Vaping: A Review
This monograph intend to update and present in a concise manner the recent information on these complications and that readers find such information in a single monograph.
Abstract
Inhaled drugs have been used since immemorial time by the human species. In the 19th century, as early as 1800, the British Army medical officers serving in India introduced anticholinergics into Western medicine for therapeutic purposes, however in many aboriginal cultures shamans (witch doctors) used drugs with hallucinogenic effects to invoke the gods tribal and have predictive visions. Humans have also used inhaled drugs with recreational effects. Respiratory diseases are leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide, and conventional smoking of tobacco, a major cause of them. The introduction of the electronic cigarette (EC) from the year 2007 in the USA opened the possibility of using it to significantly reduce conventional cigarette consumption, and reduce exposure to toxic inhalants in combustion smoke, such as reactive species of oxygen and carcinogens. Legalization opened a powerful market and was done without sufficient assessment of health risk and toxicity, as well as without sufficient marketing research and sales regulation. Over time, two unfortunate events have occurred with this tool acute complications have appeared, some potentially fatal, such as the EVALI (Electronic-cigarette or Vaping-Associated Lung Injury) epidemic in the USA, oral ingestion poisoning (accidental or intentional) , explosion injuries of the devices, and foreseeable chronic complications similar to those of conventional cigarettes such as bronchial asthma, chronic bronchitis and emphysema. It has also been shown that the use of E-cigarette in young people predisposes in the future to the use of conventional cigarettes. The other unfortunate fact is that the tool has been implemented to inhale other drugs, other than nicotine, such as marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and solvents for inhalation whose toxicity are not known or insufficiently investigated. This was predictable to happen. The neoplastic toxicity of this tool is also unknown. This monograph, intend to update and present in a concise manner the recent information on these complications and that readers find such information in a single monograph. The work not only covers clinical and chemical aspects of vaping but also some reflections on economic, ethical and legal aspects of it. *Correspondence to: Alcibey Alvarado. Clínica de Diagnóstico Médico. Torre Médica. 3 piso. Paseo Colón, San José, Costa Rica, Tel: 50622237134; 50622566439; 50687351858; Fax: 50622216754; E-mail: alcialvagonza@yahoo. com.mx