The rising use of e-cigarettes among teenagers has doctors worried about long-term health risks and calling for more regulation of the devices.
Dr. David Balis, a professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center, says e-cigarettes use nicotine and dangerous pollutants that can get into the lungs. Lack of government regulation means product standards can vary from one e-cigarette maker to another.
But worse, the product is heavily marketed to young people.
"We don’t want smoking to be cool again as it was a long time ago," Balis says. "Our concern is we’re going to get a whole generation hooked on nicotine and it’ll be a gateway drug and they'll move to cigarettes and become smokers."
Balis also heads smoking cessation programs at UT Southwestern’s Simmons Cancer Center and at Parkland Hospital.
Interview Highlights
On uses of e-cigs: Initially, we thought e-cigs might be helpful in getting people to quit traditional cigarettes, but the data hasn’t borne that out. What we found is that people are just using this as a another nicotine delivery device. They smoke in the morning at home. They can’t smoke traditional cigarettes at work, so they use e-cigarettes at work, and then they go home and smoke traditional cigarettes again. So, they’re just continuing their nicotine addiction with these e-cigarettes since they’re more acceptable now in public places, but they’re not actually quitting.
On perception of e-cigs: Some feel it’s a safe alternative to smoking, but there are still many concerns with e-cigs. We’ve done a great job of reducing the incidence of smoking in general, but the main concern we have is that the use in our younger generation has skyrocketed. We don’t want smoking to be cool again as it was a long time ago. Our concern is we’re going to get a whole generation hooked on nicotine and it’ll be a gateway drug and move to cigarettes and become smokers.
Health concerns about e-cigs: The combustible cigarette has a lot of poisons and toxins that you get by the combustion process. The e-cigs are probably safer, but you're still inhaling a vapor into your lungs and pollutants that you get into your lungs that we know are dangerous. With the heating process, there are some carcinogens that people are being exposed to and inhaling in their lungs.
On FDA regulation of e-cigs: We’ve been wanting te FDA to regulate these e-cigarettes because the FDA now has control over nicotine, and many of us have been frustrated by how slow this process has been. You have no idea what you’re getting with e-cigarettes. There are so many different makers, so many different types. One of things that we’re asking for is tighter regulation so people know what they’re getting.
Resources
- F.D.A. Cracks Down on ‘Juuling’ Among Teenagers
- I Can’t Stop’: Schools Struggle With Vaping Explosion
- FDA Asserts Oversight Authority over Cigars, E-Cigarettes, Other Tobacco Products
- 2016 Surgeon General's Report: E-Cigarette Use Among Youth and Young Adults
Interview responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
