Research Information System
TUBITAK Project, 2014 - 2017
In recent years, as the number of
smokers worldwide is reaching record highs and anti-smoking policies are
proliferating, several new products are being launched by the industry of
alternative smoking products with hopes for increasing market shares and
revenues. One of the most popular products in the market is the electronic
cigarette (e-cigarette).The use of
electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) has increased dramatically over the past
few years in many countries. In addition to this increase in usage of e-cigarettes,
no sufficient scientific evidence
is available confirming the safety and efficacy of e-cigarette’s. In this study we aimed to investigate
the possible genotoxic damage and nicotine exposure in indiviuals who smoke
e-cigarette (n=32), classic cigarette (n=33), passive smokers (n=32) and
healthy non-smoker individuals (n=33). Determination and comparison of the
amount of nicotine exposure of e-cigarette users, cigarette smokers and passive
smokers are among the aims of this study.
The mean (±SD) urinary cotinine levels were
determined as 1656±1633 ng/g creatinine for e-cigarette users, 1695±1267 ng/g creatinine for cigarette smokers and 83±98 ng/g
creatinine for passive smokers. There were no statistically significant
differences between cotinine levels of e-cigarette users and cigarette smokers
in urine samples (p>0,05). The
tail moment (mean±SD) in peripheral lymphocytes of e-cigarette users,
cigarette smokers, passive smokers and controls were found to be 1,5±0,45; 1,4±1,44; 1,3±0,50
and 1,0±0,43 respectively.
Tail moment scores of e-cigarette users are significantly higher than those of
control subjects, and cigarette smoker subjects (p<0,001).
Buccal MN results
demonstrate that MN and MNed cell frequencies have significant difference
between control groups and e-cigarette users
(p<0,05). Chromosomal aberration
results show that no significant difference has been found chromosome break and
chromatid gap frequency between e-cigarette users and cigarette smokers (p>0,05). These results indicate that
e-cigarette users are exposed to nicotine as much as cigarette smokers and may speculate that e-cigarette might
lead to the DNA damage as much as smoking cigarette.