The Emergence of e-Cigarettes Among Medical Students

Dear Editor,

The use of e-cigarettes, that were invented barely 2 decades ago, is now increasing exponentially among the people due to misleading advertisements portraying it as safe. e-cigarettes did benefit the society by substantially decreasing the conventional cigarette smoking methods, but it has also paved a way for experimentation among the people who never smoked nicotine-containing substances. ¹

As vapes or e-cigarettes were marketed as the safer alternatives to cigarettes, their use also increased drastically among medical students. Anxiety and stress among the medical students mainly due to the study load increases smoking tendency. Globally, the prevalence of anxiety disorders among medical students has increased by 33.8%, which may have also increased their use of e-cigarettes. ² The use of vapes has now turned into a social practice among the youth thus motivating those peers into the traps of e smoking who didn’t even find it attractive.

As safe as vapes may appear, we can’t deny the fact that these are in fact nicotine solutions, hence posing a huge threat of abuse and addiction. ³ The medical students across the globe may have found a “safe” escape from the anguish of their extremely competitive academic life, but in reality, e-cigarettes do hold a lot of hazards including airway irritation, mucus hyper secretion, and inflammatory response, and systemic changes, which leads to increase in respiratory symptoms and changes in respiratory function. ⁴ It is reported that the use of e-cigarettes is associated with seizures, cardiac arrhythmias, and e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury (EVALI). ⁵ Propylene glycol is a constituent of the vape solution, and it is reported to be associated with asthma and permanent lung damage. ⁶ The long-term effects of use of e-cigarettes have not been studied as it is a relatively new device, hence limiting our knowledge about the long-term hazards it pose.

Awareness among the medical community as well as the general public about the possible side effects as well as addition hazards should be done promptly to control the exponential rise in its abuse. The medical students should be encouraged to take part in awareness programs regarding substance abuse and its effects on personal as well as professional life. If the medical community will fall in the trap of the deceptive “safe” addictive substances, it will become really hard for us to prevent the general public from its hazards as well. The use of electronic cigarettes must be condemned and rebuked to save the community from its not known long-term hazards. The knowledge gap regarding the side effects and safety of e-cigarettes needs to be filled by pulmonology residents and enthusiastic researchers.