Smoking Marijuana May Be More Harmful To Lungs Than Smoking Cigarettes, Study Finds

By Abdul Rafay in Health and Fitness On 17th November 2022
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According to a recent study, weed smokers are more likely to develop lung disease than cigarette smokers.

Nowadays, smoking's harmful effects are pretty well documented, but the distinction between weed and tobacco is still a subject of intense discussion.

While some weed smokers contend that using weed is healthier than smoking tobacco, numerous studies have revealed evidence to the contrary.

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A recent study from the University of Ottawa in Canada found that people who smoke marijuana are at a higher risk of getting lung disease than people who use tobacco cigarettes. In some cases, it may even be more dangerous.

Researchers compared the results of chest CT scans performed on 56 marijuana smokers, 57 non-smoking controls, and 33 tobacco-only smokers in the study, which was just published in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

In contrast to 67 percent of tobacco-only smokers, they discovered that 75% of marijuana smokers had emphysema, a lung disease that affects breathing and can cause shortness of breath.

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Paraseptal emphysema, which over time destroys the tiny ducts that connect to the air sacs in the lungs (alveoli), was the most common subtype of the disease in marijuana smokers compared to the tobacco-only group.

However, just 5% of non-smokers were found to have the disease.

Cardiothoracic radiologist and assistant professor Giselle Revah, who is the study's author, said: "We know what cigarettes do to the lungs.

Credit: University of Ottawa
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"There are well-researched and established findings of cigarette smoking on the lungs. Marijuana we know very little about."

The team also discovered that marijuana smokers were more likely to experience airway inflammation than tobacco smokers or non-smokers and that marijuana users were also more likely to experience gynecomastia, or enlarged male breast tissue brought on by hormonal imbalance, at a rate of 38 percent versus 11 percent.

Revah said: "The fact that our marijuana smokers - some of whom also smoked tobacco - had additional findings of airway inflammation/chronic bronchitis suggests that marijuana has additional synergistic effects on the lungs above tobacco.

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"In addition, our results were still significant when we compared the non-age-matched groups, including younger patients who smoked marijuana and who presumably had less lifetime exposure to cigarette smoke."

She added: "It has been suggested that smoking a marijuana joint deposits four times more particulates in the lung than an average tobacco cigarette.

"These particulates are likely airway irritants."

In their conclusion, the authors noted that marijuana smokers were "more likely than nonsmokers and tobacco-only smokers to develop airway inflammation and emphysema," but they also noted that "variable interobserver agreement and simultaneous cigarette smoking among the marijuana-smoking cohort" limited their ability to draw any firm conclusions.

Indeed, Revah stated that additional research is required, with larger populations able to provide more information on how much and how frequently people smoke.

Additionally, research might look into the effects of using different inhaling devices, such as a bong, pipe, or joint.

Revah added: "It would be interesting to see if the inhalation method makes a difference.”