Lung Conditions and Vaping

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Anchor lead: Now that some people have been vaping for years, we’re beginning to see the damage, Elizabeth Tracey reports

People who use electronic cigarettes are still at risk for a host of chronic lung diseases, new evidence concludes. This is especially true for those who use both combustible and electronic nicotine products, the study finds. Panagis Galiatsatos, a lung expert at Johns Hopkins, says he definitely is seeing the impact in his clinic.

Galiatsatos: Our lungs are designed for air. Get in air and breath out the CO2, so anytime you introduce a substance that is foreign to the lungs and especially in an aerosol manner like the vape, you’re going to introduce potential pathologies. So electronic cigarettes cause a little bit of what we call rapid airways – you’re breathing in toxin, you’re going to cough, try to get it out. But then there are actually very extreme diseases. You’re either going to see new asthma development in patients who’ve never had asthma, or their asthma that they’ve had in the background suddenly gets worse. You’re also going to see a whole slew of diseases that are more atypical. :31

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and chronic bronchitis are also associated. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.