<p>Use of e-cigarettes may significantly increase a person's risk of developing chronic lung diseases like asthma, bronchitis, and emphysema, according to a study published on Monday.</p>.<p>Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco in the US also found that people who used e-cigarettes and smoked tobacco -- the most common pattern among adult e-cigarette users -- were at an even higher risk of developing chronic lung disease than those who used either product alone.</p>.<p>The findings, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, are based on an analysis of publicly available data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH), which tracked e-cigarette and tobacco habits as well as new lung disease diagnoses in over 32,000 American adults from 2013 to 2016.</p>.<p>Several earlier population studies had found an association between e-cigarette use and lung disease at a single point in time.</p>.<p>However, these studies provided a snapshot that made it impossible for researchers to say whether lung disease was being caused by e-cigarettes or if people with lung disease were more likely to use e-cigarettes.</p>.<p>The researchers started with people who did not have any reported lung disease, taking account of their e-cigarette use and smoking from the start.</p>.<p>They then followed them for three years, offering stronger evidence of a causal link between adult e-cigarette use and lung diseases than prior studies.</p>.<p>"What we found is that for e-cigarette users, the odds of developing lung disease increased by about a third, even after controlling for their tobacco use and their clinical and demographic information," said Stanton Glantz, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco.</p>.<p>"We concluded that e-cigarettes are harmful on their own, and the effects are independent of smoking conventional tobacco," Glantz said in a statement.</p>.<p>Though current and former e-cigarette users were 1.3 times more likely to develop chronic lung disease, tobacco smokers increased their risk by a factor of 2.6, the researchers said.</p>.<p>For dual users -- people who smoke and use e-cigarettes at the same time -- these two risks multiply, more than tripling the risk of developing lung disease, they said.</p>.<p>"Dual users -- the most common use pattern among people who use e-cigarettes -- get the combined risk of e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes, so they're actually worse off than tobacco smokers," said Glantz.</p>.<p>This finding is particularly relevant as the debate continues to rage over whether e-cigarettes should be promoted as a harm-reduction tool for smokers, the researchers said.</p>.<p>While they found that switching from smoked tobacco to e-cigarettes lowered the risk of developing lung disease, fewer than one per cent of the smokers had completely switched to e-cigarettes.</p>
<p>Use of e-cigarettes may significantly increase a person's risk of developing chronic lung diseases like asthma, bronchitis, and emphysema, according to a study published on Monday.</p>.<p>Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco in the US also found that people who used e-cigarettes and smoked tobacco -- the most common pattern among adult e-cigarette users -- were at an even higher risk of developing chronic lung disease than those who used either product alone.</p>.<p>The findings, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, are based on an analysis of publicly available data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH), which tracked e-cigarette and tobacco habits as well as new lung disease diagnoses in over 32,000 American adults from 2013 to 2016.</p>.<p>Several earlier population studies had found an association between e-cigarette use and lung disease at a single point in time.</p>.<p>However, these studies provided a snapshot that made it impossible for researchers to say whether lung disease was being caused by e-cigarettes or if people with lung disease were more likely to use e-cigarettes.</p>.<p>The researchers started with people who did not have any reported lung disease, taking account of their e-cigarette use and smoking from the start.</p>.<p>They then followed them for three years, offering stronger evidence of a causal link between adult e-cigarette use and lung diseases than prior studies.</p>.<p>"What we found is that for e-cigarette users, the odds of developing lung disease increased by about a third, even after controlling for their tobacco use and their clinical and demographic information," said Stanton Glantz, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco.</p>.<p>"We concluded that e-cigarettes are harmful on their own, and the effects are independent of smoking conventional tobacco," Glantz said in a statement.</p>.<p>Though current and former e-cigarette users were 1.3 times more likely to develop chronic lung disease, tobacco smokers increased their risk by a factor of 2.6, the researchers said.</p>.<p>For dual users -- people who smoke and use e-cigarettes at the same time -- these two risks multiply, more than tripling the risk of developing lung disease, they said.</p>.<p>"Dual users -- the most common use pattern among people who use e-cigarettes -- get the combined risk of e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes, so they're actually worse off than tobacco smokers," said Glantz.</p>.<p>This finding is particularly relevant as the debate continues to rage over whether e-cigarettes should be promoted as a harm-reduction tool for smokers, the researchers said.</p>.<p>While they found that switching from smoked tobacco to e-cigarettes lowered the risk of developing lung disease, fewer than one per cent of the smokers had completely switched to e-cigarettes.</p>