A growing body of evidence points to the health risks of using e-cigarettes (or “vaping”). But because e-cigarettes are marketed as a less harmful alternative to traditional cigarettes, it has been difficult to tell whether the association between vaping and disease is just a matter of smokers switching to vaping when they start experiencing health issues.
Now, a study by researchers from the Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) and School of Medicine (BUSM) is one of the first to look at vaping in a large, healthy sample of the population over time, independently from other tobacco product use.
Published in JAMA Network Open, the study found that participants who had used e-cigarettes in the past were 21% more likely to develop a respiratory disease, and those who were current e-cigarette users had a 43% increased risk.
“This provides some of the very first longitudinal evidence on the harms associated with e-cigarette products,” says corresponding author…