E-cig smokers ‘twice as likely to have heart attack’

FRESH questions about the safety of vaping were raised last night after research showed e- cigarette users are twice as likely to suffer a heart attack as non-smokers.

The study of nearly 70,000 people linked e- cigarettes to an increased heart attack risk for the first time.

It also found that people who smoke cigarettes and vape increase their risk of a heart attack by five times. The research came after a committee of MPs last week recommended lifting restrictions on using e-cigarettes in public amid claims they are ‘95 per cent’ healthier than traditional cigarettes.

The MPs called for vaping to be allowed on trains and buses as well as pubs, restaurants and workplaces. Earlier this week, a study linked smoking e-cigarettes with changes to mouth DNA and possible cancer. Supporters of vaping say it less risky than traditional smoking as the cancer-causing compounds found in cigarette smoke such as tar are not present. But the new findings add heart attacks to a host of other medical problems linked to e-cigarettes.

These include the lung condition COPD and a risk of cancer as compounds in the vapour have been shown to cause DNA damage.

The new research, carried out by the University of California at San Francisco, is the first to examine the relationship between e-cigarette use and heart attacks.

Martin McKee, professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: ‘Although this is the first study to show a link with heart attacks, it is not surprising and is entirely consistent with most research conducted independently of the tobacco industry on the effects of e-cigarettes on the circulatory system.

‘This study reminds us that traditional and electronic cigarettes are different products. E- cigarettes don’t have some of the harmful substances found in traditional cigarettes, but they do have other things that are not in them.

‘This means that if you use both – as most e- cigarette users do – you actually increase your risk, at least for heart disease.’ UCSF Professor of medicine Dr Stanton Glantz said: ‘Most adults who use e- cigarettes continue to smoke cigarettes. While people may think they are reducing their health risks, we found that the heart attack risk of e-cigarettes adds to the risk of smoking cigarettes.

‘ Someone who continues to smoke daily while using e- cigarettes daily increases the odds of a heart attack by a factor of five.’

However, supporters of e- cigarettes last night dismissed the findings. Professor Peter Hajek, of the tobacco dependence research unit at Queen Mary University of London, said: ‘This is even worse than the usual anti- vaping pseudoscience.’