Electronic waterpipe vaping harmful to health

Vaping an electronic waterpipe, which is also known as e-hookah, adversely affects the vasculature—an effect that is partly mediated by inflammation—a study has found.

The study included 17 healthy young adult chronic hookah smokers. Each of them underwent 30-minute exposure sessions of e-hookah vaping and combustible hookah smoking.

Researchers assessed measures of conduit arterial stiffness, including carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV) and augmentation index corrected for heart rate, prior to and following each 30-minute exposure session. They also looked at a panel of circulating biomarkers indicative of inflammation and oxidants, as well as measured plasma nicotine and exhaled carbon monoxide (CO) levels.

Compared with combustible hookah smoking, e-hookah vaping tended to produce a larger acute increase in PWV (difference from baseline, 0.74 and 0.57 m/s^-1; p<0.05 for both), suggestive of large artery stiffening. On the other hand, only e-hookah vaping resulted in a significant increase in augmentation index (5.58 percent; p=0.004; combustible hookah: 2.87 percent; p-value not significant).

The observed vascular changes after vaping occurred in parallel with an elevation in pro-inflammatory biomarkers, namely high sensitivity C-reactive protein, fibrinogen, and TNFα (p<0.05 for all). These changes did not occur after smoking.

Exhaled carbon monoxide levels were much higher after smoking than after vaping (36.81 vs –0.38 ppm; p<0.001), while plasma nicotine concentrations were comparable (6.14 vs 5.24 ng/mL; p=0.478).

The findings suggest that flavoured e-hookah vaping may not really be a healthier alternative to combustible hookah smoking, contrary to what has been advertised.