Vaping ‘10 times worse’ than smoking new research reveals

Initially thought to be a safer than smoking, with 20 per cent of young Aussies vaping, one top health expert now says vaping is the “worse of two evils”.

As vaping rates continue to skyrocket in Australia new research has found vaping is “10 times worse” than smoking for oral health.

Almost 20 per cent of young people and 9 per cent of adults now vape, according to data from the Australian Health Department.

The increase is attributed to vapes becoming disposable and a lack of public health messaging during Covid-19.

Professor Purnima Kumar, the principal investigator of the Oral Microbial Ecology Laboratory at the University of Michigan, told the World Dental Congress in Sydney that there were worrying signs vaping could be more damaging than smoking.

“We know from smoking … that there are specific changes that happen in the mouth, cellular changes at the molecular level, that are huge predictors of future disease,” she said, according to The Australian.

Vaping in young people has dramatically increased since 2020. Picture: iStock

“We are seeing those markers of harm … show up in vapers within six months of vaping.”

But Prof Kumar acknowledged it was “too early” to notice clinical changes (such as) gum disease, more cavities, and cancer.

“The disease itself takes a while to show up and we’re not at that point in time,” she said.

Dr Kumar explained that it's the “vapour” (the fluffy plumes of smoke) from vapes that is a “resource that bacteria uses”.

“They break these down into metabolic products, some of these products act as toxins to create inflammation,” she said.

“When these bacteria and their structure … is changed because you start vaping, then the immune system doesn’t recognise that these bacteria are friends and it gets super inflammatory.”

Dr Kumar described the mouth as the gateway of the body” and urged people to “protect their mouth” as a way of protecting the rest of the body.

In a video promoting the World Dental Congress Dr Kumar described vaping as the “worse of two evils”.

“We are finding that vaping is the greater of the two evils. It causes more damage to your mouth and it causes it quicker.”

“The changes I see in a vaper who uses e-cigarettes for six months is very similar to what I am seeing in a smoker who is smoking for five years,” she said and predicted a whole new “class of disease” is going to emerge in the coming of years from vaping.

Vaping messaging ‘damaging’

One top health expert say public health messaging around vaping needs to drastically change of rates of vaping are to decrease.

Dr Mike McKean, from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. told the BBC that the message vaping is 95% safer than smoking has backfired, unintentionally encouraging some children to vape.

“Vaping is not for children and young people. In fact it could be very bad for you,” he said.

“Vaping is only a tool for adults who are addicted to cigarettes.”

“The ‘switch to vape’ message has had an unintended consequences”, says one expert. Picture: iStock

The “switch to vape” message has had an unintended consequence of driving children to take up e-cigs, he says.

“There are many children, young people who have taken up vaping who never intended to smoke and are now likely addicted to vaping,” he said.

“And I think it’s absolutely shocking that we’ve allowed that to happen.”

However, not everyone is in agreement.

The UK Royal College of Physicians has estimated that the impacts of vaping is unlikely to be more than five per cent of the risk of smoking.

State and the federal governments are working to reduce the rates of vaping.

In May the Albanese government announced that it would outlaw the importation of non-prescription vaping products in the biggest smoking reforms in a decade.

Under current laws vapes with nicotine can only be bought with a prescription from a chemist.

But that hasn’t stopped thousands of convenience stores and online providers selling to kids.

Last month Health minister Mark Butler said vapes would be captured in advertising restrictions and vapes would not be able to use “appealing names that imply reduced harm”.

with Ellen Ransley, NCA NewsWire