CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Vaping may be worse for your nose and throat than smoking cigarettes, according to a new study by NYU Langone Health. This is because those who vape have been shown to be twice as likely to exhale through their nose than those who smoke cigarettes.
This can increase the risk for inflammation and cancers of the nose and sinuses and throat, conditions seen less often in cigarette smokers, according to the study authors.
The new investigation of 341 men and women showed that large numbers of vapers and hookah smokers exhaled through their nose (63 percent and 50 percent, respectively). By contrast, only 22 percent of cigarette smokers did the same.
“Our findings suggest that the unique way vapers and hookah smokers use their devices may expose the nose and sinuses to far more emissions than cigarettes, which may in turn increase their risk for upper respiratory diseases,” says study lead author Emma Karey, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Environmental Medicine at NYU Langone Health.
Dr. Salim Surani joined First Edition to explain the results of this newly released study.
"We know that smoking is very dangerous for health, it can cause cancer, and vaping came in as kind of a rescue therapy to try and get people who were hooked up to smoking, try to get them out of the addiction and harmful side effects," Surani said.
However, vape smoke still contains carcinogens.
"People thought it would not have any carcinogens but studies after studies show there are a lot of chemicals in there, they have a high carbon monoxide level, and also those chemicals can cause cancer," Surani said.
The nose and throat can be affected by these cancer-causing chemicals.
"When they exhale, the amount of heated toxic air which is coming out, it's coming out from more the nose in the people who vape and use the hookah," Surani said.
So, is vaping safer than smoking cigarettes? Dr. Surani said this is mostly a myth.
"There are a lot of flavoring agents and chemicals and we don't really know the side effects of a lot of those things, what it is going to do in the future in 20 or 30 years, but we do know that there are still a lot of carcinogens and carbon monoxide which are significant health challenges," Surani said.
You can watch the full interview in the above video.