NEWS
Lab-tests
of e-cigarette
show no
evidence of
cellular harm
Vype ePen, a commercially
available e-cigarette did not induce
cell stress, DNA damage or in
malignant transformation in cell
culture tests.
by Dr Marina Murphy, Head of Scientific Media Relations,
Research & Development at British American Tobacco
These past few years have seen a huge
increase in the popularity of vaping as
an alternative to smoking. But we still
see a lot of debate as to the safety of
e-cigarettes, especially in comparison
to regular combustible cigarettes. They
haven’t been around long enough for
us to use epidemiological data, which
looks at health impacts retrospectively.
But what we do know is that cigarette
smoking causes a number of diseases.
We understand some of the mechanisms
underlying the development of some of
these diseases and we have ways of
observing and measuring it. This means
that we can use some of these same
methods to look at the biological impact
of e-cigarettes and compare it to that of
cigarettes.
There are several kinds of tests that
look at different stages of the disease
process – from cellular stress to DNA
damage and ultimately the emergence
of diseased cells. We have used
these tests to compare the impact of a
commercially available e-cigarette, Vype
ePen, to that of a reference cigarette and
found that the vapour produced by these
e-cigarettes does not cause cell stress
responses, DNA damage or promote the
growth of tumours in the cell-based tests
that we used.
E-cigarette vapour can contain nicotine,
humectants, flavourings and thermal
degradation products, so it is important
to understand the potential impact on
biological systems. The tests described
here are just a few in a series of tests
being developed for use with electronic
cigarettes and other products in
development.
Every product is different, so these
results apply only to the product tested
and the biological impact of other
products can only be determined by
d oing similar tests on them. The use
of these tests to assess the biological
impact of e-cigarettes was reported in
March at the annual general meeting
of the Society of Toxicology in New
Orleans.
Three types of tests were used to
compare the biological impact of
cigarettes and e-cigarettes: cell stress
tests; a test to assess DNA damage,
which can set the scene for cancer; and
a transformation assay, which measures
the transformation or conversion of
normal cells into a cancerous cell type.
Stress
Stress can take many forms, a racing
heart, sweaty palms, high temperature.
We all feel stress sometimes and stress
What we do know is
that cigarette smoking
causes a number of
diseases. We understand
some of the mechanisms
underlying the
development of some of
these diseases and we
have ways of observing
and measuring it.
VAPOUROUND MAGAZINE ISSUE 04 25