San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Smoking and vaping compound virus risk.
Doctors say vaping also weakens lungs, respiratory system
There is still a lot of uncertainty about the coronavirus, but one thing we know is that it attacks the lungs. That’s why a growing number of doctors and public health officials are urging people to stop vaping and smoking of tobacco or marijuana products during the pandemic.
“It’s the sensible thing to do to reduce your risk,” said Dr. Stanton Glantz, director of UCSF’s Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education. “Based on what we know about smoking and vaping, it has a whole range of adverse effects on your respiratory system that increase the likelihood of you getting infected.”
While few studies have outlined the direct correlation between COVID19 and smoking, there is evidence that cigarettes weaken the immune system and limit lung function. A UCSF study published in December said that people who smoke ecigarettes also face a significant risk of developing severe, chronic lung illnesses — such as asthma, bronchitis and emphysema.
“Those are the kinds of things that would make this disease worse,” Glantz said.
He echoes advisories from the Food and Drug Administration, whose spokeswoman, Alison Hunt, said, “People who smoke cigarettes may be at increased risk from COVID19, and may have worse outcomes from COVID19,” and the
“Smoking and vaping ... has a whole range of adverse effects on your respiratory system that increase the likelihood of you getting infected.”
Dr. Stanton Glantz
National Institute on Drug Abuse, whose director, Nora Volkow, warned that the coronavirus “could be an especially serious threat to those who smoke tobacco or marijuana or who vape.”
A study published by the Chinese Medical Journal found that COVID19 patients who had a history of smoking were 14 times more likely to develop pneumonia.
Of particular concern is the CDC report that those age 20 to 44 make up a big part of COVID19 hospitalizations in the United States.
Noting the spike in youth infections, the World Health Organization said smokers significantly increase their chances of getting the virus through handtomouth transmission, while sharing water pipes can transmit respiratory particles between people. “Smoking and vaping means you’re touching your face — it means you are putting your hands near your mouth,” Glantz said. “That’s bad.”
Cigarettes and ecigarettes release ultrafine particles, industrial solvents and various irritants into your airway that disable the cilia, the very small hairlike strands in the lungs and respiratory tract that filter out toxic material.
“That’s your first line of defense pushing the virus out of your body,” Glantz said. “Smoking and vaping compromise that. Once the virus gets down in your lungs you have this proinflammatory state that’s in your immune system and you can’t fight it off.”
There is a global movement to get cigarette companies to halt business in an effort to slow COVID19’s impact on the world’s 1.3 billion smokers, in particular those in developing countries with overburdened health systems.
“The best thing the tobacco industry can do to fight COVID19 is to immediately stop producing, marketing and selling tobacco,” Gan Quan, a public health specialist and a director at the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, said in a
statement this month.
Even though he acknowledges people may be smoking more to help reduce stress and anxiety over the pandemic, Glantz said the bigger objective should be giving up habits that could potentially make you more susceptible to the infection.
The good news is that those who manage to quit smoking and vaping now will see almost immediate results. Cilia start to regenerate in three days, while normal function is typically returned within six months.
“If you stop using the products today, you’re improving your respiratory system tomorrow,” Glantz said.