(Associated Press) — E-cigarettes aren’t considered as risky as regular cigarettes, but researchers have found a clue that their flavourings may be bad for the heart.
Longtime smokers who can’t kick the addiction sometimes switch to e-cigarettes, in hopes of avoiding the cancer-causing chemicals in tobacco smoke.
But cigarette smoking doesn’t just cause lung cancer. It’s a leading cause of heart attacks, too, and little is known about e-cigarettes and heart disease. Chemicals in the inhaled vapour may pose unique risks that are important to understand, especially as more and more teens take up vaping.
“It’s not possible for me to go into a patient and strip their artery and test it” for a reaction to vaping, said Dr. Joseph Wu, director of Stanford University’s cardiovascular institute. (…)