E-cigarettes have triggered a fierce debate among health experts who share the same goal — reducing the disease and death caused by tobacco. But they disagree about whether e-cigarettes make the problem better or worse.

Opponents say that because nicotine is addictive, e-cigarettes could be a “gateway drug,” leading nonsmokers and kids to use tobacco. They also worry that manufacturers — with huge advertising budgets and celebrity endorsements — could make smoking popular again. That would roll back decades of progress in getting people to quit or never start smoking.  When you stop using it, you can get withdrawal symptoms including feeling irritable, depressed, restless and anxious. It can be dangerous for people with heart problems. It may also harm your arteries over time.

Others look at possible benefits for smokers. “Obviously, it would be best if smokers could quit completely,” says Michael Siegel, MD, MPH, a professor at Boston University’s School of Public Health. “But if that’s not possible, I think they’d be a lot better off with e-cigarettes. They’re a safer alternative.”

According to an article from Web of Science, electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are devices designed to deliver nicotine to the body via the route of inhalation. The principle of operation is based on heating a nicotine solution in propylene glycol and/or glycerine (e-liquid), turning it into aerosol (commonly called ‘vapour’), which is then inhaled by the user. The scientific evidence on the health consequences of long-term e-cigarette use is sparse and currently inconclusive.  Young people are the most vulnerable group to initiate use of e-cigarettes. The novelty of the e-cigarette, perceptions about the harmlessness of the product, a wide variety of flavours (fruit, chocolate, peanut butter, bubble gum, gummy bear, amongst others), and peer-influence are just a few examples of factors contributing to the e-cigarette popularity among youth.

Ravindra Rajmane, M.D., a professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, tells Newsmax TV’s Meet the Doctors program that e-cigarettes can be safer alternative to tobacco use, but that doesn’t mean the devices don’t pose health risks of their own.  Since e-cigarettes are virtually unregulated there is no way to know precisely what chemicals and contaminant might be in the vapors users are inhaling.

In one study, Professor Christina Gratziou and her team set out to determine what the short-term effects of smoking with e-cigarettes might be on different individuals, including those with no known health problems, as well as existing smokers with and without lung conditions.  They carried out experiments on 32 volunteers; of whom 8 were lifetime non-smokers and 24 were current regular smokers. Some of them had healthy lungs, while others lived with asthma or COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).

They were asked to use an electronic cigarette for 10 minutes, inhaling the vapors into their lungs. A spirometry test, as well as some others diagnostic procedures were used to measure their airway resistance. Airway resistance is used in respiratory physiology to measure the resistance of the respiratory tract to airflow coming in during inspiration (inhalation) and going out during expiration (exhalation).  They found that using an e-cigarette caused an instant increase in airway resistance that lasted for 10 minutes in the majority of the participants.  Non-smokers, even among lifetimes non-smokers, using an e-cigarette for ten minutes raised their airway resistance to 206% from 182% (mean average); the researchers described this as a “significant increase”.  With current regular among existing regular smokers, the spirometry tests revealed a significant rise in airway resistance to 220%, from 176% after using one e-cigarette for ten minutes.

I found this study to be fair because it had a good balance of smokers vs. non-smokers so we could see how it affects a wide range of people.  This topic reminds me of when we discussed in class if smoking is correlated with lung cancer.  It took over 100 years to ‘establish’ that answer and it might take the same for these e-cigarettes.  Although there is strong evidence that e-cigarettes are harmful, we still won’t know the answer until more experiments are done.

Since it is not definitively known that e-cigarettes have harmful effects due to how new it is, it is important to take the possible dangers into consideration.  We don’t know for certain yet if e-cigarettes are the right or wrong choice, but that may not be a risk you want to take when it comes to your health.