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We know the harms of passive smoking, but what about passive vaping? While electronic cigarettes are becoming more and more widespread, a study reveals that children exposed to this passive vaping have a nicotine level 5 times higher than normal.
Passive vaping: what are the real dangers?
The study, published in JAMA Network Open and funded by Cancer Research UK, used blood tests and survey data from 1,777 children aged three to 11 in the United States. Specifically, blood tests that detected cotinine levels were used to assess how much nicotine the children were consuming. Cotinine is a chemical produced by the body after exposure to nicotine. Survey responses included whether the children had been exposed to smoking or vaping indoors in the previous week.
The researchers focused on data from children because unlike adults, children were unlikely to have smoked or vaped themselves, meaning the higher nicotine intake was solely due to vapour or secondhand smoke.
The team found that children exposed to indoor vaping absorbed 84% less nicotine than children exposed to indoor secondhand smoke, while children exposed to neither substance absorbed 97% less nicotine.
In conclusion, children exposed to indoor vaping absorb less than a seventh of the amount of nicotine as children exposed to indoor smoking, but more than those exposed to neither, according to a new study by UCL researchers.
Much lower risks than passive smoking
The lower nicotine levels in people exposed to passive vaping are consistent with previous laboratory studies that showed people retained 99% of the nicotine they produced while vaping. With tobacco cigarettes, smoke is generated both by smokers exhaling and by the lit end of the cigarette. E-cigarettes, on the other hand, do not generate aerosols except when vapers exhale.
Lead author Professor Lion Shahab, from the UCL Institute of Epidemiology and Healthcare, said: “This article suggests that concerns about passive vaping may be somewhat overblown, as passive exposure to toxic substances is likely to be very low (…) The results confirm the risks associated with indoor smoking in the presence of children, which should be avoided at all costs. However, as passive vaping still exposes children to more harmful substances than no vaping or exposure to tobacco at all, it is best to avoid indoor vaping in the presence of children as well“.
Can vaping be allowed in public places?
So should vaping be allowed indoors, knowing that the health impact on those present will be much less than that of smoking? According to the researchers, other factors need to be considered. In particular, if vaping is commonly occurring indoors, this may normalise the behaviour, encouraging people to start vaping and making it harder for them to quit.
Previous research by the same team showed that adults in England were much more likely to vape than smoke indoors, with 9 in 10 vapers vaping indoors, while only half of smokers smoked indoors.