Researchers tie vaping to mouth and lung cancers in new analysis

 https://www.jpost.com/science/article-891810

A new comprehensive scientific review concludes that vaping, including nicotine-containing products, is likely to cause oral and lung cancers. The authors identified early warning signs strongly linked to cancer risk, such as DNA damage, inflammation, and epigenetic changes associated with later lung cancer. They warned that delaying recognition of vaping’s dangers could have dire consequences, given cancer latency periods of 20 to 40 years and the roughly 15-year window of widespread e-cigarette availability.

Large-scale human data on vapers who develop cancer will take decades to accumulate. “The evidence was remarkably consistent across fields. It dictated an unequivocal finding now, though human studies that estimate the risk will take decades to accumulate,” Associate Professor of Epidemiology Freddy Sitas said. He noted it took 100 years for authorities to recognize smoking as a cause of lung cancer and urging regulators not to let vaping follow the same path, according to Bloomberg.

According to the review vaping may cause cancer independently, even in people who have never smoked conventional cigarettes. It cites case reports, including a 19-year-old with aggressive oral cancer, and dentists’ observations of mouth cancers in non-smoking patients attributed to vaping.