A new study that looked at immune changes in the airways of the lungs has challenged the idea that e-cigarettes are less harmful to health than conventional tobacco cigarettes. Share on Pinterest Researchers find that e-cigarettes might harm the lungs just as much as conventional cigarettes do. In a paper about to be published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill report what they believe to be the first study to use human airway samples to examine the effects of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes). E-cigarettes are battery-operated devices that produce an inhalable aerosol mixture of chemicals that includes nicotine, flavorings, and other substances. Some mixtures do not include nicotine. At present, there are more than 460 different e-cigarette brands for sale in the United States. Devices come in many different forms, several of which resemble conventional cigarettes, pipes, and cigars, while others resemble pens and USB memory sticks. Others may look quite different, such as those with fillable tanks.

‘Confusion’ about e-cigarette safety A recent population study that found that e-cigarette use is linked to smoking cessation suggests that around 2.4 percent of U.S. adults are regular users. E-cigarette use has been growing particularly quickly among teenagers. Between 2011 and 2015, the proportion of U.S. high-school students using e-cigarettes rose from 1.5 to 16.0 percent, while among middle-school students, it rose from 0.6 percent to 5.3 percent. In 2016, there were more than 2 million middle- and high-school students using e-cigarettes. “There is confusion about whether e-cigarettes are ‘safer’ than cigarettes because the potential adverse effects of e-cigarettes are only beginning to be studied,” explains senior study author Mehmet Kesimer, Ph.D., an associate professor of pathology. For their investigation, Prof. Kesimer and his colleagues tested sputum samples taken from 15 regular users of e-cigarettes, 14 current smokers of conventional cigarettes, and 15 non-smokers who had never used either type of cigarette. They confirmed the smoking status of the participants from tests of blood and urine samples.