propylene glycol, glycerol and flavoring. The heating creates a “vapor,” and additional toxic chemicals, which are inhaled.
It’s a brew that is far from “safe,” stresses Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos, a volunteer medical spokesman for the American Lung Association (ALA).
“Your lungs do not want these chemicals,” says Galiatsatos.
Just as cigarette smoking creates low-grade inflammation throughout the body, he explains, so too can vaping. Given that systemic inflammation underlies a host of disease processes, Galiatsatos says it is not surprising to see vaping linked to a condition like prediabetes.
Still, since vaping is a relatively recent phenomenon, it is not yet clear whether it carries long-term disease risks similar to smoking — including emphysema, heart disease and various cancers.
But research into shorter-term “surrogate outcomes” is building a case against e-cigarettes, according to Galiatsatos.
Studies have found, for example, that vaping can immediately impair blood vessel function. And a recent ALA-funded study found young adults who vaped were at heightened risk of developing problems with wheezing and dry cough within a year of starting the habit.
For the current study, Biswal’s team used data from an annual federal health survey that covers a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults. They focused on more than 600,000 Americans surveyed between 2016 and 2018.
Overall, cigarette smokers were more likely to say they had been diagnosed with