are they REALLY that awesome?

E-cigarettes are everywhere and new studies on vaping come out all the time. If somehow

you're unfamiliar, vapes involve three pieces, a battery, container of liquid, and a heating

element. This simple device can be used to deliver everything from tobacco or THC to

flavored mists and caffeine. The Vapor Market in the U.S. hit an estimated 2.5 billion dollars

-- 60 percent of which was just for customizable mods and juices.

Over the last five years, aggressive marketing, and limiting of the cigarette market has caused

the market to explode. That being said, there are precious few regulations or studies exploring

what vaping is doing to the inside of users, especially over the long term; and NO studies

on long-term exposure in living animals. The American Heart Association weighed in last

May -- and it wasn't awesome for fans of vaping -- you can check out Laci's video for some

background on that, but since then -- more has come to light.

The latest study to ROCK the vaping world comes out of Johns Hopkins - researchers exposed

mice to vapor from e-cigs. To do so, they used a modified smoking machine which inhaled

for 2 seconds once every 10 seconds. Other studies have found smokers showed a biomarker

called cotinine; so they exposed the mice to a concentration of nicotine that would

produce similar nicotine biomarkers to a heavy smoker. They even measured the entirety of

the vapor and mixed it with filtered air before exposing the mice for 1.5 hours a day total

over two weeks. They also exposed some mice to just regular air.

They found there are over 700 billion particulate free radials per puff of a vape. Normally,

free radicals are a product of heating, so these are actual particles that will enter

the lungs and QUOTE "could be potentially toxic to cells." Though more research is needed

to determine that toxicity. Aside from that, they exposed the mice to the bacteria which

cause pneumonia, or the influenza virus -- our little friend the flu.

As you've probably guessed, this study doesn't go well for vapes, the lead researcher says

the lungs ARE definitely affected by the chemicals in liquid nicotine e-cigs. The mice who were

vaping had lung inflammation and protein damage; and when exposed to infection their defenses

were significantly reduced. The mice were unable to clear bacteria from their lungs,

and those with the flu experienced weight loss and some died!

It's important to point out, this is one type of vape, there are many iterations and mods

available which might change the results -- and they each require their own scientific scrutiny.

Studies have conclusively shown, however, that vapor DOES contain free radicals, formaldehyde,

and other carcinogens. On average, e-cigs contain only 1-percent the number of chemicals

of an average cigarette, but even THAT surprised the researchers since manufacturers claim

otherwise.

In the end, the scientific community and the regulatory community are still trying to figure

this crap out. Queen Mary University of London published a piece in Addiction which said

regulating e-cigs the same way as tobacco isn't necessary because of their vast differences.

At the same time, both the American Heart Association and Food and Drug Administration

encourage cigarette-like regulations! Frankly, the medical community is very clear; in comparison

to smoking cigarettes, vaping IS better, but that doesn't mean it gets a gold star. Looks

like science has some work to do.

What do you think? We followed up on this because Nexy_Dre and Saurini wanted to know

more! If you have anything you want to know about tell us!