A team at the University of West Virginia is conducting a three-year study on the effects of vaporization during pregnancy, driven by unproven assumptions that smoking is safer than smoking cigarettes.
It is estimated that half of all women who smoke before becoming pregnant will continue to smoke during and after pregnancy. The impact of smoking during pregnancy can lead to premature birth, birth defects, and an increased likelihood of sudden infant death syndrome. Because of this, an increasing number of women who choose to smoke during pregnancy are being encouraged to switch to steam.
Mark Olfert, an associate professor at WVU, is the lead contact researcher for this multi-PI study, which includes three other faculties of the Faculty of Medicine. In addition to Olfert, Paul Chantler, Jonathan Boyd and Duaa Dakhlallah are all members of the research team. Dr. Eiman Aboaziza, Ph.D. candidate for the clinical and translational science program and one of the students in Olfert’s lab, he was an integral part of the initial research examining how vaping during pregnancy affects the long-term health outcomes of offspring.
We know that when someone vaporizes, their blood vessels react by temporarily shrinking or getting smaller, which affects children while they are in the womb because their fetal environment is also altered. “
Mark Olfert, associate professor at WVU
Altering the blood supply to the fetal environment can create a hostile environment for the fetus and cause serious problems during childhood and adult life. An important finding from previous work published by Olfert and Chantler in the Journal of Applied Physiology in 2018 showed that vaping produced a similar dysfunctional response in the blood vessels of male and female animals as did cigarettes. Therefore, there is great concern that women who switch to steam during pregnancy because they believe that it is better to smoke are wrong and that smoking will lead to the same problems and complications for offspring as smoking.
Olfert and his team’s current research are building on the previous study to delve into the reasons and causes that underline the harm and, most importantly, what effects it has on long-term vascular health in adolescent and adult life. offspring who experienced fetal exposure to maternal vaping.
The American Heart Association awarded the studio a three-year multi-PI collaborative science scholarship for $ 750,000.
