As far back as 1976, pioneering tobacco researcher Michael Russell said, “People smoke for the nicotine, but they die from the tar.”
Today’s e-cigarettes could help by allowing smokers to get their hit of nicotine without the harm of tobacco and tar. But more research is needed, particularly now as our federal government considers legislation regulating vaping devices.
Public Health and Health Systems PhD candidate Christine Czoli is producing some of this needed research. Her thesis looks at a population of people who both smoke and vape regularly, to find out more about their behaviours and their perceptions of both products.
She’s also measuring biomarkers in the urine of people using different combinations of cigarettes and e-cigarettes to see whether risk profiles differ between exclusive smokers, exclusive vapers and dual users.
Christine chose the study because she knows how deadly and addictive tobacco is. “We know that half of all smokers will die from tobacco-related disease. It’s a serious public-health issue and an area where good research will always have a lot of impact.”
Christine is the recipient of a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship and was the Applied Health Sciences winner of the 2017 Three Minute Thesis (3MT) challenge.
