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Is vaping bad for your health? Why experts are divided on the risks

It was billed as a new way of smoking that could help nicotine addicts quit tobacco.

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Vaping from electronic cigarettes has risen in popularity to the point where the sight of people sucking on metal pen-shaped objects and emitting huge clouds of 'smoke' has become commonplace.

But now concerns have been raised that vaping could be as bad for the heart as smoking cigarettes.

Worrying new research has found that the use of electronic cigarettes caused similar effects to the main heart artery as smoking the real thing.

The research, which was presented at the world's largest cardiology conference, flies in the face of advice from Public Health England, PHE, which last year said vaping is 95 per cent less harmful than tobacco.

It called for GPs to be able to prescribe e-cigarettes on the NHS to help people quit smoking.

Speaking at the European Society for Cardiology congress in Rome, Professor Charalambos Vlachopoulos, from the University of Athens Medical School, said experiments were carried out on 24 adults with an average age of 30, examining the immediate effects of e-cigarettes and smoking.

Some say more research is needed to establish the safety of vaping

They found that the effects from a 30-minute session of vaping – seen as a typical habit as e-cigarettes deliver nicotine at a slower rate than cigarettes – were similar to those from smoking a cigarette for five minutes.

Prof Vlachopoulos warned that the UK had 'rushed into' championing vaping as a method to help give up smoking, and said he would not recommend the use of e-cigarettes.

The findings come amid growing controversy about the safety of e-cigarettes, with little research available on the long term effects of vaping.

Prof Peter Weissberg, medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said: "Although the study was not designed to show whether electronic cigarettes can cause long term damage to our blood vessels, it shows that they cannot be assumed to be risk free.

"Much more research is needed to establish the safety of long-term use of these devices."

Wolverhampton council's health chief Councillor Sandra Samuels has backed calls for more research into the effects of vaping.

She said: "Although it is not possible to say that vaping is safe, research up to now tells us that it is a lot safer than smoking cigarettes.

"Unlike smoking, vaping has no carbon monoxide, which causes serious damage. At the moment it is a preferable alternative to smoking, which costs us millions of pounds a year in Wolverhampton alone.

"While the new research contradicts the view held by many that vaping is completely safe, it is a viable method to get people off the harmful effects of smoking."

Research commissioned by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) has shown that the total cost to society in England of smoking is approximately £13.9 billion a year.

This includes the cost to the NHS of treating diseases caused by smoking which is around £2bn a year. In the last 12 months more than £3.2m has been spent helping smokers in Staffordshire and the Black Country to quit the habit.

Over the period stop smoking services provided by local authorities across the region have helped more than 10,000 people ditch cigarettes.

See also: Watch the UK's most impressive VAPER show off his skills

The methods used include one-to-one support sessions, advice on nicotine replacement therapy – such as gum and patches – and a scheme for pregnant women and their families.

But the measures stop short of recommending vaping as an alternative to smoking. Councillor Rachel Harris, Dudley Council's cabinet member for health and wellbeing, said: "New evidence on the safety of vaping comes forward quite often. We will always consider this evidence before making decisions on public health.

"It is important that people are educated about what they are putting into their bodies. I would ask people who vape if they are sure about exactly what it is they are inhaling into their lungs. People need to think twice about the safety of whatever habit they choose to carry out." Rosanna O'Connor, from PHE, argues that vaping 'carries a fraction of the risk of smoking'. She said that a lack of awareness among many smokers 'could be keeping people smoking rather than switching to a much less harmful alternative'.

And Deborah Arnott, chief executive of ASH, said the Athens study did not prove that e-cigarettes were as hazardous as smoking.

She highlighted other findings from the study, showing that if a vaping session was limited to five minutes, the impact on aortic stiffness was significantly less than that associated with a cigarette.

Tom Pruen, chief scientific officer for the Electronic Cigarette Industry Trade Association, said: "Lots of things have short term effects on aortic stiffness – and nicotine is already known to do this. On the other hand, so does caffeine, and in both cases it is transitory, without any significant long term effect."

Jason Kiernan, who runs The Purest Vapours, which has a store in Dudley, said that any suggestion that vaping was as bad as smoking was 'absolute rubbish'. "The liquids used in vaping contain no carcinogens or mutagens, unlike cigarettes which have more than 4,000 chemicals," he added. "I don't care what any report says. We have customers that went from smoking 40 or 50 a day to vaping and I see with my own eyes how their health improves. They take up exercise and lose weight. Their lives improve no end as a result of vaping."

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