Use of e-cigarettes has been rising among adolescents in the United States, and the long-term health consequences of e-cigarette use are unknown. A survey of 11th and 12th grade students in California found an association between self-reported chronic bronchitic symptoms (a chronic cough, phlegm, bronchitis in the past year) and current or past e-cigarette use that remained after adjustment for confounders such as cigarette smoking or secondhand smoke exposure; risk of respiratory symptoms increased with frequency of current use of e-cigarettes. E-cigarettes do not expose the user to many of the constituents of cigarette smoke (eg, tars, oxidant gasses, and carbon monoxide) that are responsible for many of the tobacco-attributable diseases.
Most experts believe that inhaling e-cigarette vapor is likely to be less harmful than inhaling cigarette smoke. However, the consequences of…
