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Asthma, Smoking, and Vaping

Cigarette Smoking

While cigarettes can have negative effects on everyone who smokes, the effects of smoking on people with asthma cannot be understated. Smoke irritates airways, causing the same type of swelling and mucus buildup that occurs during an asthma episode. Smoking will result in more asthma symptoms and more frequent and severe asthma episodes.

When speaking with your child with asthma about the dangers of tobacco use, consider sharing the following information.15

  • Smoking can undo the effects of any medicine they take to keep their asthma under control.
  • Smoking can cause them to have to take their medicine more often for quick relief of symptoms.
  • Smoking may disturb their sleep by making them cough more at night.
  • Smoking can affect how well they do in sports or other physical activities.
  • Smoking can send them to the hospital emergency room with a severe asthma episode.
Electronic Cigarettes

While the rate of cigarette smoking among youth has steadily decreased over the past decades, the use of electronic cigarettes has skyrocketed. A recent study found that 2 million young people currently use e-cigarettes. And 8 in 10 of those youth use flavored e-cigarettes.16 

E-cigarette use (vaping) can be harmful to the respiratory system. It can be especially dangerous among people with asthma.

HOW E-CIGARETTES WORK17

  • E-cigarettes are alternative tobacco products that produce an aerosol by heating a liquid that usually contains nicotine, flavorings, and other chemicals.
  • The liquid used in e-cigarettes is sometimes called “e-juice,” “e-liquid,” “vape juice,” or “vape liquid.”
  • Users inhale e-cigarette aerosol into their lungs. Others close by may also breathe in this aerosol when the user exhales it into the air.
  • The e-cigarette aerosol that users breathe from the device and exhale can contain harmful and potentially harmful substances, including:
    • Nicotine,
    • Ultra-fine particles that can be inhaled deep into the lungs,
    • Flavorings such as diacetyl, a chemical linked to serious lung disease,
    • Volatile organic compounds,
    • Cancer-causing chemicals, and
    • Heavy metals such as nickel, tin, and lead

Some studies have found at least 60 different chemicals in e-liquids. The types of chemicals in e-liquid can differ by brand as well as flavor.

How Vaping Will Make Your Child’s Asthma Worse18

Vaping can make your child’s asthma worse for several reasons.

  • The main chemicals in e-cigarettes have been linked to more mucus, increased cough, chest tightness, and reduced lung function.
  • Vaping can irritate the lung’s airways, making asthma episodes more likely.
  • Studies have linked some flavored additives in e-cigarettes, like clove and cinnamon, to causing cell damage in the airways. 
  • Studies of e-cigarette users found that common side effects of vaping include cough and dry throat.
  • Vaping may help pneumonia-causing bacteria to stick to cells that line the airways, causing further damage to the lungs. 
  • Vaping might impair the lung’s ability to fight infection, increasing the risk of more severe asthma episodes.
  • One study also found that teenagers with asthma who were with someone using an e-cigarette and were exposed to their second-hand vapor were 27% more likely to report having had an asthma episode in the previous year than those who were not exposed to e-cigarettes.19
Talking to Your Child About Vaping

It is important that you talk to your child about vaping early, ideally before they are first offered an e-cigarette. They may be hearing that vaping is a “safe alternative” to cigarettes. This marketing comes from direct messaging from the e-cigarette industry and is simply not true. 

Some tips for having this conversation include:

  • Be calm. Your manner will set the tone for your conversation.
  • Start early. Educate your child before they are exposed to or offered a vape. 
  • Find the right time. Bring up vaping in a natural way, like when you see it in an advertisement or television show. This approach is more effective than sitting your child down for a talk. 
  • Do not be accusatory. Make it a dialogue. Listen without judgment. State your concerns calmly and let them know how vaping can make their asthma worse.
  • Ask them what they are hearing or seeing at school. Correct any misperceptions. Emphasize that these products are not safe. 
  • Talk about industry manipulation. The tobacco industry spends nearly $1 million every hour advertising these products. Point the blame at the industry and its desire to make money at the expense of your child’s health. 
  • Avoid extremes (e.g.,“The vape device will blow up and kill you.”). Be factual and fair in delivering the message. 
  • Leave the door open for your child to ask more questions in the future. This topic should be an ongoing discussion. It takes time to change a person’s mind. 
Helping your child to quit vaping

This is Quitting is a free and anonymous text messaging program from the Truth Initiative designed to help young people quit vaping. The program incorporates messages from other young people like them who have attempted to or successfully quit e-cigarettes. Messages show the real side of quitting, both the good and the bad, to help young people feel motivated, inspired, and supported throughout their quitting process. To date, the program has helped over 600,000 youth and young adults on their journey to quit vaping. 

15Nemours Children’s Health. Smoking and asthma. 

16U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).C Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Notes from the Field: E-cigarette use among middle and high school students – National Youth Tobacco Survey. United States, 2021.  October 1, 2021 Vol 70/39

17CDC. E-cigarette quick facts.  https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/bam/e_cigarettes_quick_facts.htm

18 Source: Global Allergy and Airways patient platform

19 Bayly, J, et. al. Secondhand exposure to aerosols from electronic nicotine delivery systems and asthma exacerbations among youth with asthma, CHEST Journal, October 22, 2018.