New study says vaping could raise risk of mouth cancer

Vaping remains popular, with around 2.9 million people in the UK engaging in the habit. Whilst Public Health England has claimed vaping can help smokers stop, and that e-cigarettes are 95% less harmful than the alternative, a new study by researchers at the University of Minnesota have found that vaping raises levels of chemicals in saliva like acrolein, formaldehyde and methylglyoxal that damage DNA, and being exposed to these chemicals could actually raise the risk of developing mouth cancer.
Lead investigator, Silvia Balbo, said: “It’s clear that more carcinogens arise from the combustion of tobacco in regular cigarettes than from the vapour of e-cigarettes, however, we don’t really know the impact of inhaling the combination of compounds produced by this device. Just because the threats are different doesn’t mean that e-cigarettes are completely safe.”
Dr Nigel Carter OBE and Oral Health Foundation CEO said: “This report has shown conclusively that the use of e-cigarettes has the potential to further reduce levels of smoking and save people from the many deadly diseases that are caused by tobacco, such as mouth cancer. Smoking is the cause of many serious oral health problems including worsening gum disease, which is one of the most common causes of caries in UK adults. It is also responsible for the majority of mouth cancers and is the direct cause of thousands of deaths every year. There has been a major trend recently towards the use of e-cigarettes, and they are now the number one quitting aid used by smokers. Getting smokers to use safer forms of nicotine such as these can be highly effective in helping people to quit and something that we fully support.”