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The Making of Medicine

Dr. Chris Holstege Has Great Concerns About Vaping

You’ve probably seen some of the news stories about the health concerns about vaping. I sat down recently with Dr. Chris Holstege, the chief of UVA’s Division of Medical Toxicology and the director of our Blue Ridge Poison Center, to get his opinions on vaping.

One interesting stat he gave me:  More than 20 percent of University of Virginia students reported vaping in the previous month. Dr. Holstege would like them — and everyone else who vapes — to stop. He is very concerned that we know so little about the long-term health effects of vaping, and he’s also uncomfortable that there are not stronger regulations on the ingredients in vaping liquids.

“Don’t begin to think that these are safe,” he cautioned. “We don’t know that, that they’re safe [and are] not going to cause long-term health effects. We’ve seen this throughout society before with different things that people stated were benign, and science said, ‘Hey, be careful with these.’ And then we found out they actually did have some pretty significant health effects.”

He has even stronger words than that on the subject of vaping. You can read the full interview over at UVA Today.

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