{"id":24321,"date":"2025-05-09T09:25:37","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T09:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/?p=24321"},"modified":"2025-05-09T09:25:43","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T09:25:43","slug":"vape-and-htp-users-report-less-lung-symptoms-than-smokers-new-italian-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/post\/vape-and-htp-users-report-less-lung-symptoms-than-smokers-new-italian-study-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"Vape and HTP users report less lung symptoms than smokers, new Italian study finds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Former smokers who use vapes or HTPs report lung symptom levels similar to people who have never smoked<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Findings suggest these nicotine alternatives do NOT worsen respiratory health when used as substitutes for smoking\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The longer someone had smoked, the worse their respiratory symptoms were likely to be<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Researchers approved powerful new tool to test for even minor respiratory symptoms in former smokers\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Former smokers &#8211; whether they quit altogether or switch to vapes or heated tobacco products (HTP) &#8211; report significantly fewer respiratory symptoms than current smokers, a new Italian study has found.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com\/articles\/10.1186\/s12889-025-22824-y\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The research<\/a>, published in the journal BMC Public Health, found that former smokers who use vapes or HTPs report lung symptom levels similar to people who have never smoked. The findings suggest that these nicotine alternatives do not worsen respiratory health when used as substitutes for smoking.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The study said: \u201cThe scores of former smokers are similar to those not using these products, and lower than smokers\u2019, suggest[ing] that HTPs and e-cigarettes do not add materially to respiratory symptoms when smokers stop smoking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>New tool to test and compare respiratory symptoms&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Researchers set out to validate the Italian version of the Respiratory Symptom Experience Scale (IT-RSES), a powerful and sensitive new tool to detect and measure even early signs of breathing issues in smokers before disease is diagnosed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After translation into Italian, they used the IT-RSES via phone interview with 750 Italian participants across five tobacco use groups. These were: never-smokers, former smokers not using alternative products, HTP users, vape users, and continuing smokers. The tool compared symptoms across the groups, while taking into account the participants\u2019 age and the number of years they had smoked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The study said: \u201cCigarette smoke exposes smokers to toxic chemicals that are products of combustion and that contribute to pulmonary (and other) harms of smoking. The aerosol from non-combustible products [such as vapes and HTPs] do not contain these combustion products.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBiomarker data demonstrate that, compared to smoking, these products reduce users\u2019 exposure to many toxicants, including not only carcinogens and cardiovascular toxicants, but also respiratory toxicants, suggesting that switching to such products would improve respiratory symptoms.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNevertheless, since these products are inhaled, it is important to assess their impact on respiratory symptoms. \u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>More time smoking = worse lung symptoms<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>It found that IT-RSES scores \u201ccorrelated significantly\u201d with how many years a person had been smoking (i.e. the longer someone had smoked, the worse their respiratory symptoms were likely to be).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The study said: \u201cAs expected, because chronic smoking leads to respiratory symptoms, in the groups with a history of smoking, there was a high correlation between IT-RSES scores and the number of years the participant had smoked, even independent of current tobacco use status.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It also, predictably, found higher scores in smokers compared to never-smokers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most notably, former smokers, HTP users and vape users all had lower scores than smokers and were not significantly different from each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>A growing body of evidence<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Italian respiratory physician<strong> <\/strong>Riccardo Polosa said: \u201cThis study adds to the growing body of evidence showing that quitting smoking &#8211; or switching to less harmful products &#8211; can bring measurable health benefits, even in the short term. The IT-RSES gives clinicians and researchers a much-needed tool to track these improvements reliably.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The researchers concluded that the IT-RSES is a reliable and useful tool \u201cfor assessing respiratory symptoms in smokers, and former smoker[s] who stopped smoking and were using e-cigarettes or HTPs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAssessment of respiratory symptoms in smokers and former smokers is of clinical and research relevance,\u201d the study said. \u201cHowever, there is currently a dearth of specific tools available for this purpose, and none in languages other than English.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhile many instruments are available for assessing clinically significant symptoms in those already diagnosed with various diseases, it is useful to have a tool for assessing respiratory symptoms in more general samples of smokers and former smokers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The latest findings follow <a href=\"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/post\/vaping-not-scientifically-linked-to-severe-respiratory-issues-university-of-catania-evidence-review-finds\/\">an evidence review<\/a> in March that found vaping is not scientifically linked with severe respiratory issues among people who have never smoked.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The review of 12 studies in the U.S, led by professors from the University of Catania in Italy, found that eight reported no significant association between vaping and symptoms such as COPD, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, or asthma.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The remaining five studies reported at least one significant link \u2013 but the researchers concluded the methodologies used in four of these were \u201cnot robust.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former smokers &#8211; whether they quit altogether or switch to vapes or heated tobacco products (HTP) &#8211; report significantly fewer respiratory symptoms than current smokers, a new Italian study has found.&nbsp; The research, published in the journal BMC Public Health, found that&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":990002,"featured_media":24322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[259,257],"tags":[330,186],"slider":[],"class_list":["post-24321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","category-news","tag-italy","tag-nicotine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/990002"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24321"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24328,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24321\/revisions\/24328"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24321"},{"taxonomy":"slider","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/slider?post=24321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}