at Virginia Commonwealth University has to take this week’s top prize for nonsense research. They are looking into the efficacy of electronic cigarettes. Brilliant, we need more ammunition to prove that vaping works to help people quit smoking. Ah but no, they are testing e-cigarettes' efficacy for using illegal drugs.
"We are still in the process of looking at meth, so we're not ready to draw any definite conclusions other than, yes, it's in the vapor, and, yes, it's present in 'reasonable' concentrations - or unreasonable, depending on your viewpoint - meaning that it's vaporizing easily and it's easy to detect,” explains one of the recipients of the large $339,000 grant.
“We haven't tested THC [the primary psychoactive component of marijuana] or heroin yet, but we should be running those later in the summer.” Brilliant, that will make for some wonderful stories in the national newspapers.
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous vape companies to develop content for their websites.
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