{"id":24648,"date":"2025-05-30T08:03:41","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T08:03:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/?p=24648"},"modified":"2025-05-30T08:03:45","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T08:03:45","slug":"vaping-poses-lower-secondhand-risk-than-smoking-for-teens-new-peer-reviewed-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/post\/vaping-poses-lower-secondhand-risk-than-smoking-for-teens-new-peer-reviewed-study-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"Vaping poses lower secondhand risk than smoking for teens, new peer-reviewed study finds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Youth exposed to secondhand vape aerosol have six to seven times lower nicotine levels than those exposed to cigarette smoke.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Carcinogen exposure is over four times lower in teens exposed only to vape aerosol versus cigarette smoke.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Only 1.5 per cent of U.S. adolescents reported secondhand vape exposure, compared with 18.3 per cent exposed to cigarette smoke &#8211; showing vaping\u2019s much smaller footprint.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Study confirms: secondhand vaping poses far lower health risks to youth than secondhand smoking.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Secondhand vape aerosol exposes bystanders &#8211; especially youth &#8211; to dramatically lower levels of harmful chemicals compared to cigarette smoke, a new peer-reviewed study has found.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/abs\/pii\/S030646032500142X?via%3Dihub\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The study<\/a>, published in the journal <em>Addictive Behaviours<\/em>, analysed biomarker data from almost 2,400 American adolescents (aged 12 to 17) who were non-users of tobacco or nicotine products.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By focusing solely on secondhand exposure, the researchers were able to directly compare the impact of secondhand smoke from cigarettes and secondhand aerosol from vapes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Vaping leaves far less toxic residue behind<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>They conclusively found that vaping leaves far less toxic residue behind &#8211; and exposes those nearby to significantly fewer harmful substances &#8211; than combustible cigarettes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The study, using data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study, found that adolescents exposed only to secondhand vaping aerosol had mean cotinine levels &#8211; a marker of nicotine exposure &#8211; of just 0.5 ng\/mg creatinine (a compound used to normalise urine measurements).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In comparison, those exposed to secondhand smoke from cigarettes had cotinine levels six to seven times higher (3.0 ng\/mg creatinine).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Lower carcinogen exposure<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Exposure to the carcinogen NNAL was also dramatically different: just 0.9 pg\/mg for vape aerosol-exposed youth, compared to 4.1 pg\/mg for secondhand smoke-exposed youth &#8211; more than four times higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>The authors concluded: \u201cSecondhand vaping aerosol poses a lower exposure risk to youth non-tobacco users than combustible cigarette smoke.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Their findings underline the fundamental difference between burning tobacco &#8211; which releases thousands of harmful and cancer-causing chemicals &#8211; and using vapes, which heat e-liquids without combustion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For years, vaping advocates have emphasised that vapes represent a harm reduction breakthrough, not just for adult smokers looking to quit but also for public spaces.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unlike traditional cigarettes, vapes do not emit sidestream smoke (smoke released into the air) between puffs, and their aerosol contains a far less toxic chemical profile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>A fraction of harmful chemicals<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The new study shows that even when youth are exposed secondhand, the level of harmful chemicals they encounter from vaping is a fraction of what they would inhale around cigarette smoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The researchers emphasised that exposure patterns should inform smart, evidence-based public policy.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cThe distinct exposure patterns emphasise the importance of implementing tobacco-free policies to reduce youth exposure to environments where combustible tobacco or e-cigarette use occurs,\u201d they said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>They note that over 19,000 Americans die each year from diseases caused by secondhand cigarette smoke, highlighting the tremendous public health gains to be made from reducing smoking.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Findings back up previous studies<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/jamanetwork.com\/journals\/jamanetworkopen\/fullarticle\/2821086?utm_source=chatgpt.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">separate study<\/a> published in <em>JAMA Network Open<\/em> in July, found children exposed to vaping indoors absorb less than one seventh the amount of nicotine as children who are exposed to indoor smoking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The research by University College London (UCL) looked at blood tests and survey data for 1,777 children aged three to 11 in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lead author Dr. Harry Tattan-Birch, of the UCL Institute of Epidemiology &amp; Health Care, said: \u201cOur study shows, using data from the real world rather than an artificial lab setting, that nicotine absorption is much lower from second-hand vapor than from second-hand smoking.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cNicotine itself is of limited risk, but it shows what the highest possible exposure might be from second-hand <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/vaping\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">vaping<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>He added that exposure to harmful non-nicotine substances in vapes would likely be much lower still, as they deliver similar levels of nicotine to tobacco but contain only a fraction of the toxicants and carcinogens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The researchers looked at nicotine absorption in children, but said the findings were likely to be similar for adults.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Secondhand vape aerosol exposes bystanders &#8211; especially youth &#8211; to dramatically lower levels of harmful chemicals compared to cigarette smoke, a new peer-reviewed study has found.&nbsp; The study, published in the journal Addictive Behaviours, analysed biomarker data from almost 2,400 American adolescents&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":990002,"featured_media":24649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[259,257],"tags":[186],"slider":[],"class_list":["post-24648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","category-news","tag-nicotine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24648","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=24648"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24656,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24648\/revisions\/24656"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24648"},{"taxonomy":"slider","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/slider?post=24648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}