E-Cigarette Usage Possibly Tied to Lung Cell Damage

Daniel “Danny” Ashley won a President’s Smittcamp Honors Scholarship as a high school student in 2014, which led to an invitation to the Department of Biology’s Honors Program at California State University, Fresno. While studying biology in the honors program, Danny Ashley presented an undergraduate study linking lung damage to the use of e-cigarettes.

The study explains that exposure to the e-juice in electronic cigarettes causes cytotoxicity in the cells lining the interior of the lungs. While the study exposed lung cells directly to e-juice, Mr. Ashley and his team are confident that further research will show that exposure to the vapor created by e-cigarettes will also cause damage to lung cells.

One theory advanced by the team is that the heat used to create the distinctive vapor associated with e-cigarettes can increase the cytotoxicity of the compounds used to deliver the nicotine and flavor the e-cigarettes. While Mr. Ashley and his team recommend further studies about the cause and actual effects of e-cigarette use on the lungs, they are clear that marketing e-cigarettes as “safe” is not entirely accurate.