We have already talked about the boom of 'vaping' among teenagers, as a 'cool' fashion and a healthy alternative to traditional tobacco. But nothing is further from the truth: most electronic cigarettes contain nicotine and, therefore, are harmful.
But young people are not the only ones who have signed up for this fashion of inhaling steam: Electronic cigarettes are an option that women smokers turn to when they get pregnant and they are not able to give up the habit.
Although vaping is also harmful to the baby's lungs, and even those of his children. This has been determined by a study from the University of Sydney (Australia), published in the latest issue of the journal 'Clinical Epigenetics'.
In Babies and more, one in three pregnant women consume toxic substances such as alcohol, tobacco, drugs or drugsCigarette smoke affects children and grandchildren
The researchers at the University of Sydney explain that exposure of the uterus to tobacco, whether maternal or environmental, has harmful effects on the respiratory system of newborns. In addition, it has been shown that these effects persist in adult development and in subsequent generations, regardless of whether children smoke or not.
According to the Australian team's conclusions, apart from genetic effects, nicotine and its combustion products change the mutation pattern of different genes, a phenomenon known as 'epigenetic changes', much harder to detect.
In Babies and more Sanidad studies prohibiting smoking in cars where children travelAustralian researchers have focused their study on two serious pathologies of the respiratory system: bronchial asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Asthma is a heterogeneous disease suffered by 235 million people worldwide and the most present chronic pathology in developed countries, while COPD prevails in the elderly and represents the fourth most common cause of death worldwide.
Both asthma and COPD have a hereditary component, but the etiology and risk factors of both are different: asthma is an allergic disease and COPD is the result of the inhalation of harmful gases. However, in some cases, asthma and COPD can coexist and asthma can progress to COPD.
After their study they found that if a woman smokes during pregnancy, the probability of the development of asthma and COPD in children born will increase significantly. But not only in children. There are quite credible indications that suggest that even the grandchildren of these women are at high risk, even if their own mothers have not smoked.
Electronic cigarettes and environmental smoke
Most electronics contain nicotine and, those that do not, emanate vapors with toxic substances (phthalates, diacetyl and acrolein), which produce epigenetic effects on the DNA of fetuses similar to those of nicotine. And its consequences for the lungs are very similar to those of conventional cigarette smoke.
In Babies and more Children 'smoke' between 60 and 150 cigarettes a year when they live in a smoke-free homeIt is also not necessary to actively smoke to suffer consequences of exposure to nicotine or electronic cigarette products. These substances are kept in dangerous concentrations in the air inside enclosed spaces frequented by smokers.
According to Dr. Jan Tesarik, director of the Mar & Gen Clinic and researcher of epigenetic effects on human DNA "Even non-smoking women can absorb dangerous doses in case of indirect exposure."
Even goes further by suspecting that "Air pollution by industrial activity, especially in large cities, can produce similar effects".
For that reason, explains the doctor, "It is important to develop diagnostic methods, using free circulating DNA (liquid biopsy) to detect the risk to the fetus as soon as possible."
In the meantime we are left with a lesson well learned: during pregnancy, all types of smoke are prohibited, both environmental and of any type of cigarettes, because vaping during pregnancy is also harmful to our children and even our grandchildren.
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