# Dr. Farsalinos comments on the most recent ecig study



## Alex (29/12/14)

Research Article
* Electronic Cigarette Liquid Increases Inflammation and Virus Infection in Primary Human Airway Epithelial Cells *

Qun Wu mail,


Di Jiang,
Maisha Minor,
Hong Wei Chu

Published: September 22, 2014
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0108342

Article
About the Authors
Metrics
Comments
Related Content
*Reader Comments (2)*
Post a new comment on this article

*E-cigarettes increase airway inflammation.... compared to what?*
* Posted by DrFarsalinos on 26 Sep 2014 at 23:07 GMT *
For the shake of discussion, i will disagree with the previous comment by Bernd Mayer and i will accept that e-cigarettes increase inflammation..... compared to what???

E-cigarette use is overwhelmingly used by smokers, as a partial or complete substitute. To serve the public health in general, and each individual smoker separately, it is our ethical duty to inform smokers what would change in their health status if they switch from tobacco to e-cigarette use. 
This study provides absolutely no comparison with tobacco cigarette. Additionally, it provides no comparison with any other smoking cessation tool (bupropion, varenicline). I wonder, what would happen if you expose these cells to any of these pharmaceutical products for 2 days?
Of course, e-cigarettes are used through inhalation of its vapor, not in the way the authors tested the liquids. That is why it would be realistic to:
1. Use an e-cigarette device and produce vapor; use the vapor extract on the cells
2. Make tobacco cigarette smoke extract and use this as comparison.
For the latter, the most probable reason for not doing it is simple: the tobacco smoke extract would have been so cytotoxic that only few cells would have survive [1, 2]. Thus, there would be no elevation in IL-6, because you need viable cells to produce it.

Asthma, a predominantly inflammatory disease of the airways, is adversely affected by smoking. Although there is a lot of speculation about the adverse effects of e-cigarettes use on asthmatic patients, there is only one study published, which has shown the exact opposite: asthmatics who switch from tobacco to e-cigarette use experience significant improvements in respiratory function (both subjective and objective) [3].

When results of laboratory experiments contradict evidence from human studies, one should be concerned about the reliability of the laboratory experiments and their applicability to human effects. 


References

1. Romagna G, Allifranchini E, Bocchietto E, Todeschi S, Esposito M, Farsalinos KE. Cytotoxicity evaluation of electronic cigarette vapor extract on cultured mammalian fibroblasts (ClearStream-LIFE): comparison with tobacco cigarette smoke extract. Inhal Toxicol. 2013 May;25(6):354-61.

2. Farsalinos KE, Romagna G, Allifranchini E, Ripamonti E, Bocchietto E, Todeschi S, Tsiapras D, Kyrzopoulos S, Voudris V. Comparison of the cytotoxic potential of cigarette smoke and electronic cigarette vapour extract on cultured myocardial cells. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2013 Oct 16;10(10):5146-62.

3. Polosa R, Morjaria J, Caponnetto P, Caruso M, Strano S, Battaglia E, Russo C. Effect of smoking abstinence and reduction in asthmatic smokers switching to electronic cigarettes: evidence for harm reversal. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2014 May 8;11(5):4965-77.

*Competing interests declared:* I have 21 publications in peer-reveiwed journals about e-cigarettes and 2 more studies presented in medical conferences
For 2 of them (unpublished yet), funds provided to my institution from e-cigarette companies were used
For 2 of them, institutes unrelated to me received funding from e-cigarette companies
For 1 of them, funding from a non-profit association was provided
For 1 of them, funding through a public internet crowdfunding campaign was provided
For 17 of them, no funding support was provided by anyone 

link source: http://www.plosone.org/annotation/listThread.action?root=81993

Reactions: Like 3 | Thanks 1 | Informative 2


----------



## Arthster (29/12/14)

Well the good doctor can also add that I suffered from tonsillitis my entire life and since I have start vaping, not only do I not suffer from tonsillitis anymore my tonsils have actually decreased in size. 

So to the gentleman that says its bad for your throat, I say put that in your pipe and vape it.

Reactions: Like 4


----------



## Andre (29/12/14)

Sounds like a totally flawed study to me. Thanks for the info, @Alex.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 2


----------



## Silver (29/12/14)

Thanks @Alex

Go Dr Farsalinos!

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 2


----------



## free3dom (29/12/14)

Dr. Farsalinos vs the entire scientific community....my money would be on Dr F (and he'd have an angry mob of vapors in his corner) 

I am very dissapointed with these so called scientists, they seem to be throwing crap at the wall to see what sticks 

Thanks @Alex for posting this awesome response, instead of the actual study...I've had enough anger during 2014 - this was very pleasing

Reactions: Agree 3 | Thanks 1


----------



## Paulie (29/12/14)

Did any1 see the news the other night on ecigs? They has some stuiped doctor who obviously has no idea what his talking about saying ecigs create cancer cells ffs

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1


----------



## free3dom (29/12/14)

paulph201 said:


> Did any1 see the news the other night on ecigs? They has some stuiped doctor who obviously has no idea what his talking about saying ecigs create cancer cells ffs



Argh...I was really hoping to end 2014 on a positive note...that is so annoying 

How intelligent people can spout such garbage just boggles my mind

Reactions: Agree 1


----------



## Silver (29/12/14)

paulph201 said:


> Did any1 see the news the other night on ecigs? They has some stuiped doctor who obviously has no idea what his talking about saying ecigs create cancer cells ffs



My mom told me about this
It sounds like he was commenting on that Japanese study. 
Did you see it?


----------



## rogue zombie (29/12/14)

paulph201 said:


> Did any1 see the news the other night on ecigs? They has some stuiped doctor who obviously has no idea what his talking about saying ecigs create cancer cells ffs



I saw that.

What amazes me is how easily news gets published here by major news publications, with questionable sources. 

Who the hell was that dude anyway?

I blogged on the videogames industry for years, and in that industry, even small blog sites, are ripped to shreds when they don't have absolute 'definitive' sources.

It is so irresponsible to publish based on one "professionals" word. I mean I'm sure you guys saw that BBC published vid about ecigs - they used I don't know how many sources to prove a point - the way it should be.

Reactions: Agree 3


----------



## Paulie (29/12/14)

Silver said:


> My mom told me about this
> It sounds like he was commenting on that Japanese study.
> Did you see it?


Yup i watched it, there was no reference to that study :it was more towards stopping ppl who were wanted to stop smacking in 2015 not go onto vaping

Reactions: Thanks 1


----------



## free3dom (29/12/14)

paulph201 said:


> Yup i watched it, there was no reference to that study :it was more towards stopping ppl who were wanted to stop smacking in 2015 not go onto vaping



So it was just out of spite...wow, the level people will stoop to because they are miserable is just disturbing


----------



## KB_314 (29/12/14)

Frustrating. Imagine how frustrating it must be for Dr F though! He has to keep repeating himself every time some twit publishes another so called "scientific" article against ecigs. 
Really seems to be getting worse though - pull out your mod for a quiet little vape outside and there's always some moron who chirps "you may as well just smoke cigarettes because what you're doing is way more harmful". It's no longer just as bad, but now it's "way worse". I've stopped getting so defensive about it. Now I just say "keep smoking if you prefer - lemme know how that works out for you". If people aren't interested in listening, it's a waste of time and energy.

Reactions: Agree 3


----------



## Arthster (29/12/14)

I count to 10 my anger is a baloon and i let it go so i can watch it drift away...

Reactions: Agree 1


----------



## free3dom (29/12/14)

KB_314 said:


> Frustrating. Imagine how frustrating it must be for Dr F though! He has to keep repeating himself every time some twit publishes another so called "scientific" article against ecigs.
> Really seems to be getting worse though - pull out your mod for a quiet little vape outside and there's always some moron who chirps "you may as well just smoke cigarettes because what you're doing is way more harmful". It's no longer just as bad, but now it's "way worse". I've stopped getting so defensive about it. Now I just say "keep smoking if you prefer - lemme know how that works out for you". If people aren't interested in listening, it's a waste of time and energy.



While I want to ignore them I can't really blame them...it's the media that needs to be more responsible in this regard. If some doctor comes on TV and says something definitively then who is the layman to argue with that. So if someone says something ignorant, damn skippy I'm going to help educate him/her/it

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1


----------



## yuganp (30/12/14)

Can these people be sued for publishing info that they have not researched? If what they publish is detrimental to public health and safety.

Reactions: Agree 2


----------



## MurderDoll (30/12/14)

paulph201 said:


> Yup i watched it, there was no reference to that study :it was more towards stopping ppl who were wanted to stop smacking in 2015 not go onto vaping




I saw it as well. 

It was all about people's New Years resolution and quitting smoking. 

It started off with a vendor talking about about how it helps to quit smoking. 

Then went onto some dooshbag from CANSA talking about how it has an ingredient that creates cancer cells. 
Tried to look for the clip but couldn't find it.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1


----------

