The University of Louisville has received a $3.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health and Food and Drug Administration to study the effects of flavorings like mango and bubblegum used in vapes and electronic cigarettes.
听
Researchers in the , which recently inaugurated听 the university鈥檚 , aim to better understand the short-and long-term impacts of these flavorings, specifically on the heart, and catalog which are potentially harmful.
听
鈥淓-cigarettes are still relatively new, and we don鈥檛 yet fully understand what their health effects are,鈥 said Alex Carll, an assistant professor in the Department of Physiology and co-lead on the project. 鈥淯nderstanding this could help us make better purchasing and regulatory decisions.鈥
听
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has used in disposable e-cigarette cartridges, saying some could appeal to kids and help fuel rising rates of youth vaping. However, a wide variety of flavors are still available in liquid form.
听
Matthew Nystoriak, an associate professor of medicine and co-lead on the project, said some flavors may seem harmless because they taste like or use the same ingredients as in food. But while those ingredients are safe to eat, they may not be safe to inhale.
听
Some flavors used in vapes, like diacetyl (artificial butter flavoring), have been linked to serious and even deadly health conditions like 鈥溾 鈥 damage caused by airway inflammation.
听
鈥淥ur goal is to understand how individual flavoring chemicals impact the heart,鈥 Nystoriak said. 鈥淭here are many flavor chemicals used in e-cigarettes and if we know which are potentially more harmful than others, it鈥檚 possible for people to make more informed decisions about which products they use.鈥 Identifying their biological effects also is likely to help the FDA in regulating flavoring additives in e-cigarettes in the future.
听
This work builds on significant research already being conducted by UofL and its Envirome Institute , including the trends and impacts of vaping and e-cigarettes. In 2020, the American Heart Association to fund work to better understand the drivers behind youth vaping, the health effects of this use and how to motivate young people to stop using these products.
听
According to the , in 2022, 4 percent of American middle school students (470,000) and 13.4 percent (2.55 million) of high school students reported recently using e-cigarettes. Nearly 85% of youth who report using e-cigarettes say they use flavored e-cigarettes.
