Berry-flavoured vapes 'weaken the lungs’ natural defences', study claims

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Berry-flavoured vapes can weaken the lungs’ natural defences, making it harder for the body to fight off infections, new research suggests.

The study compared effects of flavoured e-cigarettes to those of unflavoured ones and, while previous research has shown that all forms of vaping can be harmful, the scholars said this study adds to a mounting body of evidence demonstrating how adding flavourings to vaping solutions can exacerbate the dangers.

Inspired by a series of reported lung injury cases in teenagers in 2019, McGill Assistant Professor Ajitha Thanabalasuriar in the Department of Pharmacology & Therapeutics, in collaboration with Erika Penz from the University of Saskatchewan, exposed mice to e-cigarette vapour over several days and used a live imaging technique to observe their lung immune cells in real-time.

The study, published in the journal PNAS, showed that specific chemicals in the berry vapes paralyse immune cells in the lungs responsible for clearing out harmful particles, leaving the body more vulnerable to respiratory infections.