Every bite may bring you one step closer to cancer! Its harm to the body is more terrible than you think

Reviewer of this article: Chen Haixu, Deputy Director and Master Supervisor of the Second Medical Center of PLA General Hospital

At a time when "smoking is harmful to health" has become common knowledge, e-cigarettes have become popular in the market with concepts such as "a magic tool for quitting smoking", "healthy and harmless", "fashionable and personalized", and "many flavors". They have been sought after by countless old smokers and even become a new "trendy toy" in the eyes of tens of millions of young people. However, starting from May 1 this year, the sale of "fruit-flavored" e-cigarettes has been officially banned!

On March 11, 2022, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration issued a major document, the "E-cigarette Management Measures", which is scheduled to be officially implemented on May 1, 2022. It proposes: prohibiting the sale of flavored e-cigarettes other than tobacco flavors and e-cigarettes that can add atomizers by themselves, explicitly prohibiting the sale of e-cigarette products to minors, and proposing that e-cigarette product sales outlets should not be set up around schools.

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Upon hearing this news, the first reaction of many e-cigarette consumers was to stock up! Therefore, before the implementation, the price of "fruit-flavored" e-cigarettes rose, and even fell into a situation where "one cartridge was hard to find". But the editor would like to remind everyone that e-cigarettes are not safe, and their potential health risks may be more terrible than traditional cigarettes!

Electronic cigarettes are also cigarettes

If inhaled, it will cause harm to the body

Electronic cigarettes are electronic devices that imitate tobacco, generally consisting of a battery, a heated atomizer, and a cartridge that stores smoke liquid. When the smoke liquid is heated by the atomizer, it can form aerosols of various flavors, giving users the pleasure of "puffing out smoke".

Because there is no need for combustion, e-cigarettes can avoid harmful products of incomplete combustion such as tar, but this does not mean that it is safe - most e-cigarette liquids on the market also contain the addictive substance nicotine, and may even contain toxic substances that are not found in traditional cigarettes. As long as they are inhaled, they will cause harm to the body!

Causes "popcorn lung"

E-cigarettes may cause a serious, fatal and irreversible lung disease, bronchiolitis obliterans pneumonia. It is caused by diacetyl, a fragrance chemical in the airflow of e-cigarettes. Diacetyl is the main component of popcorn flavor, so this special pneumonia is also called "popcorn lung."

Since e-cigarettes are not as irritating as traditional cigarettes, people who smoke e-cigarettes tend to inhale more deeply, and diacetyl will enter the lungs more deeply. Over time, the lungs will become as hard as "old bacon", lose elasticity, and affect breathing.

Increased cancer risk

E-cigarette liquid is usually made of propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin mixed in different proportions. When these two substances are heated, they may produce toxic aldehydes such as formaldehyde, acrolein, and acetaldehyde. These substances not only have a strong irritating effect on the respiratory system, but formaldehyde and acetaldehyde are also listed as Class 1 and Class 2B carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

Therefore, long-term e-cigarette smoking will also increase the risk of lung cancer and other cancers. The earliest tobacco is more likely to cause squamous cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer due to shallow inhalation; while e-cigarettes are relatively less irritating and are more likely to be inhaled more deeply, leading to more peripheral lung cancer.

Increased risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases

A US research report presented at the 2019 International Stroke Conference showed that the use of e-cigarettes significantly increases the risk of stroke and myocardial infarction. Researchers believe that the aerosols from e-cigarette smoke can increase platelet aggregation and lead to microthrombi in blood vessels.

Compared with respondents who had never used e-cigarettes, those who used e-cigarettes had a 71% higher risk of stroke, a 59% higher risk of myocardial infarction, and a 40% higher risk of angina or coronary heart disease.

In addition, the nicotine in e-cigarettes may also cause slow brain development in adolescents, resulting in inattention, memory loss, and even learning disabilities, anxiety and other problems.

E-cigarettes have 4 potential health risks

Probably worse than cigarettes!

It should be noted that the harm of e-cigarettes is not limited to this. Compared with traditional cigarettes, it also has four major potential health risks, which should attract our attention!

The harm of secondhand smoke is more hidden

E-cigarettes are marketed as "safe and harmless", which makes people relax their vigilance against them and allows people to smoke in public places and at home, causing more people to be harmed by second-hand smoke and even third-hand smoke.

In fact, the aerosol produced by e-cigarettes is not just "water vapor" as many businesses advertise, but contains many toxic substances. According to the World Health Organization, the secondhand aerosol of e-cigarettes is a new source of air pollution that produces particulate matter, certain volatile organic compounds, certain heavy metals and nicotine. Therefore, when people around inhale it, it will also cause harm to their health.

More vulnerable to drug abuse

The threshold for producing e-cigarettes is low, and ordinary people can mix e-liquids with different proportions of ingredients, and can also add a variety of dangerous ingredients to the e-liquid; coupled with the relative lack of supervision in the production of e-cigarettes, it is easier for some criminals to exploit loopholes than traditional cigarettes.

In July 2021, the drug control and anti-drug department of the public security organ in Mianyang City, Sichuan Province, received a report from the public and cracked down on a criminal gang that processed and sold "shangtou electronic cigarettes". According to the investigation, the e-liquid of "shangtou electronic cigarettes" contains synthetic cannabinoids, which is a new type of drug; it is widely popular among young people and has great harm.

Easier to lure teenagers

Among the cigarette cartridges sold in the market, more than 90% are non-tobacco flavors, such as fruit flavor, candy flavor, mint flavor and other novel tastes, coupled with beautiful and cool shells, which have successfully attracted many teenagers with poor judgment and pursuit of novelty.

According to a survey conducted by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention: In 2019, the e-cigarette use rate among junior high school students was 2.7%, the e-cigarette use rate among high school students was 2.2%, and the e-cigarette use rate among vocational school students was 4.5%.

More addictive

Most e-cigarettes contain nicotine, a harmful substance that affects brain nerves and is addictive. In addition, some e-cigarettes have a variety of novel flavors, which can make people relax their vigilance against tobacco, resulting in a "gateway effect" - even non-smokers can become nicotine-dependent due to exposure to e-cigarettes and then become cigarette smokers.

A global systematic survey shows that non-smoking children and adolescents under the age of 20 who use e-cigarettes are more than twice as likely to smoke in the future.

The release of the new regulations on “cutting off sweetness” in e-cigarettes will undoubtedly reduce the appeal of e-cigarettes to the public to a certain extent, thereby helping to control smoking and reduce the smoking rate among young people.

Can e-cigarettes help people quit smoking?

The harm may outweigh the benefits!

There is no doubt that e-cigarettes are harmful. But some people may ask, compared with traditional cigarettes, e-cigarettes are relatively less harmful, can they be used as a means for old smokers to quit smoking? In this regard, experts recommend: It is not recommended to use e-cigarettes to quit smoking.

It is true that e-cigarettes were originally conceived to replace traditional tobacco and help smokers reduce or stop using traditional cigarettes; some studies have found that it does help some smokers.

But the reality is that most adults who use e-cigarettes to quit smoking do not stop smoking, but continue to use e-cigarettes and smoke cigarettes at the same time, resulting in the superposition of health hazards caused by two or more tobacco products. Data released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2015 showed that 58.8% of adult e-cigarette users still smoke traditional cigarettes at the same time.

Therefore, it is not recommended for both healthy people and smokers to use e-cigarettes. If you really want to quit smoking but can't, you can seek help from the hospital's smoking cessation clinic for drug treatment or behavioral counseling intervention.

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For our health

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Source: I am a great doctor official account

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