How much do we know about the potential effects vaping could have on someone over the course of several years? Until now, not much. It’s hard to conduct an accurate and reliable study on this, because just 0.01% of vapers have never smoked. Most vapers are either trying to quit, or have already done so and have switched to vaping because it is believed by most to be safer. If ex-smokers who had switched to vaping had taken part, it would not be known whether any lung damage seen was caused by smoking (highly probable) or vaping.
But there is a study that has taken place over three and a half years, and while it only involved nine participants (nine, at least, who completed the study), it gives us our first picture of what vaping might do to the lungs over a longer period. Additionally, a group of people who had never smoked or vaped before were used as a control.
The study was conducted by Professor Riccardo Polosa – a notable expert in his field, focusing on tobacco harm reduction. He is also the director of the Institute of Internal Medicine and Antismoking Center, a key establishment at the University of Catania. The abstract from the study revealed there were “no significant changes” in the three and a half years it was run for. This applied both to the vapers compared with the control group and the vapers conditions from the beginning of the study compared to the end.
The researchers pointed out they could not completely rule out the possibility of potential damage occurring over a longer period. However, over the period of the study, no evidence was gleaned to suggest there was any chance of negative effects relating to vaping.
This is great news, and will hopefully go some way to proving vaping is much safer than smoking. While many countries want to stop people from smoking, they also seem to have it in for vapers. This study proves it is far safer to vape than to smoke, but we suspect it may well take more studies of this nature to change the approach taken by some lawmakers.
What are your views on this study? Do you think vapers are sometimes unfairly demonised for their habit, especially when they are trying to quit smoking? Let us know your thoughts.
