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 Almost half of the group of 316 pregnant women also believed
e-cigarettes were less harmful to their fetuses than traditional
cigarettes, when in fact the safety of using e-cigarettes while
pregnant has not been determined, researchers say.
Victoria Coleman-Cowger, one of the study’s authors, said in an
email that while e-cigarette use has increased considerably over the
past few years, many people, including pregnant women, are not well
informed about them.
“Our hope . . . was to gain a better understanding of how and how
much e-cigarettes are being used by pregnant women, perceptions
surrounding their use (including perceived risks of use), and
motivations for use,” said Coleman-Cowger, the principal research
scientist at Battelle Public Health Center for Tobacco Research in
Baltimore, Maryland.
The study team recruited pregnant women being treated at a
University of Maryland outpatient clinic for an anonymous survey.
Participants answered questions about their smoking history,
knowledge about the harms of cigarettes and e-cigarettes and their
attitudes toward e-cigarettes.
The researchers found that 42 women, or 13 percent of participants,
said they had ever used e-cigarettes, while only 2 women reported
currently using e-cigarettes daily.
Among those who had ever used e-cigarettes, three out of four women
said they did so because the devices were less harmful than
traditional cigarettes and about the same number said they used the
devices to help them quit smoking.
Of all the survey participants, 57 percent believed that
e-cigarettes contain nicotine, 61 percent thought that e-cigarettes
can be addictive and 43 percent believed that e-cigarettes are less
harmful to a fetus than traditional cigarettes.
Pregnant women who had ever used e-cigarettes were more likely than
non-users to believe they are less harmful than traditional
cigarettes to both themselves and their baby, the study team reports
in the Journal of Addiction Medicine.
Although much of the harm from smoking comes from the burning of
tobacco, the nicotine in e-cigarettes is a health hazard in its own
right, and may also have a negative effect on pregnancy outcomes,
the study team points out.
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In previous research on smokeless tobacco, pregnant women who used
it were more likely to experience preterm birth, low-birthweight
babies and stillbirth than non-users, the authors note.
Dr. Michael Weaver, medical director at the Center for
Neurobehavioral Research on Addiction at the University of Texas in
Houston, said that nicotine use can lead to heart disease and other
heart problems.
Weaver, who was not involved in the new study, added in an email
that the electronic cigarette “is not regulated in the U.S. and has
not undergone much research and testing like other consumer
products.”
Weaver also warned that there are no long-term studies on the health
effects of e-cigarette vapor.
Pregnant women may also be misguided about how useful electronic
cigarettes are in helping to quit smoking, Coleman-Cowger said.
“We do not know conclusively the impact of e-cigarette use, and
using e-cigarettes during pregnancy may not reduce risks as commonly
perceived,” she said.
“Abstinence from all tobacco and nicotine products is still the best
recommendation for pregnant women,” Weaver said.
SOURCE: bit.ly/1G6TD3Q Journal of Addiction Medicine, online May 13,
2015.
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