MANILA, (PIA) — The use of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) or vaping is now more harmful than smoking based on the number of cases received by hospitals regarding illness even after vaping for just one year, according to tobacco cessation expert and pulmonologist Dr. Maricar Limpin.

Limpin, executive director of Action on Health and Smoking (ASH), said this is contrary to the marketing strategy of vape manufacturers who say that vaping is “less harmful.”

"They (patients) have only been vaping for a year but they are already having breathing problems. It also takes a long time for patients to return to normal breathing," she said.

She said other lung doctors agree with him that vaping is actually more harmful because they don't see lung problems as quickly in smokers.

"What we see in patients is that after only a few years of vaping, they already show symptoms. For us, this is already a warning signal that vaping is not less harmful. It may have similar effects like cigarettes but the speed it develops makes it even more harmful," Limpin said.

The Philippine College of Chest Physicians (PCCP) plans to establish a registry for vaping-related diseases. Right now, they only have anecdotes about the pain caused by vaping.

This is where all the clinical data and information will be collected and shared with the public to warn about the health effects of vaping.

Currently, the Department of Health (DOH) does not include E-cigarette or Vaping Use-Associated Lung Injury (EVALI) in its regular disease surveillance report similar to how illnesses like lung cancer and other respiratory diseases caused by smoking are being reported and recorded.

(PIA-NCR file)

It can be recalled that a 16-year-old female from Central Visayas became the initial documented case of lung injury attributed to vaping in the country, as confirmed by the Department of Health (DOH) on November 15, 2019.

According to then Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, the first recorded patient suffering from e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury (Evali) was not asthmatic. However, she had been using an e-cigarette daily for a continuous four-month period starting from March of that year. Subsequently, she began using both the e-cigarette device and conventional cigarettes, which led to her hospitalization on October 21, 2019.

Around two weeks before being admitted to the hospital, the unidentified girl attempted to alleviate her dry cough with cough medicines, which proved ineffective, as stated by Duque.

The young patient was taken to an undisclosed medical facility after experiencing an abrupt onset of breathing difficulties, he further added.

Adhering to guidelines set by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the DOH affirmed that her condition "fulfilled the criteria for Evali."

By February 2020, the CDC has documented no less than 2,807 instances of lung injuries and 42 fatalities linked to the use of e-cigarettes and vaping in the United States.. It has, however, stopped reporting on the number of EVALI cases during the same period due to the subsequent identification of the primary cause of EVALI, and the considerable decline in EVALI cases and deaths since a peak in September 2019.

The CDC's official website outlines symptoms reported by EVALI patients, including coughing, breathlessness, vomiting, fever, and weight loss. The CDC also observed that certain patients indicated a gradual development of symptoms over a few days or weeks.

Worldwide, there are an estimated 82 million vape users reported by the Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction (GSTHR) in 2021, or an increase of 17 percent from the previous year.

The same data showed that as of 2021, some 2.7 million Filipinos belong to this group—or around 3 percent of the world's vape users. Furthermore, the number and various diseases connected to vaping are rising.

Young people are highly fond of vaping. According to the Global Youth Tobacco Surveys 2015 and 2019, vaping among the youth has increased from 11 percent to 14 percent.

Moreover, vaping has been found to expose the lungs to a variety of chemicals. These may include the main active chemicals in tobacco (nicotine), flavorants, and other ingredients that are added to vaping liquids. Plus, other chemicals can be produced during the vaporizing process.

These harmful chemicals, include:

1. Formaldehyde
Propylene glycol, a common ingredient in e-cigarette liquids, is known to emit formaldehyde gas when heated. This harmful chemical has been linked to heart disease and lung problems. 

2. Diacetyl
This food ingredient is used to enhance the flavor of e-cigarettes, which is known to harm the tiny airways in the lungs. Diacetyl is a chemical that, when inhaled in, causes bronchiolitis obliterans, also known as "popcorn lungs." 

3. Acrolein
Acrolein, a pesticide used primarily to destroy weeds, is also included in e-cigarettes. Asthma and lung cancer are possible side effects, in addition to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and severe lung damage.

Although vaping has been promoted as an aid to help quit smoking, e-cigarettes have not received Food and Drug Administration approval as smoking cessation devices. 

A recent study found that most people who intended to use e-cigarettes to kick the nicotine habit ended up continuing to use traditional and e-cigarettes.

Cancer and heart disease, meanwhile, have both been closely related to smoking.  (PIA-NCR)