Despite the ‘no-smoking’ signs throughout campus, it doesn’t take long to see a student pull a JUUL out of their pocket in the Quad to blow clouds of smoke when walking around the University. There are several spots on campus where students gather to talk, study and take a vape break before class.
While users argue e-cigarettes are less dangerous than cigarettes, little research confirmed that idea before the national vaping epidemic began in fall 2019.
One researcher at the University hopes to provide the necessary data to understand the dangers of vaping.
Alexandra Noël, a School of Veterinary Medicine assistant professor of comparative biomedical sciences, will engage in a multi-year research project funded by the FDA and National Institutes of Health to study the short- and long-term effects of e-cigarette use on the lungs.
“These deaths and illnesses are related to vaping, and it’s only the tip of the iceberg,” Noël said. “Doctors are just now seeing the harmful effects.”
E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that heat a liquid into a vapor to be inhaled, according to the NIH. The vapor can contain nicotine, flavoring, marijuana, hashish oil or other chemicals. Exposure to nicotine at a young age can lead to lifelong addiction and harm brain development.
As of Feb. 18, a total of 2,807 people in the U.S. have been hospitalized or died from lung injuries, known as EVALI, associated with e-cigarette use, across 28 states and Washington D.C., according to the Center for Disease Control. As of Jan. 25, the Louisiana Department of Health confirmed 35 cases of EVALI, three of which resulted in deaths.
According to the FDA, 28% of high school students and 11% of middle school students said they used an e-cigarette as of late 2019, amounting to 5.3 million young users across the nation.
Noël and her team will evaluate the lungs’ responses to various wattage and temperature settings on third-generation tank devices, along with the effects of different flavorings. She plans to focus on users who were not previously smokers but obtained a nicotine addiction through e-cigarettes.
“We’re seeing kids that are using four pods a day, and this is the equivalent of four packs of cigarettes a day,” Karen Wilson of the American Academy of Pediatrics said in an NPR interview in November 2019. “It is an astounding amount of nicotine that is being delivered by these products.”
In response to the vaping epidemic among youth, the FDA raised the minimum age to purchase tobacco products from 18 to 21 in December. The provision was part of a $1.4 trillion spending package signed by President Donald Trump on Dec. 20 that amended the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, according to the New York Post.
USA Today reported the smoking age hike had bipartisan support in the Senate after being introduced in May by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.
Some states have banned the sale of flavored e-cigarettes and vaping cartridges. Prior to the federal law, 19 states plus Washington D.C. had already raised the minimum age to buy tobacco products to 21.
The FDA had up to six months to amend its guidelines. After that, the minimum age change would take place within 90 days. The FDA updated its website to reflect the policy changes in December.
The website now reads, “It is now illegal for a retailer to sell any tobacco product – including cigarettes, cigars and e-cigarettes – to anyone under 21. FDA will provide additional details on this issue as they become available, and the information on this page will be updated accordingly in a timely manner.”
The FDA website also urges sellers to check photo IDs of any customers attempting to purchase tobacco who appear under the age of 27. Noël said these are steps in the right direction.
Noël and her team have data behind closed-system e-cigarettes like JUULs: chemicals in electronic cigarettes do create harmful effects on the lungs rather than being the harmless smoking-cessation device that they were once advertised as.
“A claim cannot be made that vaping is harmless,” Noël said. “Research has already started to provide scientific evidence.”
Noël is a toxicology researcher who pursued projects on the lung responses to nanoparticles and second-hand smoke. She was inspired to move to e-cigarette research because of its rising popularity. She hopes her research can be proactive rather than reactive.
“From second-hand smoke exposure, I wanted to keep up with what was coming, with new devices,” Noël said. “It was a natural progression, and also there had not already been a lot of research done on those devices that came out in 2006.”
Noël’s hope is to provide research specifically for groups of people who are not using e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation tool but rather started smoking using e-cigarettes. These users, typically younger, argue the devices are easier to use and less dangerous to their health than cigarettes, Noël said.
“It always depends on what you compare it to,” Noël said. “When you compare it to air from someone that doesn’t vape at all, that’s where the comparison should be.”
The products are also not FDA approved, Noël said. Users who are opting for e-cigarettes as a means of quitting smoking should instead use nicotine gum or patches, which have FDA-approval and data to back them up.
Noël is not performing this research for the sake of awards or fame, though. Noël said she wants to contribute to the research on electronic cigarette use so she can help inform the public and steer government regulation in the right direction.
“At the end of the day, my research could be one brick in a whole wall to make legislation, and I would be really happy,” Noël said. “That’s what I hope my research can be able to contribute—to help agencies make the right regulations.”
Noël has completed the first of two years of funded research on vaping. In October, she presented results so far to an audience of her peers at the NIH Tobacco Regulatory Science meeting. She’s already gathering preliminary data for her next studies.
“We still have a long way to go. We’re starting to put all the pieces together,” Noël said.