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Vapers Needed By Researchers

A call has been put out for vapers to help researchers at the Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group, University College London

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The vaping community welcomes research that helps it to make informed choices. Now comes an opportunity for British vapers to assist researchers at University College London (UCL). Hannah Proudfoot is seeking volunteers to help with a study being led by Dr. Lion Shahab.

The project title is: Comparative toxicological and psychopharmacological assessment of potential reduced-exposure products and conventional cigarettes: a cross-sectional, crossover study. It is being conducted by the Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group, located in the Department of Behavioural Science and Health at UCL.

Hannah writes: “To be eligible to take part in this study, you must have smoked an average of five or more cigarettes per day for at least six months but stopped using tobacco products at least three months ago and have used only e-cigarettes for at least three months.”

Subjects need to be over 18yrs old, not pregnant, and not have any heart or lung diseases. People accepted onto the program will have to attend a one-hour interview, provide a sample of urine and show what liquid and device they are using that day.

“To verify whether you are smoking or not smoking, we will ask you to blow into a machine that measures the amount of carbon monoxide in your breath. To do this, you have to take a deep breath, hold it for 15 seconds and then blow into the machine. We will also ask you to blow as hard and fast as you can into a Vitalograph, a small, hand-held device, intended for measuring lung function. We will measure your heart rate using a smartphone app which will monitor the pulse rate in your fingertip. These measures will be repeated up to three times to obtain accurate readings.”

“We will ask you to provide a urine sample before using your e-cigarette. This will be temporarily stored in a secure laboratory at UCL and later sent overseas to a laboratory to be tested for the levels of certain tobacco-related toxins and carcinogens that may be in your body. We will not test your urine sample for anything else and we will not share any personal information with lab personnel (all samples will be labelled with an anonymous code). Samples will be destroyed after analysis.”

Participants will receive a payment of £20, in the form of an Amazon voucher, and five pounds towards travel costs. People can opt to donate the value of the voucher to Cancer Research UK.

For more information see our article here: https://www.planetofthevapes.co.uk/news/health-studies/2018-06-27_ucl-study-novel-nicotine-and-tobacco-product-health-effects.html

Dave Cross avatar

Dave Cross

Journalist at POTV
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Dave 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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