Photographer: Andrew Burton / Getty Images
Photographer: Andrew Burton / Getty Images
Vaping cannabis may put teens at greater risk of developing lung injury symptoms than those who smoke cigarettes or marijuana or vape nicotine, according to a new study.
Adolescents were about twice as likely to report wheezing or whistling in the chest than those who used or smoked e-cigarettes, findings from the University of Michigan showed. The researchers also evaluated whether participants reported a dry cough at night that was not related to a transient infection or whether they sounded wheezing during exercise.
The findings challenge conventional wisdom that cigarette smoking or vaping nicotine is most harmful to the lungs, said Carol Boyd, the lead researcher and a professor at the University’s School of Nursing.
“Without a doubt, cigarettes and e-cigarettes are unhealthy and not good for the lungs,” Boyd said in a statement on the university’s website. “However, vaping marijuana seems even worse.”
The researchers did not find that the use of e-cigarettes or cigarettes led to more respiratory symptoms in the teens who took part in the study. They did not indicate where the cannabis products were purchased or whether they were legal.
Vaping devices have become an increasingly popular way to consume cannabis, including in the form of wax or oil. A wave of mysterious lung diseases and deaths related to vaping rocked the industry before the coronavirus pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eventually found one link to vitamin E acetate, which has been used as a cutting agent in e-liquids with THC, the main active ingredient in marijuana – often in illegal products.
Read more: Even Nobel Prize-winning chemists don’t know what’s in your weed Vaping
The University of Michigan study involved thousands of adolescents aged 12 to 17 years who had symptoms of their own Population assessment of tobacco and health research. One limitation of the report is that it did not look at the shared use of vaporizing cannabis and cigarettes or e-cigarettes, the researchers said.
Michael R. Bloomberg, founder and majority shareholder of Bloomberg News parent company Bloomberg LP, has campaigned and donated money in support of a US ban on flavored e-cigarettes and tobacco.
Updates with details about cannabis products from the fifth paragraph.