Studies show that teenagers inhale marijuana vapors associated with lung injury

A new study shows that teens are about twice as likely to report “wheezing or whistling” in the chest after smoking marijuana than after smoking or using e-cigarettes. I am.

“This surprised us. We thought we would find more negative respiratory symptoms in both cigarette and e-cigarette users,” said college drugs, alcohol, smoking and Research author Carol Boyd, co-director of the Center for Health Research, said. Ann Arbor’s Michigan.

“No doubt, cigarettes and e-cigarettes are unhealthy and not good for the lungs, but steam-breathing marijuana looks even worse,” she said.

“Many teens who smoke nicotine, and also smoke cannabis, so I recommend that parents treat all smoking as a dangerous behavior (just like alcohol or substance use).” Boyd said in an email.

Inhale weed vapors associated with new deadly lung diseases

Inhaling weed vapors is associated with a dangerous, newly identified lung disease called EVALI, which stands for e-cigarette. Lung damage associated with product use.

The disease was first identified by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in August 2019. Otherwise, healthy young people began to be hospitalized with severe and sometimes fatal lung infections across the country.

A link between the deadly new state and vaping was quickly found. Its main role was played by vitamin E acetate, a sticky oily substance that is often added to vaping products to thicken or dilute the oil in the cartridge.

This was especially common in vaping products containing THC, the major psychoactive compound of marijuana.

“According to the CDC, 84% of EVALI cases were associated with cannabis-containing products,” Boyd said.

As of February 2020EVALI has killed 68 people in 29 states and the District of Columbia.

Five breathing concerns

A new study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health on Wednesday analyzed the data collected over the two years. Tobacco and Health Survey Population Assessment.. This is a national longitudinal study of the health effects of tobacco use, managed by the National Institutes of Health and the US Food and Drug Administration.

In the fourth wave of the PATH study, about 15,000 teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17 were asked to use cigarettes, e-cigarettes, and weeds for the past 30 days, and “total time spent smoking marijuana throughout their lives. I asked you to explain “time”. “

We also asked each teenager if he had any of the following five symptoms last year: Chest wheezing or whistling. Sleep disorders due to wheezing; Restriction of speech due to wheezing; Wheezing during or after exercise, and a dry cough at night that was not due to a cold or chest infection.

After analyzing the data, Boyd and her team found that the use of “adolescent lifelong cannabis vaporization” was associated with all five negative respiratory symptoms.

“This wasn’t the case with the use of cigarettes and e-cigarettes,” Boyd said.

This study was limited by the original question asked in the PATH study, but over time the researchers were unable to completely search for vapor-breathing cannabis. A longitudinal study, a household survey, also excluded adolescents living in facilities that “may have high cannabis use,” Boyd said.

Despite these limitations, “current studies have a large national sample, strong between lifelong cannabis use in ENDS (Electronic Nicotine Delivery System) and respiratory symptoms at critical stages of adolescent development. It turned out to be relevant, “said Boyd.

Do these health concerns also apply to weed-sucking adults? According to Boyd, this study wasn’t designed to test it, but “smoking THC / CBD is a relatively new behavior, so many people over the age of 25 are teenagers. Sometimes I didn’t smoke cannabis. The data is too scarce to evaluate. “

That doesn’t mean that vaping is a safe behaviour, Boyd emphasized.

“I’m often approached by both parents and teens who believe that smoking cannabis is’ok’and better than smoking (joints, dullness, dobby, etc.). So they ask, “It’s safe to vaporize — is that so?”

“My reaction:’You are fooling yourself. Inhaling hot cigarette / cannabis smoke into your lungs is unhealthy and can cause bronchitis and life-threatening breathing problems. I know

“Still, do you seem to believe that heating and inhaling chemicals (including carcinogens) into steam is healthy? My answer is,” No, it’s a healthy behavior. There is no such thing. ” “”