Regular use of e-cigarettes, vaping devices may lead to worse lung function, research suggests

The effects of vaping on young people Dalhousie University's Sanja Stanojevic on her new research method that measures the effects of vaping on young adults.

While the use of cigarettes has declined in the 21st century, there has been a rapid increase in the use of electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, and other vaping devices, with little known about the effects on users. Now researchers at Dalhousie University are using an old testing method to help them learn more about how these devices affect lung function in young adults.

The lung clearance index (LCI) is a breathing test where participants simply inhale and exhale oxygen to determine their lung capacity. Dalhousie’s research team invited 93 people aged 18 to 24 to test how strong their breathing capacity was, with some participants regularly “vaping” while others didn’t vape at all.

Sanja Stanojevic, an associate professor in Dalhouse University’s department of community health and epidemiology, spoke with CTV Your Morning on Friday to discuss the results of her team’s research.

“What we found was that individuals who frequently use e-cigarettes, so daily users who puffed more than five puffs per hour … their lung function was worse than those who didn’t use e-cigarettes,” Stanojevic said.

As mentioned earlier, the study had 93 participants, which is typically considered a small sample size when it comes to research. But Stanojevic says the results highlight how the LCI could be a better indicator of the potential damage to lungs that may be caused by vaping.

“Most of the tests that are available in hospitals that we use regularly for lung disease are measuring lung health when the disease is quite advanced, or when the damage is far along,” she said. “(LCI) can give us early signs of whether there’s damage to the small airways.”

When asked if the damage is comparable to that seen with traditional cigarettes, Stanojevic says it’s “really hard to tell,” partly because these types of studies and tests didn’t exist when the effects of smoking on the general public was first studied. As for whether the same risk of cancer that exists with traditional cigarettes is present with vaping, she says it’s fairly difficult to answer.

“With traditional tobacco cigarettes, the lag between when you start smoking and when lung cancer develops is anywhere between 10, 20 (years), or maybe more decades before we see the effects,” Stanojevic said, adding that vaping devices as we know them today have really only been introduced into the general public in the last “five-to-10 years.”

“It may take us many decades before we start to understand some of the long-term effects, including cancer.”