UofL receives $3.6 million to research health effects of vaping flavors

The University of Louisville has received a $3.6 million grant from the Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health to study the potentially harmful chemicals found in e-cigarettes.

Researchers will examine a variety of vaping flavors to determine the possible short and long-term health impacts.

"What we do know is that some flavors are certainly toxic," said Alex Carll, UofL Associate Professor and co-lead on the project.

With so many flavors on the market, researchers aim to find out which chemicals produce adverse effects on the body, specifically the heart.

To identify the risks of each one, researchers will test a variety of flavor combinations on mice and monitor their heart rate, simulating the way people inhale e-cigarette vapor. 

They will then test out individual chemicals on cardiomyocytes, the cells that make up the heart muscle. From there, researchers will review the data to determine the short and long-term health effects of certain chemicals over time.

"It's not necessarily my place as a scientist to say what’s right and what's wrong when it comes to flavors, but I can inform at least on the toxicity of individual flavorant chemicals," Carll said.

The study is funded through 2027, but Carll said researchers are already seeing early results.

Source：WLKY