Source: Radio New Zealand
A new study from Canterbury University shows vaping is likely to cause cancer. AFP
A new study from Canterbury University shows vaping is likely to cause cancer.
The research published on Friday in the New Zealand Medical Journal looked at the chemical composition of “vape smoke” and assessed its cancer risk using data from published animal studies.
Lead author and toxicology professor Ian Shaw said it was impossible to definitively conclude that vaping caused cancer without actual data of people who had contracted the disease – which was at least a decade away.
Lead author and toxicology professor Ian Shaw. Supplied
“It takes at least 15 years for cancers to develop after exposure to cancer-causing chemicals. I don’t want us to be waiting those 15 years to get some data to say that vape smoking does or does not cause cancer.”
Shaw said the study applied a slightly different methodology to predict the cancer risk to vapers.
“We looked at the chemistry of vaping and we looked at the sort of chemicals used in vape juice.
“We looked at what happens to those chemicals when they’re vaporised and when they’re heated because the process involves heating to produce the ‘vape smoke’.”
He said the chemicals determined to be carcinogenic (cancer-causing) at certain doses in animals were then compared to the calculated doses that people would get by vaping.
“For example, formaldehyde is one of the chemicals [produced in vaping].
“And when we got those doses that [vapers] might be exposed to and the doses we know cause cancer in animals we compared them to see if they were comparable or not – and indeed some of them are.
“What that showed us was … the chemicals produced by the breakdown of the vape components, by heating them to produce the ‘vape smoke’, are definitely carcinogenic and they will very likely cause cancer in humans.”
Shaw said vaping was likely to be less carcinogenic than cigarette smoking – therefore it was still an acceptable method to use to quit.
However, people who took up vaping were increasing their risk of getting cancer, he said – which was unacceptable.
“It’s not a good idea to take up vaping in its own right.”
Shaw said the chemicals in “vape smoke” could also cause inflammation in the lungs – which could indirectly cause cancer.
“If you cause an inflammatory response, this leads cells to divide … so it increases the frequency of dividing, which in its own right can lead to cancer.
“So not only do some of the chemicals cause cancer directly by affecting DNA, by changing DNA and making a cell cancerous, they can cause cancer production by causing errors in cells because they’re increasing the division.
“You don’t want to expose people to chemicals that will do that – because we know those chemicals cause significant harm.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
