In front of alarming data, the Norwegian professor Maja-Lisa Løchen and other specialists ask for urgent action, going so far as to claim a global ban in electronic cigarettes.
Irreversible damage to children’s health
Cardiologists gathered at the Congress of the European Cardiology Society in Madrid are concerned about the trivialization of vaping at school and university. Professor Maja-Lisa Løchen, cardiologist at the university hospital in northern Norway, was clear: “I fear that vaping will cause irreversible damage to the brain and the hearts of children. Of course, we have to wait for long -term data, but I am worried. It increases blood pressure, heart rate, and we know that the arteries become more rigid“.
According to his words reported by The Guardian, “Vape Stresses the cardiovascular system of children. Their heart rate increases and their blood vessels contract, which can stiffen the arteries of the heart over time. Vapoting repeatedly can cause hypertension, which in turn increases the risk of arrhythmia, stroke and even heart attack“.
The figures confirm these concerns. In a presentation in Madrid, Professor Lochen recalled that the e-cigarettes contain 133 potentially harmful substances, including 107 known to cause cancer. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine Established that vaping increased the risk of stroke by 24 %, by 24 % the risk of cardiovascular disease, by 24 % that of asthma, 46 % COPD and 47 % oral disease.
A nicotine dependence that worries
Løchen recalled that “There is an additional risk of vaping in children (compared to adults) with regard to the effects on the body. Because we know that nicotine and other elements of electronic cigarettes have a very harmful effect on developing brains. Not only in the fetus, but also during childhood and up to twenty. So it’s something that concerns us enormously“.
She described the withdrawal symptoms: “When children stop spraying, some feel a lack of nicotine that may increase heart rate and blood pressure“. And confides his concerns:”We also know that when children and young people are starting to vape, they can become nicotine dependent and this can become a gateway to smoking. I am very worried – and convinced – that children and adolescents who are starting to vape now are exposed to an increased risk of irreversible damage to their health“.
The American CDC shares this concern: “Electronic cigarettes are not safe for young people, young adults and pregnant women, as well as for adults who do not currently use tobacco products“.
Vapping is not trivial!
British cardiologist Susanna Price, president of the ESC advocacy committee, underlined scientific uncertainty: “We note an increase in vaping in children but we do not yet know what it means in terms of long -term cardiovascular risk, because they have not existed for a long time“.
She added: “I think there is a desire to suggest that vaping is safe but we do not know it. My fear is that we replaced a highly addictive substance with another which could have a similar profile in terms of cardiovascular risk“.
Professor Lochen, she did not hesitate to ask for radical measures and asks “on the basis of what we know today about the harmful effects of electronic cigarettes” a “prohibition of sales of electronic cigarettes worldwide”.
The observation is reinforced by the rapid progression of the phenomenon: a review of more than 200 studies of the University College London revealed that vaping in young adults increased from 17 % to 26.5 % between January 2022 and January 2024. A trend which, for Dr Charmaine Griffiths de la British Heart Foundation, must push governments to act: “Vaping is not without risk and no child or adolescent should take an electronic cigarette“.