A new study from the University of Connecticut has found the vapor from electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes – which are often seen and marketed as a safer alternative – can cause as much DNA damage as smoke from tobacco cigarettes. The results surprised the researchers, who concluded that e-cigarettes are "potentially as harmful as tobacco cigarettes."
While a flurry of ongoing research is attempting to determine the long-term health effects of e-cigarettes, the "vaping" trend is getting more and more popular – currently, nearly three million adults in Great Britain alone use e-cigarettes. Despite most research still being in the early stages, the majority of studies have suggested that e-cigarettes are safer than tobacco smoking.
In 2016, the Royal College of Physicians concluded that the long-term health hazards of e-cigarettes are "unlikely to exceed 5 percent of the harm from smoking tobacco." But despite e-cigarettes seeming to be a safer alternative to smoking tobacco, we do still see studies warning of the dangers from inhaling e-cig vapors. A study in 2015 found e-cig vapor to contain the same damaging free radicals found in tobacco smoke, albeit in much lower quantities, and a recent study found e-cigarettes could pose a risk to cardiovascular health, though again, probably much less than tobacco smoking.
While the long-term effects of e-cigarettes are still unknown, most research to this day has found the health impacts to be, in varying degrees, lower than tobacco smoking. This new study from a team of chemists stands in stark opposition to most prior reports in that it claims e-cigarette vapor causes the same amount of damage as tobacco smoke, in this case in relation to DNA damage.
This study used a new electro-optical screening device that can quickly detect DNA damage and showed that such damage from nicotine e-cigarettes was approximately equivalent to damage caused by smoking unfiltered cigarettes.
![This chart shows DNA damage from nicotine e-cigarettes (EC) was approximately equivalent to damage caused by smoking unfiltered cigarettes (nf-TC). Damage levels increased with the number of puffs.](https://assets.newatlas.com/dims4/default/71a60b1/2147483647/strip/true/crop/300x242+0+0/resize/300x242!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnewatlas-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Farchive%2Fe-cigarettes-dna-damage-1.jpg)
"I never expected the DNA damage from e-cigarettes to be equal to tobacco cigarettes," says Karteek Kadimisetty, lead author on the study. "I was shocked the first time I saw the result, so I ran the controls again. I even diluted the samples. But the trend was still there – something in the e-cigarettes was definitely causing damage to the DNA."
The research didn't identify which specific chemicals in the e-cigarette vapor were causing the DNA damage, but the results were clear, damage on a genetic level was being done.
Interestingly, a contrasting study was released late in 2016 claiming e-cigarette vapor had no mutagenic effect on DNA. This earlier study, published in the journal Mutation Research, utilized a very different experiment model. It is also worth noting that this earlier study was funded by British American Tobacco.
![Karteek Kadimisetty holds the 3-D printed sample chamber of his genetic toxicity testing device.](https://assets.newatlas.com/dims4/default/b84e29f/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1622x1080+0+0/resize/1440x959!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnewatlas-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Farchive%2Fe-cigarettes-dna-damage-2.jpg)
The recent study from the University of Connecticut is not without its own other interests either. The team behind the study is using this research to reveal a new DNA screening device utilizing a cheap, disposable 3D-printed "lab on a chip."
While many cigarette smokers have switched to e-cigarettes believing them to be a safer alternative, more research needs to be done before we have a conclusive answer. Of course, the safest approach would be to partake in neither – that's one thing for certain.
The new study was published in the journal ACS Sensors.
Source: University of Connecticut