Who conducted the study?
Dr. Chantal Donovan, a Respiratory Pharmacologist and Senior Lecturer in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney in Sydney, Australia, led the study.
Where did they do it?
Donovan and her fellow researchers performed the study in the Immunopharmacology Research Group at the School of Life Sciences.
What did they want to learn?
The researchers wanted to see how exposure to thirdhand chemical residue from vape aerosols impacts the offspring of exposed pregnant mice during and after pregnancy. Further, they wanted to learn if vapes with nicotine had a different effect than vapes without nicotine.
How did they perform the study?
The researchers exposed one group of adult female mice to towels with thirdhand chemical residue from vape aerosols with nicotine, another group to towels with thirdhand chemical residue from vape aerosols without nicotine, and a third group to clean towels with no thirdhand chemical residue. They continued to provide the specified towels to the female mice during pregnancy and after birth throughout the offspring’s infancy.
Once the offspring reached maturity, the researchers examined the offspring’s lung and bone marrow cells to understand how the mature offspring mice responded to an infection.
What did they find?
Compared to mice whose mothers were not exposed to thirdhand chemical residue from vape aerosols, mice whose mothers were exposed to thirdhand chemical residue from vape aerosols had more inflammation in their lung cells and more immune cells in their bone marrow. This suggests their immune systems were overactive and damaged. This outcome was observed for both thirdhand chemical residue from vape aerosols with and without nicotine.
Why is this study important?
Mature offspring of mice who were exposed to thirdhand chemical residue from vape aerosols while pregnant and nursing had overactive, damaged immune systems compared to mature offspring of mice who were not exposed. They could not fight off infection as effectively as offspring of non-exposed mice. This suggests that exposure to thirdhand chemical residue from vape aerosols before and after birth has harmful effects that persist into adulthood. This study also suggests that thirdhand chemical residue from vape aerosols is harmful with or without nicotine. This finding is an important reminder that there are additional harmful chemicals in thirdhand chemical residue from vape aerosols besides nicotine.
Click here to read the research study.
