Vaping carries same lung damage as smoking: U of A study
University of Alberta researchers found e-cigarette users showed impaired exercise tolerance and severe breathlessness, challenging the 'safer alternative' narrative.
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Vaping isn't the safer cigarette alternative most people assume — at least when it comes to lung damage. A University of Alberta study found that people who've used e-cigarettes regularly for more than three years show lung function impairment nearly identical to smokers.
Professor Mike Stickland's team tested 20 long-term vapers and found a consistent pattern: impaired exercise tolerance and breathlessness at exertion levels that shouldn't trigger it. "They essentially were out of breath at the equivalent of like a moderate walking pace, and 23-year-olds shouldn't be out of breath at that kind of an exercise intensity," Stickland explained.
The findings complicate the public health message that e-cigarettes are a harm-reduction tool. While vapes contain fewer chemicals than traditional cigarettes — tobacco has over 5,000 compounds — the nicotine addiction risk is just as severe, particularly for young adults and teens. Vape marketing, with its array of flavours, appeals to demographics that smoking never reached as effectively.
One vaper interviewed for the study, now trying to quit, didn't mince words: "I don't condone this whatsoever. I'm just so hard attached to nicotine. But I'm trying to quit." For Edmonton smokers or vapers, the takeaway is straightforward: neither habit is the lesser evil the industry markets it as.