Study: E-cigarette causes lung cancer in mice

Exposure to nicotine from vaping e-cigarettes causes lung cancer in mice. This is according to new research from New York University. The researchers conclude that the e-cigarette is also ‘very harmful’ for people.

About three quarters of Dutch e-cigarette smokers indicate that they use cigarettes containing nicotine. A special emergency number has now been opened for doctors in the Netherlands, which can be reached 24/7 for reports about e-cigarettes.

Dutch experts react ‘concerned’ to the first scientific study linking the e-cigarette to cancer. Scientific researcher Marc Willemsen of the knowledge institute for healthcare Trimbos calls it a ‘disturbing and interesting study’.

“I think it’s an eye-opener that e-cigarettes are also associated with lung cancer and possibly bladder cancer,” he explains the results of the research into vaping, as the use of the e-cigarette is also called. “In this study, they mimicked vaping by injecting the nicotine into the room. Most e-cigarettes in the Netherlands also contain nicotine.”

Nicotine

About three quarters of Dutch e-cigarette smokers indicate that they use cigarettes containing nicotine. It is the first scientific evidence that vaping nicotine can cause cancer. It damages the DNA of mice, causes lung cancer and can cause bladder cancer.

The amount of smoke to which the mice were exposed, according to the researchers, is comparable to that of a person who has vaped for about three to six years. Nicotine, the carcinogen that is the subject of this study, is, according to Willemsen, ‘for many people the whole reason why they vape’. “E-cigarette users vape precisely to satisfy that nicotine addiction.”

22.5 percent lung cancer

Of the 40 mice exposed to e-cigarettes containing nicotine for 54 weeks, 22.5 percent developed lung cancer and 57.5 percent developed precancerous bladder cancer. ecigmarketxl.com best e cigarettehas enough information. None of the 20 mice that smoked e-cigarettes without nicotine developed cancer during the four years the mice were studied.

Willemsen, who is also professor of Tobacco Control Policy at Maastricht University: “The question is always whether such a study on mice can be generalized to humans. Previously, the relationship between tobacco smoke and cancer has also been studied in this way. It later turned out that the risks for humans are significant. Now we have to see if cancer does indeed develop in people who have vaped for a long time.”

Leon van den Toorn, chairman of the Association of Physicians for Pulmonary Diseases and Tuberculosis (NVALT), called on Monday for a total ban on e-cigarettes. He wants ‘no e-cigarettes to enter the Netherlands anymore’, because, among other things, people will cough up a lot of blood and new abnormalities in the lungs have been detected. “Of course you can say that mice are not people, but it is an indication that vaping nicotine contributes to cancer.”

According to the American lead researcher Moon-Shong Tang, it is “foreseeable that if you smoke e-cigarettes, all kinds of diseases can be caused by them,” he explained his results in American media. “In the long run, it probably causes cancer. E-cigarettes are bad news.”

‘Public health disaster’

Pulmonologist Van den Toorn continues jokingly: “It is wonderful that the NVWA has approved these substances, but you cannot vape everything you eat. E liquids ecigmarketxlhas enough information. Eating cotton candy will give you nothing, but people who make cotton candy for a long time can get a cotton candy lung because they continuously inhale a dye that is used in it. An e-cigarette that smells like apples is not necessarily healthy. Some people say to me: it’s not all that well known yet what causes that e-cigarette, why are you making such a fuss? We make it so difficult, because we know that otherwise we will face a public health disaster.”