Study Looks Into Long-Term Effects of Vaping on Minors

A team of researchers at The Saban Research Institute of Children's Hospital in Los Angeles, is aiming to find ways to examine the health effects of vaping on adolescents.

Diane Caruana

January 12, 2021

Associate Director of Research for the Department of Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine at The Saban Research Institute of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Dr. Robinder Khemani, MD, MSci, has recently received a $500,000 grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), to study the effects of vaping and second-hand exposure on children and teens.

Khemani and his team are carrying out the research with EVALI in mind, since the CDC had referred to it as a “e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury.” Sadly, the researchers seem to be ignoring the fact that the CDC has since then confirmed that EVALI was infact the result of the consumption of illicit THC products, not nicotine e-liquids.

An article on News-Medical explained that this study would be building onto a prior one. “Dr. Khemani’s NHLBI-funded study is an extension of a Phase II clinical trial he is leading–REDvent (Real-time Effort Driven VENTilator)–which is testing a new way to manage patients on ventilators. The novel computer-based approach is designed to preserve respiratory muscle strength and reduce a patient’s time on mechanical ventilation.”

“About 90 percent of trial participants, who range in age from 1 month to 18 years, have had Pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (PARDS), a rapidly progressing disease that causes fluid to leak into the lungs, making it difficult to breathe.”

Analysing whether vapour exposure worsens PARDS symptoms

“Dr. Khemani’s team also wants to find out whether exposure of any kind to e-cigarettes influences illness severity and clinical outcomes when children develop PARDS.”

The e-cigarette study will be focusing on minors who come to the ICU with PARDS, analysing whether the EVALI-caused lung injury is similar to the one resulting from the former. The researchers will then examine whether the secondary exposure to vapour increases the participants’ susceptibility to more severe lung injury when they get PARDS via other factors, and whether it makes their recovery from the condition more difficult.

“The study will compare clinical data between adolescents with EVALI and those with PARDS from other causes. Dr. Khemani’s team also wants to find out whether exposure of any kind to e-cigarettes influences illness severity and clinical outcomes when children develop PARDS.”

The study author shows bias

Sadly, Dr. Khemani is already showing signs of bias. “We hope to debunk the myth that vaping is benign,” he said, before even initiating the study, when the aim should be identifying whether this is actually the case ot not.