Vaping can cause as much damage to young people’s lungs as smoking, research has suggested.
The study by a team led by Dr Azmy Faisal, a senior lecturer in cardiorespiratory physiology at Manchester Metropolitan University, prompts questions about the extent to which vaping – widely agreed to be effective in helping people to stop smoking – also comes with health risks.
Dr Faisal presented findings from his study to this weekend’s European Respiratory Society (ESC) conference in Vienna, The Guardian newspaper reported.
The study compared vapers and smokers using a strenuous exercise test and found both groups emerged as being less fit and much more out of breath than people who have neither habit.
The team asked 60 people in their 20s to have their lung capacity recorded by spending time on a static exercise bike. Twenty were non-smokers, 20 others had vaped for at least two years and the other 20 had smoked for at least two years.
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The vapers had an average ‘peak exercise capacity’, which, at 186 watts, was similar to that of the smokers (182 watts) but much lower than that among the non-smokers or vapers (226 watts). The test measures the maximum amount of physical exercise that someone can achieve, the newspaper reported.
In addition, the vapers and smokers were less able to take in oxygen – at 2.7 litres and 2.6 litres a minute, respectively – than those who neither smoked nor vaped (3 litres).
“The study adds to growing evidence that long-term use of vaping is harmful and challenges the idea that vaping could be a healthier alternative to smoking,” said Dr Faisal and his co-authors.
“Both vapers and smokers showed signs that their blood vessels were not working as well as the non-smoking and non-vaping group, according to the blood tests and ultrasound scans.
“The smokers and the vapers were more out of breath, experienced intense leg fatigue and had higher levels of lactate in their blood, a sign of muscle fatigue, even before they reached their maximum level of exercise,” they added.
Over the summer, research from the charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) suggested that vapes have been the most popular aid to quitting among those who have successfully stopped smoking in the last five years.
It found that, overall, 5.6 million adults in the UK currently vape, 53% of whom have stopped smoking, 39% are still smoking and 8% have never smoked.
Among all those who stopped smoking in the last five years just over half report they used a vape to quit equating to 2.7 million people. Of those a third have also stopped vaping and the average duration of their vaping was a year.
There was now “well established” evidence that vaping is an effective aid to quitting smoking and less harmful than smoking, the charity also argued.
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