
When teens vape, their lungs pay a price, researchers report. The warning stems from a detailed analysis of smoking habit histories shared by just over 2,000 U.S. teens during a series of recent annual surveys. The upshot: When compared with teens who’ve never vaped, those who reported using electronic cigarettes in the month prior to being surveyed saw their risk for wheezing and shortness of breath shoot up by about 80%. Vapers also faced double the risk for telltale signs of bronchitis, the survey revealed. And most of the hits to respiratory health linked to vaping held up even after taking into account whether the teens also smoked cigarettes or marijuana. “While e-cigarettes likely have fewer negative health impacts than traditional cigarettes, they are not risk-free, especially for youth or young adults who have never used any other tobacco product,” said study lead author Alayna Tackett. She is a pediatric psychologist and researcher with the Center for Tobacco Research at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, in Columbus. Tackett and her colleagues explored the impact vaping has on respiratory health by analyzing four years’ worth of surveys administered by the Southern California Children’s Health Study between 2014 and 2018. On average, roughly 1,700 teens participated in the annual survey, though the final analysis focused on about 2,100 teens, equally divided between boys and girls,… read on > read on >