Steamshots

New: The US public is being told that we have a "whole new generation addicted to nicotine. But @CDCgov/@FDA surveys show teen nicotine use has dropped to a 50-year low. Weird right? 😕 medium.com/@tchad49/teen-nic…

Cigarettes KILL half of all users. Tobacco control is now, by far, the most deeply divided of any public health field. Here are a few studies that the media ignores: 1) Cancer risk plummets when smokers switch to e-cigarettes Excess Lifetime Cancer Risk (ELCR) drops >10,000-fold. sciencedirect.com/science/ar… A more conservative estimate found lifetime cancer risk drops 99.5% (0.5% risk would be difficult to measure; difficult to distinguish from “background noise”) tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/conte… Use of nicotine vapes significantly reduces exposure to a major pulmonary carcinogen, NNAL (results of 4-arm, parallel-group, randomized, controlled trial funded by US NIH and FDA) thelancet.com/journals/lanre… 2) Cardiovascular health improves when smokers switch to ecigs According to the American Heart Association, smokers who switch to nicotine vaping have a 7-fold lower risk of stroke; their heart health biomarkers are indistinguishable from never-smokers; and they have a 30%-40% lower risk of cardiovascular events than people who continue to smoke: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article… ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/… ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1… Systematic review and meta-analysis of 63 studies: “...short-to-medium-term transition from cigarettes to e-cigarettes may improve blood flow and blood pressure... There is lack of evidence supporting any association of e-cigarette use with cardiovascular diseases and cardiac dysfunction or remodelling." Exclusive vapers had no significant differences in heart rate (HR) or blood pressure (BP) compared with non-users, and lower HR and BP than smokers. heart.bmj.com/content/early/… They “experienced positive cardiovascular impact after both a 3- and 6-month period” including significant improvement in flow-mediated dilation, peak cutaneous vascular conductance responses to acetylcholine and sodium nitroprusside, and mean arterial pressure. These benefits were exactly the same for e-cigarettes and NRTs. bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.co… “We did not find a significant difference in the cardiovascular risk of exclusive e-cigarette use compared with nonuse of cigarettes and e-cigarettes.” [i.e., nicotine vapers’ cardiovascular risk is indistinguishable from non-smokers and non-vapers.] Study funded by NIH & FDA. ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/… Exclusive use of nicotine vapes (“e-cigarettes”) was not associated with a statistically significant increased risk of self-reported incidents of diagnosed cardiovascular disease over a 5-year period, whereas exclusive cigarette smoking is. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3590…; academic.oup.com/ntr/advance… Smoking cessation showed positive cardiovascular impact within 3 days, and the effects did not differ between nicotine-containing e-cigarettes and nicotine replacement therapies (e.g., nicotine patch or nicotine gum). pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3590…; and academic.oup.com/ntr/advance… Systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and blood pressure control, improve, and significant weight gains associated with cold turkey smoking cessation do not occur. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2784… Blood vessel health improves significantly jacc.org/doi/10.1016/j.jacc.… nature.com/articles/s41569-0… sciencedirect.com/science/ar… sciencedirect.com/science/ar… 3) Lung health improves when smokers switch to e-cigarettes Lung cilia recover full function (these cilia remove solid particulates, bacteria and fungal spores from healthy lungs; cigarettes damage lung cilia function). ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article… Respiratory tract infections drop dramatically dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/… Longitudinal analysis of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study, an observational cohort study that surveyed 5,653 US adults ≥18 years, shows “Switching completely from past 30-day use of cigarettes to e-cigarettes had short-term beneficial associations with functionally important respiratory symptoms similar to quitting tobacco completely.” sciencedirect.com/science/ar… thelancet.com/journals/eclin… They have 20% less cough and 30% less phlegm than smokers who quit with nicotine patches or gum. nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/ne… Analysis of 19,000 people found 65% of smokers with asthma and 76% of smokers with COPD reported improvement in respiratory symptoms after switching to ecigs. mdpi.com/1660-4601/11/4/4356… COPD smokers’ lung health and quality of life improve dramatically (participants followed for 5 years). “COPD exacerbations were reduced by approximately 50% in patients who stopped or considerably reduced their smoking consumption after switching to vaping.” ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article… Asthmatic smokers experience “Significant improvement in asthma control and quality of life” pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3196… pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2701… mdpi.com/1660-4601/11/5/4965 discoverymedicine.com/Riccar… mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/905… NOTE: 'No detectable changes in lung health' of never-smokers who vaped nicotine for up to 4 years nature.com/articles/s41598-0… Studies that looked at both cardiovascular and lung health: 2022 review by University of Michigan researchers: When smokers switch, risk of acute cardiopulmonary events drops rapidly; long-term use leads to lung health benefits, especially among asthmatic and COPD smokers. No cancer risk found. mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/905… E-cigarette users who never smoked, followed for 3.5 years: No significant health changes in blood pressure, heart rate, body weight, lung function, respiratory symptoms, exhaled breath nitric oxide or carbon monoxide; and “no pathological findings could be identified on high-resolution computed tomography of the lungs, and no respiratory symptoms were consistently reported in the e-cigarette user group.” nature.com/articles/s41598-0… E-cigarette users’ health biomarkers are indistinguishable from never-smokers. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are Harmful or Potentially Harmful Substances (HPHS) measured at high levels in smokers. “When compared with people who never smoked, E-cigarette smokers [sic] had similar blood concentrations of VOCs.” archpublichealth.biomedcentr…