Does Vaping Cause Lung Damage and Cancer? The Ultimate Guide

Smoking is the biggest cause of lung cancer. Cigarette smoke contains thousands of chemicals, many of which are carcinogens.

Some smokers choose to switch to vaping to help them quit, and many young people pick up vaping in the belief that it’s not harmful like smoking.

Vaping has become a popular alternative to smoking, especially among young adults. But is it safe? Are there any side effects? Can e-cigarettes and vaping lead to lung cancer?

Here’s a closer look at the effects of vaping on your lungs, and whether this practice can cause lung cancer.

What is Vaping?

Vaping involves heating a liquid and inhaling the aerosol into the lungs. With vaping, a device such as an e-cigarette is used that heats up an e-liquid (or vape juice) until it turns into a vapor that is inhaled.

With traditional cigarettes, you inhale smoke from burning tobacco. The cigarette smoke contain 7,000 chemicals — 69 of which are toxic and known to cause cancer.

Vaping is far less harmful than smoking because e-cigarettes don't contain cancer-causing tobacco, and most of the toxic chemicals found in cigarettes are not in e-cigarettes.

However, Some potentially harmful chemicals have been found in e-cigarettes.

What are Vapes or e-cigarettes?

These devices are commonly called vapes, mods, e-hookahs, sub-ohms, tank systems, and vape pens. They may all look a bit different, but work in similar ways.

Vapes include a mouthpiece, a battery, a cartridge that holds a liquid or dry material, and a heating element.

When you breathe in through the mouthpiece, it turns on the battery and heating element. The heat turns the liquid or dry material into vapour.

Some e-cigarettes mimic the look normal cigarettes, pipes, or cigars, while others resemble everyday household items like pens and USB flash drives.

These devices heat up various flavorings, nicotine, or chemicals from cannabis.

What’s in Vape Juice?

The e-liquid in a vape product contains a combination of ingredients, usually including nicotine, propylene glycol (PG), vegetable glycerine (VG) and flavouring.

Nicotine is a highly addictive chemical compound and can harm the developing brains of teens, kids and fetuses in women.

PG acts as the base for many E-Liquids, where it helps create the vapour from the device when heated.

VG is known for creating thicker vapour clouds while also providing a smoother vape experience.

Many of these substances are considered safe for ingestion (eating); however, Some substances, like PG and VG, when heated, can produce toxic compounds that irritate the lungs and airways.

Additionally, Flavorings make vaping appealing but can contain harmful chemicals.

The harmful chemicals in Vapor you Inhale When Vaping

There many potentially harmful chemicals in the vapor that you inhale. But it’s difficult to know what you’re inhaling because the chemicals vary by manufacturer and device, especially lots of vape products are unregulated.

Here just a few of these toxic chemicals that scientists have found in vapes:

1. Formaldehyde

Formaldehyde, an antimicrobial agent and preservative used in many products, is a carcinogen and known contact allergen.

Formaldehyde formation through the e-cigarette vaping processes has been well documented, as it is a by-product of propylene glycol and glycerol combustion, as well as thermal degradation.

2. Acetaldehyde

Acetaldehyde is a Class 1 toxin according to the World Health Organization, meaning that it is a possible carcinogen.

Acetaldehyde is caused by the heating of the vape juice itself, breaking down other chemicals and forming this cancer-causing vapor.

3. Acrolein

Acrolein is a product of heating and degradation of vegetable glycerin (VG) present in e-liquids.

It is a herbicide primarily used to kill weeds. It can cause acute lung injury and COPD and may cause asthma and lung cancer.

4. Toxic heavy metals

The metal components (coils) that heat the vape liquid may release harmful elemental metals, including nickel, chromium and lead, which can then be transported into the aerosol and deposited into the user's body.

Exposure to heavy metals like chromium, nickel, manganese, and lead can have serious health consequences, which cause cancers in the lungs, kidneys, prostate and pancreas.

5. Benzene

Benzene is a volatile organic compound (VOC) found in car exhaust.

Significant levels of cancer-causing benzene in e-cigarette vapors can form when the vapes are operated at high power, and when the e-cigarette fluid additive chemicals benzoic acid or benzaldehyde were present.

6. Acetone

Acetone, found in vape aerosol, is also found in nail polish remover and paint thinner. Inhaling can lead to headaches, dizziness, confusion, and nausea.

7. Diacetyl

Diacetyl is a chemical used to make different flavors of vaping e-liquid. However, It scars the lungs, causing popcorn lung.

8. Diethylene glycol

some e-cigs contain diethylene glycol, an ingredient used as antifreeze.

Breathing ethylene glycol vapors may irritate eyes and lungs but is unlikely to cause systemic toxicity.

9. Ultrafine particles

When inhaled deep into the lungs, tiny particles can become lodged in the trachea and bronchi and worsen respiratory conditions, such as asthma. They can also constrict the arteries in the lungs, potentially triggering a heart attack. Although tobacco smoke also contains particles, vapor contains them in much higher concentrations.

What Does Vaping Do to Your Lungs?

Even though vapes are relatively new products, some short-term adverse effects, such as lung and airway irritation, shortness of breath, and coughing following chronic use, have been documented.

Basically, anything other than clean air is not ideal for lung health.

Any kind of inhaled irritant, including nicotine and any of the chemicals that are in the e-cigarette, will cause irritation of the airways, interfere with immune-boosting white cell production, and lead to cough, asthma, and bronchitis.

In addition, vaping can lead to chronic inflammation, which may opens the door for cancer to develop.

Does vaping cause lung cancer?

Cancer is definitely a concern, given that vaping introduces a host of chemicals into the lungs.

Dangerous chemicals found in vaping products that can damage lungs include acrolein, formaldehyde, diacetyl, heavy metals, and ultrafine particles that can be deeply inhaled.

The long-term harms from exposure to these chemicals won’t be known for many years. But we know that the risk of harm by being exposed to these chemicals is increased by frequent vaping over a period of time.

Cigarettes have been available in the U.S. since the 1800s, but it wasn't until 1956 that the relationship between smoking and lung cancer was discovered.

Compared to traditional cigarettes, e-cigarettes are relatively new, having gained popularity in the United States around 2007.

Since vaping products haven’t been available long enough for researchers to learn whether or not they cause cancer. The research is ongoing in regards to lung cancer. Only time will tell.

Additionally, almost all lung cancer cases appear in patients age 65 and older who spent decades smoking. It may take a generation for us to determine if there is a direct and significant connection.

What Other Lung Problems can Vaping Cause?

Vaping can make asthma and other existing lung diseases worse. In addition, It is associated with several well-known lung diseases including:

1. lung damage

Research shows that vaping allows tiny particles to be inhaled deep into the lungs.

These tiny particles spread and settle throughout the airways.

Here these chemicals can cause inflammation, cell death, scarring and DNA damage.

2. Popcorn lung

One chemical in some e-cigarette flavorings is a buttery-flavored one called diacetyl.

It's been linked to a serious lung disease called bronchiolitis obliterans (BO), which also known as popcorn lung.

Diacetyl scars the tiny air sacs in your lungs. That makes your airways thick and narrow.

Symptoms include dry cough, shortness of breath, wheezing, chronic cough, headache, fever, aches, and other health problems.

There is no treatment for popcorn lung, but symptoms can often be managed.

3. Lipoid Pneumonia

Inhaling the oily substances found in e-liquid can cause an inflammatory response in the lungs that leads to lipoid pneumonia.

Symptoms of lipoid pneumonia include: Chronic cough, Shortness of breath, Coughing up blood or blood-tinged mucus.

It is possible to recover from vaping-related lipoid pneumonia with the most important step being quitting vaping immediately.

4. Collapsed Lung (Pneumothorax)

Air blisters are frequently found in tall, thin people who had a period of rapid growth during adolescence. Because of the accelerated growth, a weak point may blister and develop at the top of the lungs.

Typically, the blisters are not problematic. But both vaping and smoking increase the risk of bursting which can lead to lung collapse.

Signs of a collapsed lung include sharp chest or shoulder pain, shortness of breath and difficulty breathing. Treating a collapsed lung may require a chest tube, surgery, and/or bed rest.

What Causes Lung Cancer?

Anyone can get lung cancer. Lung cancer happens when cells in the lung mutate or change.

Various factors can cause this mutation (a permanent change in the DNA sequence of a gene) to happen.

Most often, this change in lung cells happens when people breathe in dangerous, toxic substances.

1. Smoking

Smoking is the number one cause of lung cancer. It causes about 90 percent of lung cancer cases.

Tobacco smoke contains many chemicals that are known to cause lung cancer.

Nonsmokers also can be affected by smoking. Breathing in secondhand smoke puts you at risk for lung cancer or other illnesses.

2. Radon

Radon exposure is the second-leading cause of lung cancer. Radon is a colorless, odorless radioactive gas that exists naturally in soil.

It comes up through the soil and enters buildings through small gaps and cracks.

3. Hazardous Chemicals

Exposure to certain hazardous chemicals poses a lung cancer risk.

Working with materials such as asbestos, uranium, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, nickel and some petroleum products is especially dangerous.

4. Particle Pollution

Particle pollution refers to a mix of very tiny solid and liquid particles that are in the air we breathe.

Evidence shows that particle pollution—like that coming from that exhaust smoke—increases the risk of lung cancer.

Can Vaping Lead to Other Cancers?

While lung cancer is the primary concern, vaping might also pose risks for other types of cancer.

The chemicals in vape juice can affect various parts of the body, not just the lungs. Oral cancers, for instance, could be a concern due to the inhalation of certain flavoring agents and other harmful substances.

The esophagus and other parts of the respiratory tract are also exposed and may be at risk. More research is needed to determine the full extent of vaping's impact on cancer development.

How to quit vaping?

For those trying to quit smoking, nicotine replacement therapies (NRTs) can provide safer alternatives to vaping.

These therapies offer a controlled dose of nicotine without the harmful chemicals found in e-cigarettes.

Conclusion

While vaping might be less harmful than smoking, it is not without risks.

The harmful chemicals in vape juice and vapor can damage the lungs and potentially lead to other health issues, like Nicotine addiction, cardiovascular issues, heart attack, etc.

The question of whether vaping causes lung cancer remains complex. Scientists are still working to determine if vaping can cause cancer.

It took many years to recognize the damage cigarettes can cause. We could be on a similar path with vaping.

The best way to avoid lung cancer is quit vaping. There are many benefits! Your health will improve, and you will be free from nicotine dependence.

However, If you do decide to vape, avoid e-cigarettes bought from black market and stick with brand name e-cigarette products.