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Scientists suggest that e-cigarettes are not harmful to the heart
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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Smoking e-cigarettes is less dangerous for the heart than inhaling regular tobacco.
This report was made by Dr. Konstantinos Farsalinos from the Aristotle Onassis Heart Surgery Center. The results of the Greek scientists' research were presented at the European Conference of Cardiologists 2012, which was held in Munich, Germany.
According to Dr. Farsalinos, smoking electronic cigarettes causes significantly less harm to health than smoking regular cigarettes.
The World Health Organization has announced disappointing forecasts. Experts have calculated that by the end of this millennium, nicotine addiction will cause the deaths of more than 1 billion people. And every 6.5 seconds, 1 person dies on the planet from a disease associated with tobacco use.
Electronic cigarettes have appeared on the market as an alternative to regular cigarettes. They are vapor-generating devices. The inhaled vapor of an electronic cigarette is practically no different from regular tobacco smoking. It has the same taste and smell. Electronic cigarettes are sold complete with cartridges filled with liquid, a heating element for evaporating the liquid, and a battery.
Sellers of electronic smoking devices assure buyers that they are harmless both to the smoker and to those around him.
And as it turned out, this statement is not just a PR move by companies. Analysis of the liquids used to make electronic cigarettes showed that they are less harmful to health than regular ones. Moreover, they contained virtually no nitrosamines - carcinogens formed from tobacco alkaloids that cause tumors of the lungs, pancreas, esophagus and oral cavity. In those places where these carcinogens were found, their concentration was 500-1,400 times lower than in a traditional cigarette.
The experts conducted an experiment involving 20 healthy young smokers aged 25–45 years and 22 “electronic” smokers.
To “fill” the electronic device, NOBACCO USA Mix liquid with a nicotine concentration of 11 mg/ml was used.
Volunteers were asked to smoke a regular cigarette and an e-cigarette.
A session of regular tobacco smoking resulted in acute myocardial dysfunction, increased blood pressure and increased heart rate in all subjects.
The second experiment using an electronic cigarette showed the opposite results - 7 minutes of inhalation of e-device vapors did not provoke an increase in blood pressure. The function of the left ventricle, which was impaired after smoking tobacco, worsened only by a few indicators.
The author of the study warns that it is too early to make statements about the complete safety of electronic devices. But it is already obvious that they are less toxic and therefore less harmful. It is possible that substitutes for regular cigarettes will revolutionize the world of the tobacco industry.
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