Scientists recently discovered that e-cigarettes lead to the same bacteria in the human body as when smoking regular cigarettes. They also conducted studies related to the emergence of addiction to nicotine, the results of which questioned the "safety" of electronic devices.
In recent years, the use of e-cigarettes and vapes has been surrounded by numerous controversies. The latest research, published in the open access journal Respiratory Research, may have influenced one aspect of this debate.
Scientists recently discovered that diseases caused by smoking, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma, are associated with specific bacteria. They concluded that e-cigarettes have the same effect on the occurrence of these bacteria as traditional tobacco cigarettes.
Safety and the essence of doubt
Electronic cigarettes or vapes are electrical appliances that imitate traditional tobacco smoking. They have a similar appearance to cigarettes, as well as smoke and smell, making the smoker hardly feel the difference.
This device consists of three parts: a tube filled with nicotine solution, an evaporator and a battery. By spraying, the vape converts nicotine into vapor, which is then inhaled by the owner of the device.
After countries increased government control over tobacco products, vaping quickly gained popularity. There are several reasons for this: vaping liquid does not contain common harmful substances such as tar or aerosols, and e-cigarettes are considered a reliable way to quit smoking.
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However, the properties and safety of electronic cigarettes are questionable. Currently, the United States, South Korea and several other countries define e-cigarettes as tobacco products; Austria, Canada, the United Kingdom and several other countries define them as medical devices, while in Italy and Russia they are considered general goods. At the same time, back in 2013, German scientists conducted a study on e-cigarettes and found that they contain large amounts of propylene glycol, which can irritate the respiratory tract and cause some acute symptoms. Thus, vaping is more harmful to the lungs than traditional cigarettes. Subsequently, many studies have confirmed that smoking e-cigarettes for a long time can also cause nicotine addiction.
Increased harmfulness of pathogenic microbes to the lungs
Recent research has shown that acute lung disease and the use of nicotine e-cigarettes and traditional tobacco products may be linked. A research team at the Queen's University Institute of Pharmacy in Belfast, UK, compared the effects of cigarette smoke and e-cigarette vapor on bacteria known to be associated with long-term lung disease resulting from smoking.
The researchers exposed bacteria such as Pfeiffer's bacillus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa to cigarette smoke extracts and e-cigarette vapor extracts during cultivation. A control group of bacteria was grown in an environment free of cigarette smoke and e-cigarette vapor extracts.
The researchers found that exposure to cigarette smoke or e-cigarette vapor extracts did not appear to adversely affect the growth of these bacteria. However, exposure to these extracts increased the formation of biomembranes of these bacteria, and this effect did not appear in the control group that was not exposed to vapor. Biomembranes are the mechanisms of one or more types of microorganisms, and the growth of biomembranes is known to be associated with the process of infection with various microbial infections.
This finding may indicate that cigarette smoke and e-cigarette vapors may increase the harmfulness of disease-causing bacteria in the lungs and contribute to the development of chronic infections.
To assess how harmful bacteria exposed to cigarette smoke or e-cigarette extracts are, that is, whether they provoke pathogenic changes, the researchers infected wax moth larvae with bacteria, which are a kind of living model for infections in the human body. The scientists wanted to test the effect of bacterial infections on larval survival. The results showed that the survival rate of moth larvae infected with bacteria exposed to cigarette smoke or e-cigarette vapor extracts was significantly lower compared to the control group.
In further experiments, the research team observed the process of infecting human lung cells with bacteria exposed to cigarette smoke extract or e-cigarette vapor extract, and found that in this situation, the amount of interleukin-8 (an important factor associated with the process of inflammation) produced by the cells increased. factor of.
Do vapers inhale more smoke with every breath than cigarette smokers?
Lead study author Deirdre Gilpin explains: “The theme of our study is to compare the effects of cigarette smoke and e-cigarette vapor on the behavior and pathogenicity of lung bacteria. The results were similar. This proves that e-cigarettes have the same effect on the main common pathogenic lung bacteria as cigarettes."
The researcher warns that the cigarette smoke and e-cigarette vapor extract used in the experiment were prepared in a similar way and in a similar proportion, and may not reflect the difference in the effect of nicotine on the smoker when smoking cigarettes and vaping.
Gilpin believes, “Compared to traditional smoking, e-cigarette users inhale much more smoke with each breath, which increases the amount of nicotine consumed when smoking a vape. Therefore, our model may underestimate the impact of nicotine on lung pathogenic bacteria from inhalation of e-cigarette vapors.”
In this study, scientists used a regular e-cigarette without added flavors, and bacteria were also treated only once with cigarette smoke and e-cigarette vapor. The researchers believe that further research is needed to examine the effects on humans of long-term use of e-cigarette flavors and other ingredients.
Zhang Mengzhan
