Vaping could increase the risk of infection ‘as it damages immune system cells’
Study suggests e-cigarettes alter genes that control immune cells leaving users open to bacterial infection
VAPING could increase the risk of infection because it damages genes in the immune system, scientists claim.
A study suggests e-cigarettes alter hundreds of genes that control immune cells in the throat, mouth, nose and sinuses, leaving users open to bacterial infection.
It found smoking cigarettes decreased the power of 53 genes important for the immune response of what are known as epithelial cells. E-cigs had a similar effect on 358 genes, including the 53 genes hit by smoking cigarettes.
Professor Ilona Jaspers, of the University of North Carolina, said the findings do not mean vaping is as bad as cigarettes.
She said: “It is a mistake to try to directly compare cigarette smoking and e-cigarette use.
“We honestly do not yet know what long-term effects e-cigarettes might have.
I suspect they will not be the same as the effects of cigarette smoking.
Diseases like cancer and emphysema usually take many years to develop in smokers.
“But people have not been using e-cigarettes for long. We don’t know how the effects of e-cigarette use might manifest in ten or 15 years.”
There are more than two million UK vapers compared with about ten million cigarette smokers.