E-cigarettes, e-cigarettes, tobacco warmers…the tobacco industry is finding new formulations to appeal to people, especially young people. In addition to being more modern, with more attractive designs and more discreet flavors (no smoke or off-flavors), they argue that these products are less harmful to health than traditional tobacco. “significantly lower levels of harmful chemicals,” They state it on one of their websites. Information repeated on others. However, experts are clear: “We don’t know if it’s less harmful, we haven’t had enough time to find out, and what we do know is that it’s not harmless.”
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It’s a pulmonologist Rafael Vazquez Gallardo, leads the Smoking Cessation Unit at the University Hospital Complex (Chuvi) of Vigo. Consumers of these products are still not coming to counseling because of the increase, especially among young people, “who don’t have the mindset to quit smoking,” he explained. He noted that it was too early to tell how much damage would be caused by long-term consumption, but in the short term.
“We know, because it has been studied, that e-cigarettes and other forms of tobacco consumption produce aerosols that contain toxic substances, some of which are carcinogenic or damage the lungs and cause disease.”
Rafael Vázquez Gallardo – Department of Smoking Cessation, University Hospital of Vigo (Chuvi)
In fact, it emphasizes the And the pathology fully associated with the use of e-cigarettes: evali – Acronyms corresponding to their English names, e-cigarettes or vaping, product use-related lung injury. The definition of the disease is from 2019 and so far no cases have been registered in the Vigo health zone, but Dr Vazquez Gallardo explained that “more and more cases are being diagnosed” and there have been “Thousands of cases”.
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1- What is this?
This is “a non-communicable pneumonia caused by vaping.
2- How serious is it?
Most enter. 25% are in intensive care and the number of deaths has been registered.
According to the pulmonologist, it was a lung lesion that was “a type of non-communicable pneumonia” that was diagnosed “by exclusion” and that the patient’s use of one of the devices in the past 90 days was “necessary.” “There are milder forms, but Most patients must be hospitalized for several days.About one in four enters the intensive care unit They need mechanical ventilation because this is a serious and even fatal disease.” He said that the above-mentioned deaths mainly occurred in the United States, but also in Europe.
It’s not proven yet, but “it’s been linked to vitamin E acetate, a substance commonly found in e-cigarette aerosols, and THC products, tetrahydrocannabinol,” which consumers knowingly or unknowingly contain this substance.because there is another problem. “Their sales are not well regulated and some of these products contain many substances that we don’t know about”, warning doctors and explaining that this makes research on its effects on health difficult. He predicts that more related diseases will emerge.
Vázquez Gallardo warns that the fight is against young people, who the tobacco industry wants to reach with these devices, whether with or without nicotine, in order to attract them or “Often serve as a bridge leading them to traditional tobacco”. “When you start smoking, the problem is quitting. If you go through puberty and early young adulthood and don’t try smoking, you’re likely to stop smoking,” he added.