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Associate Professor at Auckland University Kelly Burrowes wants to know what Vaping will do with the respiratory system.
Photo: Louise Terrth
Researchers are working to discover the long -term health effects of New Zealand’s young vaping, which are almost three times more likely to vape than adolescents in Canada, the United States and Australia.
It may take decades until we definitely knew the impact on their bodies, but some preliminary research was already causing concern.
In 2019, the smoke of youth was declining and the vaping was increasing dramatically.
This is why Kelly Burrowes, from the Institute of Biological Engineering at Auckland University, turned to research the effects of tobacco to smoke and instead analyze the effects of vaping health.
She said there were still many unknowns.
“You know it took 50 years to find out what really the bond between smoking and health effects were.
“I would say that because vaping does not exist so long, comparatively, it will take at least 10 or 20 years before we see the effects of long -term health.”
In the last six years, the associate teacher has led several studies to try to find answers, focusing on the lungs and respiratory system.
“Every time you vape, some of this remain inside your lungs, so that the electronic liquids that are in vapes are a kind of oily substance.
“There will be a coating of this oil that will remain inside the lungs, and in fact one of the things designed to get rid of it is the inflammation process.
“It is when you have this inflammation many times a day over many years, which is what leads to breaking disease and tissue.”
With the help of some engineering students, Burrowes created a Vaping robot.
This collects steam and freezes so that it can be tested to see which chemicals it contains.
He found that there were at least 30 different chemicals in each electronic liquid, and Burrows said no one knew what the health and safety of those flavoring chemicals were.
They also found some heavy metals in the aerosol – the substance that was inhaled and exhaled from a vaping device.
“Then, usually, the heating coil is made of a mixture of different metals and when it reaches really high temperatures, part of it comes out in the aerosol.”
Another study led by Professor Burrowes cultivated pulmonary cells in a laboratory and exposed them to electronic cigarette steam.
Some cells died and some have separated or became more permeable- which means that chemicals could be more easily absorbed by the bloodstream.
During the summer, she managed a project with undergraduate students – for a perspective of “from youth to young people” about a solution to Vaping.
Bachelor of Science Bachelor student, Rebecca Thwaites, was part of the group and said she had seen many friends become vaping addicted.
“I remember that even at school people would be really agitated and would have to get out of class because they need a vape or were really stressed when they lose a vape.
“They used to dazzle their vapes. It used to be fun and be like ‘Oh, this is pink like cute, it’s mine’.”
The group played about dozens of ideas on how to combat vaping addiction, including if we should only follow the steps of Australia and only make the prescription of vapes.
But she said part of the group visited Australia or had friends living there and thought that getting a vape was easy.
“We found it in 10 minutes that you could get an illegal vape. It was so easy that you literally entered a dairy, paid in cash and they sold them literally under the counter.”
Thwaites said young people were the target of Vape companies.
“It looks good. It’s good. It’s addictive. It makes you feel good.
“It seems attractive. They are all bright colors. You think, ‘How can this be harmful when it looks so good?’ It is everywhere.
The group’s solution was a design to eliminate the “legal factor” in the vaping with a smooth and dark green vape in just one taste, tobacco.
Thwaites said the taste of tobacco had negative connotations for young people, so the group wanted to limit the variety of flavors today in the market.
“You can have a blueberry, raspberry, blueberry ice and there has been a regulation that it must be like a maximum of two flavors, but even so, there are so many different variations.”
From July 1st, there will be a complete ban on disposable vapes at New Zealand and Vape retailers could not have exhibitions outside their store.
Dairy and service stations would have to keep devices out of sight like cigarettes.
Researchers like Burrowes were getting these changes and, in the meantime, working to get answers about what Vaping was really doing with the human body.
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