A STUDY BY LEADING CARDIAC REHABILITATION EXPERT DR MAXIME BOIDIN FROM MANCHESTER METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY (MMU) FOUND THAT VAPING MAY ACTUALLY BE MORE DANGEROUS TO PEOPLE'S LONG TERM

HEALTH THAN CIGARETTES 15:16, 31 May 2025 As the UK prepares to ban the sale of disposable vapes, new research has raised serious concerns about their safety. A groundbreaking study from

Manchester Metropolitan University has suggested e-cigarettes could be more harmful to long-term health than traditional smoking. From Sunday (June 1), the UK will enforce a ban on the sale

and supply of disposable vapes following increasing worry over teenage vaping. The ban applies to all businesses in the UK and includes both in-store and online sales, regardless of nicotine

sport science conference in Rimini, Italy, this July. However, his findings already indicate that vaping could carry greater health risks than smoking cigarettes, potentially heightening the

risk of dementia, heart disease, and organ failure among long-term users. Article continues below While the NHS has previously advised that inhaling nicotine vapour from e-cigarettes is

"substantially less harmful than smoking" and is seen as a safer alternative for quitting smoking, Dr Boidin's research may shift the current health advice and prompt further

calls for a comprehensive ban, with vapes being made available only via prescription. Monitoring the health of different groups of volunteers, he was shocked to find that the arteries in

both vapers and smokers suffer similar levels of damage - a sign of future cardiovascular problems as arteries narrow, restricting the flow of blood to vital organs. Speaking to the Mirror,

Dr Boidin said tomorrow's ban on disposable vapes is a "step in the right direction" which will help make vapes less accessible for teenagers and reduce the effects on the

environment. He said: "These products primarily target younger individuals, whereas older adults tend to use refillable options. From a health perspective, the ban should reduce access

among the younger population, as refillable vapes are generally more expensive and less accessible. "From an environmental standpoint, we frequently see single-use vapes - and their

packaging - littering pavements.. In the end, the ban is a step in the right direction, but it represents only a small part of the broader educational and cultural change that's

needed." _JOIN THE MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS WHATSAPP GROUP HERE_ During the study at the university's Institute of Sport, participants - aged between 18 to 45, with an average age

of 27 and similar levels of fitness and physical activity - were given regular stress tests to measure the elasticity of their blood vessels and the speed of blood flow to their brains. For

12 hours prior to testing, they consumed only water and desisted from vaping, smoking and exercise. According to Dr Boidin, the mediated dilation (FMD) test, in which a cuff is placed on the

participant's arm and inflated to restrict the blood flow, before being released to measure how much the artery expands as more blood is passed through it, produced the starkest

results. Smokers and vapers produced a flat reading in the FMD test, indicating their artery walls are damaged and unable to properly dilate – a strong indicator of potential severe

cardiovascular issues. Subsequent tests revealed that both smokers and vapers have compromised blood flow, putting them at increased risk of cognitive dysfunction, including dementia. Dr

Boidin pinpoints inflammation caused by nicotine and the various metals and chemicals found in vapes as the culprits. Components such as propylene glycol, vegetable glycerine, and certain

chemical flavourings can provoke inflammation and oxidative stress, resulting in cell death and injury to the artery's interior lining. Dr Boidin said: "When you put this mixture

of metals and chemicals into your body you can't expect nothing to happen. "What we have found is the dangers for someone who keeps vaping are no different from smokers."

"At the beginning (of the study) I also believed that vaping was more beneficial than smoking. You see a lot more people vaping these days because they don't think it's too

bad. Many will be horrified to know the truth." Vaping use in the UK has exploded since the first electronic cigarettes arrived here in 2005. There are now 5.1 million people aged 16 or

over in Britain - about one in ten - using vapes, according to figures last year from the Office for National Statistics. Vaping rates were highest among those aged 16 to 24, at 15.8%. One

million people in England now vape, despite never having been regular smokers, a seven-fold increase in three years, according to a University College London study published in The Lancet

Public Health Journal. One of the study volunteers, Adam Petrulevic, a 25-year-old master's student studying strength and conditioning at the university, says he vapes "without

stopping". "I never really smoked, but I started vaping two years ago," he says. "I always thought it was much less harmful than smoking. "I take a puff every few

minutes and only stop when I go to sleep. A 500-puff vape used to last me a few days but now it's not even a day. Now I'm on 3,500-puff vapes which should be more than a week, but

I finish them in three days." A volunteer known only as Marine, 33, started vaping three years ago to wean herself off smoking and uses a heated tobacco device. She says: "I

didn't smoke in the house but now I vape all day long. I decided to take part in the study because I wanted to know what it was doing to me. I've noticed that I'm out of

breath more, I feel that it's not so good for my health." Both volunteers were alarmed by Dr Boidin's negative findings. Adam says: "It's definitely an incentive for

me to stop." Many will have been convinced that taking up vaping won't be prejudicial to their health, thanks to oft-repeated advice, including from Public Health England, which

states that "vaping poses a small fraction of the risks of smoking". The agency, however, admits that "evidence is mostly limited to short and medium term effects and studies

assessing longer term vaping are necessary." That advice has not changed despite recent scares, including the tragic death this year of Hollyoaks star Paul Danan, aged 46, who months

earlier revealed how he had to be revived after suffering respiratory failure caused by excessive vaping. Other shocking cases have emerged of collapsed lungs, fainting or vomiting of

ominous green liquid, linked to heavy vaping. Dr Boidin says he also has evidence that vaping impairs people's levels of fitness, even in young vapers. He believes vaping can actually

be more dangerous than smoking because it's much harder to know when to stop. "Smokers tend to go outside and smoke, and once a cigarette is finished they have to light up another

to keep going. But with vapes you just keep going and it's much harder to know how many puffs you've had." Marine adds: "I'm going to quit. I never expected vapes to

be as bad as cigarettes." The Government has announced that disposable vapes - colourfully packaged devices that come in candy-like flavours and have been blamed for an increase in

teenage users - will be banned from June. But Dr Boidin says all vapes should only be available on prescription in Britain, to avoid a "health emergency." He says: "The only

benefit of vaping is to help people quit smoking, but if they keep vaping the result is going to be the same. I think doctors should be able to prescribe vapes for a certain time, so they

could be used as a transition tool, but only for a short time. Article continues below "The only benefit of vaping is to help people quit smoking, but if they keep vaping the result is

going to be the same. I think doctors should be able to prescribe vapes for a certain time, so they could be used as a transition tool, but only for a short time. "We now know the

long-term effects of vaping, and if we don't act now we will see a health emergency in the next ten, 15 years." But Dr Marina Murphy, scientific spokesperson for the UK Vaping

Industry Association, dismissed the study's findings, saying: "Millions of people have been using vaping products safely for many years. All the available data suggests that vapes

are unlikely to exceed 5% of the health risks associated with cigarettes."