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New Reports Show Enhanced Harms from Smoking While Vaping

vaping while still smoking could amplify lung, stroke riskWhile vaping may have originally been intended as a path toward harm reduction and smoking cessation, there are a significant number of people vaping who haven’t yet cut their reliance on traditional cigarettes. New studies seem to suggest that the harms from this kind of dual use are enhanced over and above the individual impacts of either activity.

Reuters recently reported on a new study of over 161,000 people. Of the sample, 7.8 percent were traditional smokers, 2.7 percent vaped, and 4.8 percent said they partook in both activities. Participants who both smoked and vaped appeared to be almost three times as likely to have suffered a stroke. The same group was also almost twice as likely to have had a stroke than the group that only had a history of smoking.

Data also seemed to indicate that regardless of any cardiovascular harm reduction for someone who had switched from tobacco products to vaping, there was no benefit or impact to the person’s stroke risk, particularly among the young.

NPR reports that a new study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine has taken a closer look at the impact of vaping on the lungs. A group was tracked who smoked and vaped but, at least to that that point, had not been diagnosed with any sort of respiratory disease. Over the course of the three-year study, the lung disease risk for the traditional smokers appeared to double. Those who only vaped showed a 30 percent increase in their risk.

It is worth noting that the study was headed by Dr. Stanton Glantz, a well-known voice in the anti-vaping world. Glantz is so vehement in his stance that he’s gone so far as to claim that people who have turned to vaping “would be better off just smoking,” even though most research shows that there is at least some degree of harm reduction in making the switch. In fact, the UK’s Royal College of Physicians has stated that vaping should be embraced and promoted “as widely as possible” to those trying to quit, as the activity represents a 95 percent reduction in harm over traditional smoking.

In addition to his stance on vaping, Glantz, a tenured professor at UC San Francisco, is also known for the two sexual harassment lawsuits filed against him by former mentees and research associates. And, according to one of his accusers, there is a significant chance that there could be others, as Glantz was known to use his tenure as a way of intimidating students and keeping them quiet. According to a plaintiff in one of the lawsuits, Glantz told students on multiple occasions that a tenured professor could “rape the vice chancellor’s daughter and still have a job.”