Augusta University Professor Warns of Long-Lasting Effects of E-Cigarettes

AUGUSTA, Georgia (WRDW/WAGT) – FDA seeks to remove Juul E-Cigarettes from shelves. They were originally created to wean smokers off tobacco products. Researchers at Augusta University have looked into the lasting effects vapes can have.

Dr Zubair Karim, assistant professor of interdisciplinary health sciences at UA, said: “There is no such remedy that we can take the alternative to the smock regimen.”

According to the CDC in 2021, 2.06 million American middle and high school students used e-cigs in the past 30 days.

UA experts began testing in 2020 by exposing mice to the nicotine found in Juul’s and taking blood samples.

Dr. Karim says the results are significant.

“What we did was draw blood from the mice after exposure to Juul and we wanted to see the level of nicotine and its level and it was significantly higher,” Karim explains.

The results showed how quickly clots form in the blood after exposure, prompting them to dig deeper.

They discovered that any organ that comes into contact with nicotine can have long-lasting effects.

“It could be the liver, the pancreas or the skin, anywhere it could happen and it will cause life-threatening conditions,” says Karim.

According to Karim, nicotine is harmful from any source and even a nicotine patch will produce the same result.

“Even if we don’t smoke and there’s no smell, even if we take the nicotine into our bodies, so we’re going to have the same impact on health…cardiovascular disease, diabetes or long-term cancer,” says Karim.

Karim says banning this product won’t solve the problem, but educating society about healthy lifestyles will.

“Once we educate what’s going on…how it’s going to impact, we learn and after that they’re going to change their behavior,” Karim explains.

We reached out to local vape shops to see how it would affect business if the ban goes through, but due to their company policies, they declined to comment.

We will keep you posted as this story develops.

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