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Scientists have found that vapers and smokers have similar levels of DNA damage, which is more than twice the amount found in non-users, according to a new study. According to the study, DNA damage was higher among those who vaped or smoked more frequently. It was also higher in vapers who used vape pods and mods, as well as sweet-, fruit- or mint-flavoured vapes, it said. A group of researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California (USC), US, analysed epithelial cells taken from the mouths of vapers, smokers, and people who had never vaped or smoked, the study said. E-cigarettes, used regularly by more than 10 per cent of US teens and more than 3 per cent of adults, were once pitched as a healthy alternative to tobacco cigarettes. But research increasingly links the use of e-cigarettes, or vaping, to many of the same life-threatening diseases that plague smokers, the study published in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research said. "For the first ..
E-cigarettes and marijuana may have harmful effects on the heart similar to those caused by tobacco cigarettes, opening the door to abnormal heart rhythms, according to a study conducted in mice. E-cigarettes and heated tobacco products have become popular because the public perceives them as being less harmful than smoking, the researchers said. Similarly, legal recreational marijuana has become more common in recent years, and is also frequently viewed by the public as being safer than smoking tobacco, they said. "We found that cigarettes, e-cigarettes, and marijuana greatly interfere with the electrical activity, structure, and neural regulation of the heart," said study lead author Huiliang Qiu, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in the US. "Often, any single change can lead to arrhythmia disease. Unfortunately, these adverse effects on the heart are quite comprehensive," Qiu said. The study, published in the journal Heart Rhythm, expo
Hundreds of vapers, advocates of electronic cigarettes and medical professionals held a nationwide protest demanding that the government roll back the ban on electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS). The Association of Vapers India (AVI), an organisation that represents e-cigarette users, held protests in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chennai. The protesters termed the ban "wilful genocide by the government", saying "it will push current vapers back to deadly smoking and deprive the country's 11 crore smokers of safer options". The government on September 18 banned production, import and sale of e-cigarettes and similar products, citing health risk to people, especially youth, and an ordinance will be brought in to make it an offence, entailing jail term up to three years as well as fine. Smoking kills nearly a million people in India every year. The consumer body organised awareness drives in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata where government authorities and