E-cigs no safer alternative than traditional smoking: Study

If you are an e-cigarette smoker and claim it to be 'safer' than combustible cigarettes, then take note. A new study warns that vapers are at risk of having heart attacks, strokes, and coronary heart diseases.

The study, conducted by the American Heart Association (AHA), found that heart attacks are nearly 60 per cent more common among vapers.

In addition, people who vape are twice as likely to also smoke traditional cigarettes as are those who do not vape.

"It's obviously quite concerning. This is a potential chip of the spear, of a wave of cardio-vascular disease, that may be coming in the future, especially since this has been so attractive to young users," Larry Goldstein, chairman of the Kentucky Neuroscience Institute, US was quoted as saying by Daily Mail.

E-cigarettes were often originally advertised as a cessation aid for smokers.

However, with increased research, it has become clear that 'safer' does not mean safe and that they are more likely to be an addition to, rather than substitute for, combustible cigarettes.

For the study, the team recruited 400,000 people among which 66,795 respondents who vaped had a 71 per cent higher risk of stroke.

The same group was at a 59 per cent higher risk of having a heart attack or angina.

Angina is a type of chest pain caused by reduced blood flow to the heart.

In addition, they were at 40 per cent greater risk of developing heart disease.

The researchers could not, however, conclude that vaping kills.

Importantly, rates of e-cigarette use are highest among the young people suggesting that only 4.2 per cent of adults vape, as compared to 11.3 per cent of high school students, reported Daily Mail.

The public health officials must continue to push for a ban on sweet flavoured e-liquids that are so enticing to younger users, Goldstein suggested.

"It's hard to know what contribution this has to that, but it doesn't appear to be safer, or safe right now from the data that's available," Goldstein noted.

--IANS

pb/oeb