E cigarette vape is like air says study

A new study by scientists reveal e-cigarette vapour on human airway tissue has no detrimental impact.

The study published in Toxicology in Vitro was conducted by scientists from British American Tobacco and MatTek Corporation. They exposed living airway tissue to e-cigarette vape and compared the results to the effects of tobacco smoke.

From their study, they concluded there was no cytotoxic impact on the living cells when they were exposed to e-cigarette vapour.

As e-cigarettes are still relatively new, there is a lack of research or long-term data to comprehend if vaping is a dangerous habit. Smoking tobacco has been a popular activity for centuries so scientists have access to information on what long-term smoking can do.

The technical makeup of e-cigarettes is vastly different to cigarettes and the vape they normally produce contains humectants, flavourings, nicotine and thermal degradation components.

To test the effects of e-cigarettes, the scientists used a 3D model of respiratory tissue and a VITROCELL smoking robot. The robot has been used to experiment the effects of exposure from tobacco smoke.

During the study, the scientists used MatTek’s EpiAirway which is a tissue model and from its design, it is similar to the tissue in a human’s respiratory tract. When the EpiAirway model and VITROCELL robot are combined, the researchers could observe how e-cigarette vape affects the tissue.

“By employing a combination of a smoking robot and a lab-based test using respiratory tissue, it was possible to demonstrate the ability to induce and measure aerosol irritancy and to show that the different e-cigarette aerosols used in this study have no cytotoxic effect on human airway tissue,” says spokesperson Dr Marina Murphy.

In separate tests the EpiAirway tissues were exposed to cigarette smoke and e-cigarette vape for up to six hours. The scientists examined the cells every hour to determine how the cells reacted. As the cells were exposed constantly for six hours they could measure the cell viability after long-term exposure.

The cell viability of the tissue exposed to cigarette smoke was reduced to 12% meaning the cell was nearly dead by constant exposure whilst the tissue in the e-cigarette test showed little change to the health of the cell.

The study has shown e-cigarette vape causes minimal effects to the viability of the cells compared to cigarette smoke.

The new research could help determine how e-cigarettes and vaping could be observed in the future.