2 New Studies Raising More Concerns About Potential Harms Of E-Cigarettes

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Two new studies are raising more concerns about the vaping epidemic and the potential harms of e-cigarettes.

UC San Francisco found using e-cigarettes significantly raises the risk of chronic lung diseases such as asthma, bronchitis, emphysema and obstructive pulmonary disease.

The research looked at 32,000 adults without lung disease and followed them for three years.

"This is the first study in the general population to show that the use of e-cigarettes increases the chances you will develop chronic lung disease," said Dr. Stanton Glantz, director of UCSF for Tobacco Control Research and Education. "It really damages your lungs and these damages in the study we did are long term and cumulative."

Glantz is the senior author of the study which also found people who used both traditional cigarettes and e-cigarettes at the same time had even higher risks of lung diseases.

"If you're a dual user, which is what most adult e-cigarette users are, you're actually worse off than if you just smoked," he said.

Glantz said this new research adds to the growing evidence that e-cigarettes are dangerous.

"My guess is that three or four years from now, when the scientific case has fully gelled, we are going to find that e-cigarettes, while different from cigarettes, are probably just as dangerous as cigarettes.  People really shouldn't be using them," he said.

The lung diseases reported in this study are not related to the lung injuries associated with vaping that federal health officials are currently investigating. More than 2,400 have been hospitalized and more than 50 have died.

Another study from University of Nebraska Medical Center shows over 75 percent of teens who vape are using nicotine, marijuana or other substances that can alter the mind, which is more than previously thought.

Researchers said the findings are disturbing because these chemicals can impact a child's developing brain.