E-cigarettes shown to have ‘significant health impacts’

Electronic smoking devices can damage human lung cells and airways and carry similar health risks to traditional tobacco cigarettes, a study led by the University of Tasmania has found.

The study says that heat-not-burn (HNB) cigarettes, the “latest device on the international market”, can increase respiratory infections and alter vital physiological functions in the lungs.

It is published in the European Respiratory Journal of Open Research and is the first to compare HNB with e-cigarettes (or vaping) and traditional tobacco cigarettes.