VCU toxicologist: ‘No vape is safe'
But as cool as the smoking devices appear, Virginia Commonwealth University Forensic Toxicologist Dr. Michelle Peace says the e-cigarettes are doing more harm than good.
Her candid message — no vape is safe. She has discovered in her research that 95% of all compounds in vape products are not safe to inhale.
'The framework exists for protecting the consumer,' Peace said. 'So enforcement really needs to happen full throttle. Probably just as important is education, as misinformation about vaping is rampant.'
It's been her mission to expose the hidden toxic chemicals, as most users are in the dark about what they're actually inhaling.
'The primary compounds that make up a vape liquid are propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin,' she said. 'There are compounds such as ethyl acetate that are used as a flavoring chemical.'
Ethyl acetate is also used in fingernail polish remover.
'So there are compounds that are used as industrial solvents to clean equipment and brakes, and the food industry uses them as a solvent for flavoring chemicals. That doesn't mean that they're safe to inhale.'
So far, the has authorized 39 tobacco and menthol flavored e-cigarette products, though she says there are too many that are unregulated and without quality testing.
'We have found that the products that are authorized by the Food and Drug Administration do have significantly fewer chemicals in them,' she said, 'where, in an unauthorized product, we might find 15 to 20 different chemicals. And then, in an authorized product, we might find five or six. That's significantly less. But nonetheless, there's still chemicals that can harm people and their tissue.'
Users can develop a hacking cough, dried out lung tissue or even worse.
'There are some really interesting studies that are coming out that demonstrate that vaping is changing your DNA,' she said. 'There's an indication that maybe your body is 13 years older than a non vapor.
Through a project funded by the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth, vapes are confiscated on school campuses in the Commonwealth and sent to VCU for testing.
For those indirectly inhaling vapes, there's still a second-hand risk. And the bigger issue, according to Peace, is many people are using vapes to consume other drugs.
has reported more than 2,800 vaping hospitalizations nationwide.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Solve the daily Crossword
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
31 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Israeli forces kill 63 Palestinian in Gaza within hours of ‘humanitarian pause'
The Israeli military killed at least 63 people across Gaza just hours after declaring daily 'pauses' in operations to facilitate the passage of humanitarian aid, health officials said. The military said on Sunday it would suspend operations daily from 10am until 8pm in parts of central and northern Gaza, including al-Mawasi, Deir el-Balah and Gaza City, and promised to open aid corridors from 6am to 11pm to let in food and medical supplies. However, within hours of the so-called 'humanitarian pause' taking effect, Israeli forces resumed air raids. One reported strike targeted a bakery in an area designated as a 'safe zone', according to Al Jazeera. The humanitarian crisis continued to worsen. Health officials reported six more deaths, including of two children, from starvation in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 133. Among the latest to succumb was five-month-old Zainab Abu Haleeb, who died of malnutrition at the Nasser Hospital. 'Three months inside the hospital and this is what I get in return, that she is dead,' her mother Israa Abu Haleeb told Al Jazeera. The World Food Programme said one in three people in Gaza had gone days without food and about half a million were experiencing famine-like conditions. More than 20 per cent of pregnant and breastfeeding women were malnourished, according to the World Health Organization. Israel maintains that it is working to improve aid access and denies that famine exists in Gaza. But aid organisations say the situation is catastrophic, with a quarter of the population at risk of acute malnutrition. UN officials say the crisis won't ease unless Israel speeds up the movement of aid convoys through its checkpoints. A top UN official said last week Palestinians were beginning to resemble 'walking corpses'. Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, said humanitarian workers were encountering children who were 'emaciated, weak and at high risk of dying' without immediate intervention. 'Families are no longer coping. They're breaking down, unable to survive,' Mr Lazzarini said. 'Their existence is threatened.' Israel has severely limited the flow of food and humanitarian aid into Gaza, allowing only a small number of trucks to enter each day after enforcing an 11-week total blockade earlier this year. UN officials warn the current level of aid is merely a drop in the ocean compared to the scale of need. The Israeli military intercepted an aid ship bound for Gaza that aimed to breach the blockade on the Palestinian territory, detaining 21 international activists and journalists and confiscating all cargo, including baby formula, food, and medicine, according to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition on Sunday. The group said Israeli forces 'violently intercepted' their vessel, Handala, in international waters around 40 nautical miles off the coast of Gaza, cutting off cameras and communication shortly before midnight on Saturday. 'All cargo was non-military, civilian and intended for direct distribution to a population facing deliberate starvation and medical collapse under Israel's illegal blockade,'' the group said in a statement. It was the second ship operated by the coalition that Israeli forces prevented in recent months from delivering aid to Gaza. It was reported on Sunday that Jordan and the UAE had begun airdropping aid into the besieged Palestinian territory. But Mr Lazzarini said 'airdrops will not reverse the deepening starvation'. 'They are expensive, inefficient and can even kill starving civilians. It is a distraction & smokescreen,' he said in an X post. 'A manmade hunger can only be addressed by political will. Lift the siege, open the gates and guarantee safe movements with dignified access to people in need. Israel's war on Gaza has killed nearly 60,000 Palestinians, injured over 144,000, and left most of the densely populated coastal territory in ruins and the majority of its 2.2 million people homeless and starving. Israel launched the war in October 2023 after nearly 1,200 Israelis were killed and 251 taken hostage during a Hamas attack.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
'The air was so dangerous in my Birmingham postcode I ended up on life support'
A Birmingham resident who lived near the city's landmark motorway, the Spaghetti Junction, has revealed how she ended up on life support. Named only as Jenny, the 75-year-old woman said she 'never realised how dangerous the air was' until she was hospitalised with life-threatening pneumonia. Traffic fumes and poor housing conditions were to blame for her deteriorating health, doctors told her at the time. Living next to the busiest motorway in Europe, she also found herself suffering regular asthma attacks just from stepping outside. Read more: Couple who starved their dog told RSPCA inspectors she was 'given to them by drug dealers' The retiree found her health drastically improved when she moved nearer to green spaces and away from the motorway. Speaking as part of a new Health Equals campaign this week, she said: 'I never realised just how dangerous the air I was breathing every day really was, I used to live near Spaghetti Junction, and would suffer regular asthma attacks just from stepping outside my door. "It wasn't until I ended up in hospital with pneumonia and on life support that doctors told me the traffic fumes and my poor housing conditions were to blame. "Everyone deserves clean air – not just those lucky enough to live near green spaces or away from busy roads. My health improved dramatically after I moved and started walking in parks. But not everyone has that choice." Her experience with air pollution comes as Health Equals, a coalition of 85 organisations, revealed World Health Organisation (WHO) air quality guidelines were breached in 35,000 neighbourhoods across Britain. Its report also outlined all 506 schools in Birmingham were in neighbourhoods failing the guidelines, putting 290,000 children at risk of serious long term health problems, including heart disease and stroke. The new findings are being released as part of Health Equals' Make Health Equal campaign, to highlight alarming health inequalities: where toxic air, alongside other issues including poor income, unstable jobs and unsafe homes, are contributing to an alarming 16-year gap in life expectancy across the UK. Health Equals is calling for a cross-government strategy that prioritises action on these essential building blocks of health, to stop lives being cut short. City environment boss Coun Majid Mahmood said: "Poor air quality is a major risk to public health, and that is why we are committed to improving the city's air through our clean air strategy. 'Data published in October 2023 showed that our work to address the air pollutant, nitrogen dioxide, is delivering results, with pollution levels in Birmingham city centre slashed by almost 40 per centr since 2016, driven in part by the introduction of the Clean Air Zone. 'Across the city, a dedicated air quality monitoring programme of potential 'hotspots' in Birmingham has found that all sites are within the annual mean air quality objective. This three year monitoring project concluded in 2024 and sought to identify any locations where concentrations of nitrogen dioxide might exceed the annual mean air quality objective. I am pleased to confirm our evidence suggests that outside of the city centre area, air quality concentrations are within legal limits. 'We also monitor particulate matter, both coarse and fine fractions (PM10 and PM2.5), and all of our sites continue to show compliance with legal limits set by Government. We will continue to work with Government to further drive down concentrations of fine particles as we know these are the largest risk to health and we have extended our monitoring network to this end. 'This is supported by our mission to install year-round air monitoring equipment in schools a key component in this. These monitors come in tandem with accompanying education resources and lesson plans helping to inspire a new generation of Clean Air champions. Our work in this area is underpinned further by projects like 'Car Free School Streets', which seeks to reduce emissions during rush hour, driven by readings from council monitoring data showing that the school gates are among the most polluted parts of the city. 'The school sensor programme has the co-benefit of providing monitoring data for fine particulate matter, recognised as a key pollutant in a range of adverse health outcomes such as heart disease, lung diseases and cancers. 'Furthermore, surplus revenues from the Clean Air Zone are feeding directly into our transport plan, enabling us to work in partnership with the West Midlands Combined Authority to support schemes related to active travel, improve public transport infrastructure, and manage demand in the city centre. 'Projects funded by Clean Air Zone revenues include a trial of hydrogen buses, upgrades to the University railway station and new stations on the Camp Hill line, as well as a number of projects within the Cross-City Bus scheme, the expansion of the Car Free School Streets programme, and development of the next phase of the Birmingham Cycle Revolution. Community grants for projects delivering against our priorities have also been provided through the Environment and Transport Neighbourhoods Fund (ETNF). 'Our work towards our clean air objectives continues with the recent launch of a consultation into the renewal of the city's Smoke Control Order, offering greater powers of enforcement against those who breach guidelines. This is just the latest step in our journey, which will not stop until we have achieved our objective of clean air for all residents.' Have you been affected by this. We would like to hear from you. You can contact us by emailing us on
Medscape
an hour ago
- Medscape
Every Step Counts, But Do You Really Need 10,000?
Good news for the sole: Contrary to popular wisdom, people can get the same health benefits from walking 7000 steps a day as they do from walking 10,000 paces, according to a comprehensive review and meta-analysis published in The Lancet Public Health . 'For all outcomes, health benefits continued to accrue until around 7000 steps,' said Katherine Owen, PhD, biostatistician at the University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, who led the review. 'After 7000 steps, benefits either plateaued or there were very small additional benefits.' Owen and her colleagues reviewed 57 studies and conducted a meta-analysis on 31 of them, examining the relationship between health and physical activity based on daily steps. The researchers looked at nine different health outcomes: all-cause mortality, the incidence of and deaths from cardiovascular disease, dementia, cancer incidence and mortality, the incidence of type 2 diabetes, depressive symptoms, and falls. Every outcome showed improvement as the amount of daily activity increases, but for most people the benefits tapered off at around 5000-7000 steps per day. Compared with taking just 2000 steps per day, walking approximately 7000 steps per day reduced all-cause mortality by 47% and decreased the incidence of cardiovascular disease by 25%, of cancer by 6%, of type 2 diabetes by 14%, of dementia by 38%, of depression by 22%, and of falls by 28%. The study also highlighted that even modest step counts of around 4000 per day were beneficial compared with lower activity of just 2000 steps. 'Every step counts,' Owen said. 'All physical activity is beneficial, but increasing daily steps to around 7000 steps is optimal to improve all health outcomes.' The conventional wisdom that 10,000 steps per day was the optimal amount has no real basis in fact, said I-Min Lee, MD, epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School, Boston, who was the first to show that the health benefits of daily exercise leveled off after 7500 steps. 'There are quite a bit of data now showing that fewer than 10,000 steps per day brings health benefits,' she said. Lee said that most studies to date have focused on all-cause mortality and cardiovascular health. The new study expands the evidence to other health outcomes, although the data for some conditions, such as diabetes, are relatively sparse. Current guidelines for physical activity, such as those from the US Department of Health and Human Services, recommend 150 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. However, due to lack of evidence at the time of publication, these guidelines do not include daily step targets. As step tracking technologies have become more common, and data on step-based activity have improved, Lee wants future guidelines to incorporate step targets. 'I don't believe they should replace time targets, since not everybody wants to track their steps,' she said. 'But they should be included.' Owen and Lee declared having no competing interests.
