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A new study on mice – led by researchers at Marshall University – reveals that flavor additives commonly used in e-cigarettes can enhance nicotine’s effects on the nervous system.
Brandon Henderson, associate professor of biomedical sciences at Marshall, led the study. He said they found that vaping some flavors like vanilla can stimulate one of the brain’s key reward centers — even without nicotine present.
“Part of it is the flavor chemicals, because they’re being inhaled with a vape, they can get to the brain, and then they can become (central nervous system) active,” Henderson said.
He said the findings raise concerns about other under-studied chemicals used in vape products.
“A lot of vapes use propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin as the base of what people call the ‘e juice’,” Henderson said. “Once those two chemicals are heated, they actually generate up to 12 novel chemicals that we haven’t really seen in combustible cigarettes. That’s what makes it unique.”
Henderson, who has spent most of his academic career studying nicotine and cessation, said colleagues have considered vapes as possible smoke alternatives. But as he has seen an increase in nicotine-free vapes, the study’s findings raise questions about smoking cessation efforts.
“I know kids that would never use a cigarette because, ‘Oh, that’s going to be guaranteed cancer,’” he said. “But then they’ll proceed to vape because they see that as a safer alternative. I think the messaging needs to be clear because a lot of individuals see vaping as harm reduction, then the perception becomes, ‘Well, this is safe, period.’ But that’s not the case.”
Henderson said the best prevention is to not smoke or vape to begin with. He said people who vape often will also use other nicotine products, including combustible cigarettes or nicotine pouches. That increases negative health outcomes.
“A lot of the clinical evidence shows that if you use more than one type of these nicotine products, your negative health outcomes are worse,” Henderson said. “So if you vape and if you smoke a combustible cigarette independently, those will cause a risk for stroke. But if you do both of them, your risk for stroke is actually double of those when you do it independent.”
According to Henderson, his role as a scientist is always to provide information.
“Hopefully we can turn that into a new avenue of either campaigning for not initiating smoking, or developing new therapies that are going to be true cessation,” he said.