Researchers dispute a study claiming that vaping damages DNA in humans.
LOS ANGELES — Drs. Konstantinos Farsalinos and Caitlin have published a commentary article in The Conversation disputing the conclusion of a recent study published by a prominent academic journal that attempts further to implicate the use of electronic cigarettes and extensive vaping.
A research team led by Dr. Ahmad Besaratinia, a lecturer at the USC Keck School of Medicine, published in Nature’s Scientific Reports that claims that extensive vaping causes DNA damage.
The Keck School of Medicine is based at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, Calif.
“Our study, for the first time, investigates the biological effects of vaping in adult e-cigarette users, while simultaneously accounting for their past smoking exposure,” said Besaratinia in a statement released by the Keck School of Medicine at USC.
“Our data indicate that vaping, much like smoking, is associated with dysregulation of mitochondrial genes and disruption of molecular pathways involved in immunity and the inflammatory response, which govern health versus disease state.”
Farsalinos and claim the study led by Besaratinia is flawed and resulted in a rash of sensationalist news reports.
“The study recruited a relatively small number of people who were not representative of the population,” Farsalinos and argue in their column. “And it did not consider other lifestyle habits that may affect the measurements, such as alcohol use.”
“It is irresponsible to report sensationalist headlines to the public based on complex studies that in reality do not show any real-world harm. Particularly compared to the immense harms to health of tobacco smoking,” said Farsalinos and .
Farsalinos and are both recognized researchers in the space of tobacco harm reduction. Both also advocate for applying risk-reduced products to curtail smoking among nicotine-dependent individuals looking to stop smoking.
Farsalinos is a researcher and medical doctor at the University of Patras and the University of West Attica in Greece.
is a senior lecturer and social scientist at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom.
