United States – A new study revealed that secondhand smoke from cigarettes is much worse than vaping and puts children at a higher risk of being exposed to nicotine.
Indoor vaping delivers significantly lower nicotine levels to children; compared with kid’s exposed to indoor smoking through blood test.
Findings on Health Risks and Harmful Substances
Secondhand exposure to injurious chemicals in e-cigarettes most probably would be even lesser, researchers stated, because vaping delivers the same nicotine levels but far fewer toxins and carcinogens compared to tobacco smoke, as reported by HealthDay.
In a news release, the senior researcher Lion Shahab, a Professor of Health Psychology with the University College London Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care, was quoted as saying, “This paper suggests that concerns about secondhand vaping may be somewhat overstated, with secondhand exposure to toxic substances likely to be very low.”
“The findings confirm the risks of smoking indoors around children, which should be avoided at all costs,” Shahab continued. “However, as secondhand vaping still exposes children to more harmful substances than no vaping or smoking exposure at all, it is best to avoid indoor vaping around children, too.”
Study Highlights Contrasts in Secondhand Nicotine Exposure
To undertake the study, researchers were able to test blood samples collected from close to 1,800 children in the U. S who were aged 3 to 11 years. They were gathered from the federal health survey of the country between the years 2017 to 2020.
In addition, children who were exposed to indoor vaping took in 84% less nicotine than children who were exposed to indoor smoking, according to the study.
However, children who were exposed to neither group absorbed 97 percent less nicotine.
These lower levels of nicotine exposure could be attributed to differences in vaping and smoking, the researchers stated.
Nicotine, the researchers said, is airborne when smokers exhale and also when smoke is produced from the burning part of a cigarette. For instance, e-cigarettes only produce nicotine fumes when the vaper exhales.
Experts have commented on the results, suggesting that the effects of vaping on people surrounding the vapers will be significantly less harmful to their health than smoking.
Expert Insights and Recommendations
“Our study shows, using data from the real world rather than an artificial lab setting, that nicotine absorption is much lower from secondhand vapor than from secondhand smoking,” said Harry Tattan-Birch, a research fellow in the University College London Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care, as reported by HealthDay.
Still, indoor air policies banning vaping are helpful in that vaping is not allowed to become socially accepted and ubiquitous like smoking, researchers concluded.