Vaping as Deadly to Heart as Smoking (Study)

Side Effects of JUULing and Vaping

A study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology attempts to answer some of the unknown long term health risks of vaping and JUULing.

Mark Olfert and his team subjected mice to filtered air, cigarette smoke, or vape vapor for 8 months, the equivalent of 25 years in a human. They studied the mice arteries to determine what long-term damage from cigarette smoke and vaping occurred.

As described in the study:

The starting age at exposure (~13–14 wk old) followed by 8 mo of exposure (ending at ~12 mo of age) represents exposure beginning at adolescence and continuing into adulthood. In human terms, this equates to an individual starting to smoke at ~11 yr of age and continuing to smoke until 35 yr of age, or similar to middle school age through early adulthood.

The vape used in the study was a Joytech eGrip OLED.

Vaping as Deadly as Smoking?

The results of the study on arteries was devastating to the idea vaping may reduce heart risk compared to cigarettes. Cigarette smoke leads to hardened arteries, which leads to other cardiac health risks such as heart disease, heart attack and stroke. The vape mice showed similar levels of arterial hardening as cigarette smoke mice. This indicates a similar risk for vapers as smokers. Vaping mice also died at twice the rate during the study, although no reason was known for the extra deaths among vaping mice.

Cigarette smoking mice had 2.8x the increase in hardening of arteries as filtered air mice.  The e-cig vapor mice had 2.5x the increase in arterial hardening, a nearly identical negative change.

Heart Attacks, Strokes, Heart Failure Deaths from Vaping

The Surgeon General estimates that smoking kills approximately 500,000 people a year in the United States, people who would have lived longer healthier lives but for smoking.  JUUL Labs and others have promoted their JUUL and vape devices as safe alternatives to smoking.

However, in addition lung cancer and other cancer deaths from smoking, smoking causes additional cardiovascular, heart and lung diseases. Cardiac conditions including heart failure and heart disease from smoking kill Americans than lung cancer from smoking. Lung cancer only accounts for about one in four deaths from smoking.

While we lack the long term data to know for sure, if vaping proves to be similarly harmful as cigarettes to the cardiovascular system as this study would indicate, vaping for decades may result in a similar amount of death from heart attack, stroke, heart disease and heart failure among vapors.

JUUL Lawyer

If you or a loved one suffered a cardiac event or was diagnosed with heart disease or heart failure after JUULing or vaping, please contact the attorneys at Levin Simes Abrams. We represent dozens of families of minors addicted to JUUL, minors and adults suffering from heart, lung, or brain injury from vaping, and represent families of those who died from asthma or other conditions after vaping.  You can reach us at (415) 426-3000, info@levinsimes.com, or through this site. Thank you.

More Vaping Injury Information:

• Popcorn Lung and Wet Lung
• Vaping Mice Show Lung Damage
• Exploding Vape Batteries
• Teen Vaping Epidemic
• JUUL Tells Schoolkids JUULing Totally Safe
• FDA Warns JUUL to Not Make Safety Claims