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Study: Vaping Just As Harmful As Smoking

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – If you're thinking electronic cigarettes are healthier than tobacco cigarettes, someone may be blowing smoke up your way.

According to researchers at the University of Connecticut, e-cigarettes are just as harmful to your health as tobacco cigarettes.

In the past few years, e-cigarettes have been pushed as the "safer" choice compared to tobacco cigarettes. Thus, e-cigarettes have risen in popularity.

The University of Connecticut researchers crafted a screening device and discovered that e-cigarettes are filled with a nicotine-based liquid, which is "potentially as harmful as unfiltered cigarettes when it comes to causing DNA damage," according to UConn Today's report.

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The study also found that vapor from non-nicotine e-cigarettes has many "chemical additives," causing cellular mutations" that can lead to cancer.

According to one of the researchers, the amount of DNA damage all depends on the amount of vapor a person inhales with e-cigarettes, as well as other additives present and whether nicotine or non-nicotine liquid is used.

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