The latest from California

The dual use of electronic cigarettes and conventional cigarettes – the most common use pattern among e-cigarette users – ‘appears to be more dangerous than using either product alone,’ according to a ScienceDaily story citing the results of a study conducted by the University of California, San Francisco, US.
The study found that the use of e-cigarettes alone every day can nearly double the odds of a heart attack.
And it found that the risks compound, so that daily use of both e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes raises the heart attack risk five-fold when compared to people who don’t use either product.
The study, involving nearly 70,000 people, was published on August 22 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The data were first presented in February in Baltimore at the 2018 annual meeting of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco.
“Most adults who use e-cigarettes continue to smoke cigarettes,” said senior author Stanton Glantz, PhD, a UCSF professor of medicine and director of the UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education.
“While people may think they are reducing their health risks, we found that the heart attack risk of e-cigarettes adds to the risk of smoking cigarettes,” Glantz said. “Using both products at the same time is worse than using either one separately. Someone who continues to smoke daily while using e-cigarettes daily increases the odds of a heart attack by a factor of five.”
But the research also reported some good news if smokers quit:
“The risk of heart attack starts to drop immediately after you stop smoking,” said Glantz. “Our results suggest the same is true when they stop using e-cigarettes.”