Today on the podcast, I am joined by Dr. Jeffrey Gotts, MD, PhD. Like me, he is a pulmonary and critical care medicine physician trying to navigate all the valid questions his patients have about e-cigarettes, vaping, etc. He is also an expert on the literature on vaping and has conducted basic science research regarding effects of tobacco products on the lung. We discuss what the science tells us about e-cigarettes, as well as exploring the hope that many have felt that these devices may represent a path towards freedom from conventional cigarettes. As always, the tobacco industry is pressing their agenda of killing people for profit (or not caring that people die for their profits), as well as addicting children for financial gain. Despite that downer of a fact, this is an engaging episode to help understand the science behind vaping and how it affects our immune responses in our lungs. Since both Dr. Gotts and I are working on the frontline in the COVID 19 pandemic, that can’t help but enter our conversation as well. And, as always, Big Tobacco is out spreading doubt and uncertainty and risking lives in the process. It’s like they are racketeers or something…. Wait. I think we already decided that.
Twitchy Airways Club Members– remember that your lungs were designed to breathe in good clean air, not to filter out sprayed lipoid material. They are not good at it. Diseases come from it. If you need to quit smoking, please check out the resources I list, as well as the excellent options discussed by Brandy Carpenter, NP, veteran, and tobacco treatment specialist! You do NOT need Green Apple vape flavors to quit. I guarantee it.
References discussed:
Gotts et al. What are the respiratory effects of e-cigarettes? BMJ 2019; 366:I5272
Kessler, Gladys. US District Court Judge. USA vs Philip Morris, USA. Aug 2006.
Racketeering judgment against Big Tobacco.
McCauley L, Markin C, Hosmer D. An unexpected consequence of electronic cigarette use. Chest 2012;141:1110–3– 2 of my partners wrote up a case of severe lung injury from e-cigarettes back in 2012 (so it ain’t just vaping the MJ + Vitamin E…).
