E-cigarettes raise risk of mouth cancer by damaging DNA

According to a new study, vaping may alter DNA in the mouth and raise risks of oral cancer.

While many have taken to vaping, considering it is safer than traditional smoking, scientists scrambling to study the trendy devices, are discovering more reasons that they should be approached with caution.

According to the latest study, conducted by the University of Minnesota, vaping may raise levels of DNA-damaging chemicals like formaldehyde in the saliva, exposures that can put users at greater risk of oral and throat cancer.

While it has been decades since we know that cigarette smoke does cause cancer, scientific still isn't nearly as fast as the trend of taking to vaping moves.

Some of the earliest research on the latest nicotine delivery device has suggested that e-cigarette use may have the same constricting effect on blood vessels that combustible tobacco does.

The University of Minnesota study, first, had had the study participants spend 15 minutes vaping, though it is unclear what specific devices or dosages they used.

Then, they swabbed their cheeks and tested the saliva for a host of chemical traces.

In the immediate aftermath of vaping, levels of three chemicals surged in the participants' mouths, including formaldehyde, acrolein and methylglyoxal. All three of these chemicals are known to find their way into cells and damage DNA.

When the scientists looked for signs of that DNA damage, they found them in the vaping participants.

They found Acrolein, in particular, had done notable damage to four out of five of the vapers' oral cells.

The scientists found DNA adducts, DNA-modifications that signal early genetic changes that can lead to the development of cancer down the line.