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Electronic cigarettes are frequently viewed as a safer alternative to conventional cigarettes; however, evidence to support this perspective has not materialized. Indeed, the current literature reports that electronic cigarette use is associated with both acute lung injury and subclinical dysfunction to the lung and vasculature that may result in pathology following chronic use. E-cigarettes can alter vascular dynamics, polarize innate immune populations towards a proinflammatory state, compromise barrier function in the pulmonary endothelium and epithelium, and promote pre-oncogenic phenomena. This review will summarize the variety of e-cigarette products available to users, discuss current challenges in e-cigarette study design, outline the range of pathologies occurring in cases of e-cigarette associated acute lung injury, highlight disease supporting tissue- and cellular-level changes resulting from e-cigarette exposure, and briefly examine how these changes may promote tumorigenesis. Continued research of the mechanisms by which e-cigarettes induce pathology benefit users and clinicians by resulting in increased regulation of vaping devices, informing treatments for emerging diseases e-cigarettes produce, and increasing public awareness to reduce e-cigarette use and the onset of preventable disease.
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A Case Study in Belief Surveillance, Sentiment Analysis, and Identification of Informational Targets for E-Cigarettes Interventions
To illuminate understanding of how social media can be leveraged to glean insights into public health issues such as e-cigarette use, we use a social media analytics and research testbed (SMART) dashboard to observe Twitter messages and follow content about e-cigarettes in different cities across the U.S. Our case studies indicate that the majority of e-cigarette tweets are positive (68%), which represents a potential problem for public health. Stigma plays the most important roles in both confirmed and rejected messages for e-cigarettes. We also noticed that some advocates of ecigarettes might be hybrid human-bot accounts (or multiple users using one account). Our key findings demonstrate the use of the SMART dashboard as a means of public healthrelated belief surveillance, and identification of campaign targets and informational needs of different communities in real-time. Future uses of this tool include monitoring social messages about e-cigarettes for combating the spread of tobacco-related misinformation and disinformation, and detecting and targeting informational needs of communities for intervention.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1634641
- PAR ID:
- 10108844
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Social Media and Society. July 19-21, 2019. Toronto, Canada.
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 15 to 23
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1145/3328529.3328540
