So we all know that smoking is bad for us, and we also know why. The chemicals in cigarette smoke include complex molecules, have been proven to cause problems from cancer to heart disease. There are also issues with smoking and fertility, as well as damage to the foetus during pregnancy. So mothers-to-be are always advised to give up the habit.
What about vaping?
Vaping is generally considered less dangerous than smoking. The vapour contains far fewer carcinogens than tobacco smoke. Especially, less carbon monoxide that binds to red blood
cells, reducing the oxygen carrying ability of blood. Yet the addictive nicotine is still present at the same level as cigarette smoke.
The long-term effects of vaping and smoking have not been directly compared. However, we assume that the deletion of some of the chemicals from tobacco smoke will translate into a healthier option.
Vapour still contains nicotine!
Nicotine is present in both vaping and cigarette smoke, so comes with issues. Firstly, it is probably best described as a poison rather than a drug. Ingesting just half a gram increases the risk of death, a child can become ill from eating only one cigarette.
In just four years there were at 21,106 calls to US poison control centers related to traditional cigarettes!
It stands to reason that a poison like nicotine delivered by way of vaping may be detrimental to fertility. And now there is some research that lends some weight to this hypothesis.
Investigators at the University of North Carolina, USA observed the effects of vaping on fertile mice and the results weren’t good.
Mice that were exposed to e-cigarette vapor before pregnancy:
- Took longer to get pregnant
- Were less likely to have a successful embryo implant in the uterus
For mice that were exposed to the vapor after pregnancy:
- Foetuses didn’t gain as much weight as those that weren’t exposed
- E-cigarette usage throughout pregnancy changed the long-term health and metabolism of female offspring. This implies that vaping imparted lifelong, second-generation effects on the growing feotus.
This suggests that vaping could be equally detrimental to human fertility and foetal development with the probable culprit being nicotine.
Dr Kathleen Caron, corresponding author for the study said, “These findings are important because they change our views on the perceived safety of e-cigarettes as alternatives to traditional cigarettes before and during pregnancy.”
Vaping is fast becoming the 21st Century version of smoking.
In particular young people are increasingly becoming addicted to vaping. The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, USA reported a rise from 2.1 million school students vaping in 2017 to 3.6 million in 2018.
By giving vaping a clean bill of health, we could be storing up fertility problems for a whole new generation. The research is convincing enough to motivate women trying to get pregnant to stay away from vaping.
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