VAPING THE SHOCKING TRUTH

E-cigs are as bad for you as real ones | They damage the arteries like smokes

- MATT ROPER

VAPING can cause just as much damage to the body as cigarettes, says a bombshell study.

Inhaling nicotine vapour from e-cigarettes has been described by the NHS as "substantially less harmful than smoking".

But the leader of the world's first controlled study into vaping's longterm effects disagrees.

Dr Maxime Boidin says: "I found that smokers and vapers suffer the same degree of damage to arteries.

"Smokers tend to go outside and smoke, and once a cigarette is finished they have to light up another to keep going.

"But with vapes, you just keep going. It's much easier to vape continuously because you can do it in places where smoking might be less acceptable."

His team at Manchester Metropolitan University is carrying out an 18-month study which concludes next month.

Sixty volunteers aged 18 to 45 were split into three groups - vapers, smokers and abstainers.

Tests showed that vapers and smokers had equally damaged artery walls and impaired blood putting them at risk of heart disease and dementia.