Doctors and anti-smoking advocates across Bahrain are calling for urgent awareness campaigns and packaging that reflects health risks to discourage young people from vaping, as a major international study found strong evidence that it is linked to smoking initiation, substance use, respiratory illnesses and mental health damage.
The ‘Vaping and harm in young people: umbrella review’, published in the peer-reviewed journal Tobacco Control, concluded that young people who use e-cigarettes are approximately three times more likely to take up smoking than those who do not.
In Bahrain, American Mission Hospital (AMH) pulmonologist Dr Chellaraja Chellasamy is seeing patterns locally that mirror these global findings.
“Short-term effects are predominantly a dry, hacking cough or wheeze,” he told the GDN.
“Long-term effects are heart-related, including palpitations, abnormal heart rhythm and lungs-related like bronchial asthma, reduced lung function, and EVALI (E-cigarette or Vaping-Associated Lung Injury).”
The global study synthesised 56 systematic reviews and also linked vaping with increased risks of asthma, persistent coughing, injuries from device explosions, as well as depression and suicidal behaviours.
In some cases, teenagers as young as 13 were hospitalised with vaping-related lung injuries.
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