\n<\/p>\n
Doctors have raised the alarm about high levels of vaping among children worldwide, saying they are convinced e-cigarettes are causing irreversible harm to their health.<\/p>\n
Cardiologists, researchers and health experts said they were \u201cextremely concerned\u201d about the harmful effects of e-cigarettes on millions of teenagers and young people, including exposure to toxins and carcinogens \u2013 some of which are still unknown.<\/p>\n
Nicotine levels in e-cigarettes can be very high, raising the risk of addiction and injury to the developing brains of adolescents. Children are also risking long-term cardiovascular effects as a result of vaping at school and college, experts say.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) annual congress in Madrid, the world\u2019s largest heart conference, Prof Maja-Lisa L\u00f8chen, a senior cardiologist at the University hospital of North Norway, said she was concerned that millions of children could face ill health in future.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cI worry that vaping may be causing irreversible harm to children\u2019s brains and hearts. Of course we have to wait for long-term data, but I am concerned. It increases your blood pressure, your heart rate, and we know that the arteries become more stiff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vaping stresses children\u2019s cardiovascular systems, L\u00f8chen said. Their heart rate rises and their blood vessels constrict, which can stiffen arteries in the heart over time. Repeatedly vaping can lead to high blood pressure, which in turn increases the risk of developing an irregular heart rhythm, stroke and even a heart attack.<\/p>\n
L\u00f8chen cited a study published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine that suggested vaping increases the risk of stroke by almost a third (32%).<\/p>\n
When e-cigarettes heat liquids to higher temperatures, they can also release larger amounts of harmful chemicals that can flow into the lungs, enter the bloodstream and seep into the heart.<\/p>\n
The liquids in e-cigarettes can release known carcinogens such as formaldehyde and acetaldehyde when heated, research suggests. These and other chemicals can damage blood vessels, drive inflammation and contribute to cardiovascular disease risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is an additional risk of vaping in children [compared with adults] when it comes to effects on the body,\u201d L\u00f8chen said. \u201cBecause we know that the nicotine and other elements in e-cigarettes have a very harmful effect on developing brains. Not only in the foetus, but during childhood and into your 20s. So that is something we are extremely concerned about.\u201d<\/p>\n
When children quit vaping, some experience nicotine withdrawal that can increase heart rate and blood pressure, L\u00f8chen told reporters after she gave a presentation on e-cigarettes in Madrid.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also know that when children and young people start vaping, they may become dependent on the nicotine and it can become a gateway to smoking. I\u2019m very worried \u2013 and convinced \u2013 that children and adolescents that are starting to vape now are at increased risk of irreversible harm to their health.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also speaking in Madrid, Prof Susanna Price, a consultant cardiologist at Royal Brompton hospital in London and the chair of the ESC advocacy committee, said: \u201cWe are seeing an increase in children vaping but what we don\u2019t yet know is what that translates to in long-term cardiovascular risk because they haven\u2019t been around long enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there is a push to suggest that vaping is safe but we don\u2019t know that. It\u2019s my concern that we\u2019re going to replace one highly addictive substance with another one that may have a similar profile with respect to cardiovascular risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Charmaine Griffiths, the chief executive of the British Heart Foundation, said: \u201cVaping is not risk-free and no child or teenager should be picking up an e-cigarette.\u201d She said governments must take action to tackle concerning levels of youth vaping. \u201cMaking vaping less appealing to young people and creating a smoke-free generation cannot come a moment too soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Data on the long-term health effects is limited because vapes are relatively new and evolving. It could be years before further effects become apparent. In the meantime, L\u00f8chen is in favour of a global ban on sales of e-cigarettes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think based on what we know now about the detrimental and harmful effects of e-cigarettes, I think there should be a ban on sales of e-cigarettes worldwide,\u201d she said. \u201cThere have been around for 15, 20 years now, we have the data. We know they are not harmless.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Doctors have raised the alarm about high levels of vaping among children worldwide, saying they are convinced e-cigarettes are causing irreversible harm to their health. Cardiologists, researchers and health experts said they were \u201cextremely concerned\u201d about the harmful effects of e-cigarettes on millions of teenagers and young people, including exposure to toxins and carcinogens \u2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[6696,343,366,2801,37,11450,9984],"class_list":{"0":"post-18726","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-social-issues","8":"tag-causing","9":"tag-childrens","10":"tag-doctors","11":"tag-harm","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-irreversible","14":"tag-vaping"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}