Vaping is often advertised as a safer option than smoking. However, as e-cigarettes have become more common, researchers have learned that they come with serious risks of their own. While scientists are still studying the long-term effects, they know that vaping exposes users to nicotine and other harmful chemicals that can damage the lungs. Nicotine is highly addictive and can negatively affect attention, learning, memory, mood and self-control. These effects are especially concerning for people under age 25 because their brains are still developing.
Current research shows that vaping can make young people more likely to use other nicotine products. Health experts are especially concerned about the growing use of nicotine pouches and the return of cigarette smoking among teens and young adults. Once someone becomes addicted to nicotine, they may look for it in different forms, increasing the chance of long-term addiction. According to the 2025 National Youth Tobacco Survey, about 2 million middle and high school students reported using a tobacco product at least once in the past 30 days. This translates to 9.5% of high school students and 4.1% of middle school students.
Unfortunately, many kids and teens do not realize the harm these products can cause because serious health problems may take years to develop. Dr. Mark Block, Chief of Thoracic Surgery at Memorial Healthcare System, is passionate about raising awareness of this growing problem. He spoke with us about how vaping and nicotine affect the body and shared what the future may hold for people who use e-cigarettes.
Q: What do we currently know about the damage vaping causes?
“We know that putting anything in your lungs that shouldn't be there is going to cause harm," Dr. Block stated simply. One of the biggest challenges is that vaping is still relatively new, so the current data does not paint a full picture of the impact vaping may have.
"We know the damage that cigarette smoking causes because of the impact that has been seen on people who have been smoking over the past 100 years, and we have many years of data from millions of patients. We don't have nearly that amount of information for vaping yet," he continued. "People have only been vaping for 10, maybe 20 years at most. So, I don't think we've even seen the tip of the iceberg on the type of damage it's going to cause to the lungs in the long run.”
Acute vaping-associated lung injuries that have made the news in the past include bronchiolitis obliterans (popcorn lung) and EVALI. While the lung damage caused by these rare diseases was believed to be associated with specific chemicals that have largely been removed, what is in vaping liquid is still a bit of a guessing game. "There are a lot of chemicals in that liquid, and those chemicals are not regulated by the FDA. So, every company can put different chemicals in, which can even vary from one batch to the next. And we know that many of those chemicals cause injury to living cells," Dr. Block explained.
Among the substances found in vaping aerosols are chemicals such as formaldehyde and metals released from heating elements, both of which are known to be harmful to living tissue. “A vapor is a clear gas. But when people are vaping, the stuff they inhale is actually tiny little particles that are suspended in air. It's an aerosol, not a vapor.”
Q: If vaping is damaging the lungs, why aren't there noticeable symptoms right away?
According to Dr. Block, the lungs have significant reserve capacity. “Normally at rest, we're using a tiny fraction of the capacity of our heart and lung systems,” he said.
As a result, small declines in lung function can occur without obvious symptoms. In fact, even a 5% to 10% reduction in lung function may go unnoticed in everyday life. “When you begin to damage your lungs, you are not going to notice a difference in normal daily activities until you have damaged 50% of your lung function," he said. “But just because people don't notice it, doesn't mean it's not happening.”
Q: When should someone see a doctor if they're worried vaping has damaged their lungs?
"The simple answer is anyone who is vaping should consult their doctor because they should get help to quit," said Dr. Block bluntly. But he recognizes that many people will not consult with a healthcare professional unless they are experiencing symptoms.
So, he stresses that anyone experiencing changes in how their body feels or functions should talk with a healthcare provider, especially if they are regularly inhaling substances that could harm the lungs. “If you're vaping, the kinds of symptoms that would concern me would be chest pain, cough, shortness of breath, weight loss, fever--those kinds of general symptoms that can be associated with the lungs.”
Depending on a person's symptoms and overall health, their healthcare provider will begin with a physical exam and basic testing, advancing to more specialized evaluations if needed.
Q: Can your lungs heal after you quit vaping?
Since scientists are still learning about the long-term effects of vaping, it is not yet clear how much damage can be reversed. However, the lungs are resilient and have some ability to heal, especially if a person quits vaping. Based on what doctors have learned from people who formerly smoked cigarettes, Dr. Block believes some of the early damage may improve fairly quickly. “There are definite toxicities that affect the cells and the cell function, and our bodies have remarkable means for repairing. Some of those things can probably be repaired," Dr. Block explained. "I would say some of that superficial damage to the lungs is probably reversible within a period of a week or two.”
However, some permanent damage may happen. “It may be that people start developing scar tissue in the lungs from chronic exposure to a lot of these toxins. There's no way to reverse that problem,” he continued. Though it has not yet been proven, consulting the same cigarette smoking research as above suggests that vaping could increase the risk of serious health problems such as emphysema, lung cancer and smoking-related heart disease. Researchers still need more long-term data to fully understand their effects.
Q: What is the biggest reason people should avoid vaping?
While many people focus on whether nicotine directly causes lung disease, Dr. Block believes one of the biggest dangers comes from the addiction itself. “One of the key things is understanding that being dependent on nicotine is an addiction. You become a slave to that addiction. It no longer becomes a choice,” he said.
“Nicotine does have harmful effects on the body, but its most damaging characteristic is its ability to rapidly create dependence, keeping many people trapped in a cycle of addiction.” For that reason, he says helping people understand the risks and motivating them to quit is the most important first step. Preventing people from starting in the first place is even better.
Blog last updated: September 22, 2026
