Dr.. Osama Abu Al-Rub

"You have an electronic cigarette," "the electronic cigarette is less harmful than the traditional", "the toxins present in the traditional cigarettes more than the electronic", these are some of the allegations made by the supporters of electronic cigarettes, and although some of them are true such as the proportions of some toxins in the electronic cigarettes are less, they In the end, they "lied," as electronic cigarettes are harmful.

After causing dozens of deaths in the United States, a recent study found that it increased the risk of lung infection with chronic diseases such as asthma or inflation.

This does not mean that users of electronic cigarettes return to the use of traditional cigarettes, but in all cases they must quit smoking in all its forms.

When e-cigarettes began to be marketed, their supporters said they were less harmful than traditional cigarettes, and that they were helping to stop smoking, but as smokers increased, terrifying data emerged.

In 2018, an American study warned that the flavors of electronic cigarettes - such as cinnamon and vanilla flavors - are toxic to white blood cells. The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center in the United States, and published in the Frontiers in Physiology scientific journal.

Plan to ban
Last September, the administration of President Donald Trump announced plans to ban the sale of all electronic cigarettes of various flavors as part of an expanded campaign, while officials warned that sweet flavors had left millions of minors in the nicotine addiction circle.

At that time, Minister of Health and Human Services Alex Azar stated that the data showed an increase in the use of e-cigarettes by young people, and that young people were attracted to flavors such as mint and menthol. About eight million American adults use such cigarettes as well as about five million minors.

An electronic cigarette is a tool used to breathe nicotine that is liquid, is heated, and turns into steam, and comes in many forms.

The electronic cigarette contains a battery that heats a liquid, the smoker inhales its vapor, and it has many forms that evolve over time, and its size varies according to the capacity of the battery.

The controversy over electronic cigarettes has increased recently, and days ago, US health officials said that four deaths occurred last week as a result of a mysterious respiratory disease linked to smoking electronic cigarettes, which raises the total number of deaths to 52.

And the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also announced the treatment of 118 new cases in hospitals in 50 states, one district and two districts of US territory as of December 10. The number of people treated in hospitals was 2409.

Certain deaths were reported in 26 states and the District of Colombia.

The worsening
This comes at a time when the United States faces a crisis of the growing use of electronic cigarettes among young men and women. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 27.5% of high school students in the United States use e-cigarettes, up from 20.7% in 2018.

Officials announced last month that vitamin E acetate, believed to be used in illegal electronic smoking products containing marijuana, was discovered in all lung samples from 29 patients.

The Centers for Disease Control described Vitamin E acetate as a “worrying chemical” and recommended that it not be added to e-cigarettes or e-smoking products, while investigations are ongoing.

asthma
In a related development, researchers said that the use of electronic cigarettes strongly increases the risk of lung infection with chronic diseases such as asthma or inflation.

The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, is among the first studies to illustrate the potential long-term harms of e-cigarette use that is usually promoted as a safer alternative to tobacco and a way to help stop smoking.

The study concluded that electronic cigarettes increase the risk of lung disease by one third compared to those who have never smoked or used electronic cigarettes. The risk was greater among adults using both electronic cigarettes and tobacco.

"E-cigarettes are being promoted as harmless, but they are not," chief researcher Stanton Glantz, director of the Center for Tobacco Control and Education at the University of California, San Francisco, said in a telephone interview.

Glantz and his colleagues used the data of 32,000 adults who were included in the Tobacco and Health Population Assessment conducted by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which tracks e-cigarette and tobacco use habits, as well as diagnosed lung disease between 2013 and 2016.

Increased risk of disease
At the beginning of the study, no one was suffering from lung diseases. After three years, the researchers found that those who used electronic cigarettes increased their risk of diseases such as asthma, bronchitis, lung enlargement, or chronic obstructive pulmonary by 30% compared to those who did not smoke tobacco and never used electronic cigarettes.

Those who smoked tobacco had almost twice the risk of developing chronic lung disease compared to those who had never smoked. The study found that the risk was three times greater among those who used both tobacco and electronic cigarettes.

"Everyone, including me, believed that e-cigarettes are the same as tobacco cigarettes but they are not as bad, and if you replace some of the usual cigarettes with electronic cigarettes it may be better ... but it turns out to be worse ... e-cigarettes constitute Unique risk related to lung disease. "

All the previous data indicates that even if the supporters of electronic cigarettes believed in some of the allegations, such as that they are less in terms of the content in some toxins, however, these cigarettes contain other toxins which are harmful and deadly, and therefore their supporters lied when they said that it is safe and not harmful to health.