Warnings about the short- and long-term health risks associated with vaping continue. The latest was done by researchers at Concordia University (Canada) after verifying that tocopherol (an organic compound known as vitamin E) contained as an additive in electronic cigarettes damages the lungs.
Specifically, the authors have verified that, when heated and inhaled, this compound becomes embedded in pulmonary surfactant, the thin membrane mixture of lipids and proteins that covers the surface of the lung alveoli with the function of regulating gas exchange and stabilize the surface tension of the lungs during breathing.
And by binding to it, the properties of the surfactant are altered, changing its ability to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide as well as the surface tension of the lungs, which affects breathing. “Combined, these changes make breathing more difficult,” the researchers explain in an article published in the journal Langmuir.
After observing with different techniques how the presence of the additive changed the properties of the pulmonary surfactant, Canadian researchers believe that this is the molecular basis of the respiratory problems and the reduction in oxygen levels that doctors detect in people suffering from EVALI ( lung injury associated with the use of electronic cigarettes or vaping products).
The director of the study, Christine DeWolf, explains that many of the components contained in vaping products are approved by the FDA (the US government agency that regulates food and drugs) for other uses “but the high heating rates necessary to vaporize them They can cause more chemical reactions to occur, and the components that are actually inhaled may not be those of the original liquid” that is put in the electronic cigarette.
In 2022, a team of researchers from the Division of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at Stanford University has already warned that products such as melatonin, lavender, tea, vitamins, caffeine, cannabidiol or glycerin that young people and not so young people use in vaporizers are substances that are more or less safe if ingested or used on the skin but that have never been inhaled until now and there are no guarantees that they are harmless when introduced into the body hot and in the form of vapor.
Hence the interest in knowing the impact that vaping additives have on the lung membrane and the respiratory system, especially thinking about the short and long-term health of the younger generations, who are the ones that use these devices the most.
In fact, the article published now is only the first of a larger project by these researchers to analyze the components of vaping products that deliver nicotine or cannabinoids to their users. Its authors believe that their work should be used to educate regulatory bodies about the risks of additives on lung function.
