Check out E-Cigarettes and Teen Health, a new podcast interview released by NIEHS on September 14, 2018.
While the health effects of e-cigarette use are largely unknown, a variety of chemicals in e-cigarette liquid or produced during use are known carcinogens and toxic chemicals. In this podcast, we’ll learn about why the increased use of e-cigarettes, particularly among teens, has generated concern among health professionals and researchers, and how NIEHS-funded researchers are working to understand and address this growing problem.
Interviewee: Illona Jaspers, PhD
Dr. Jaspers is a professor in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) Department of Pediatrics, the Director of the Curriculum in Toxicology, and the Deputy Director of the UNC Center for Environmental Medicine Asthma and Lung Biology.
Jaspers specializes in the effects of air pollutants on respiratory immune disfunction. She has been studying how chemicals in e-cigarettes alter the immune response in the respiratory system as part of the UNC School of Medicine’s Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science and Lung Health (TCORS) since 2016. In the TCORS, she serves as a project leader and co-leader for the Training Core, helping train students and new researchers to become familiar with regulatory science related to the effects of new and emerging tobacco products on human health.
She has published widely on the influence of tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, on the immune response in the respiratory system.