Exposure to vaping while pregnant can change your baby’s face and skull shape — even without nicotine

Talk about mist-ifying news.

In addition to shortening life spans, decimating taste buds and filling lungs with black goo, vaping may also affect fetal skull development.

Startling new research indicates that even without nicotine, in utero exposure to two primary ingredients in e-cigarettes can alter fetal development, specifically skull shape.

Researchers exposed pregnant mice to a combination of two liquids used to create the throat hit and smoke plume associated with vaping. Their progeny exhibited lower birth weights, shortened skulls and narrower facial features.

“[Vaping has] no nicotine, and it’s still having effects on the development of the skull in our model, which was not anything we expected,” said lead study author James Cray, professor of anatomy in The Ohio State University College of Medicine.

Researchers were shocked by these results, particularly because e-cigarettes have long been touted as a safer alternative to traditional cigarettes and other tobacco products.

E-cigarettes typically contain fewer chemicals and toxins than cigarettes. As a result, many people mistakenly believe they are less harmful than cigarette smoking.

Cray and his team have been studying the relationship between in utero exposure to nicotine and head and facial development for years. In 2020, they found that nicotine exposure through breast milk resulted in skull defects in mice.

According to the Mayo Clinic, nicotine can cause permanent damage to the developing fetus’s brain and other organs. There may also be a link between smoking cigarettes and miscarriages, pre-term births, low birth weight, weaker lungs and a higher risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

In this latest study, pregnant mice were exposed to either filtered air or two humectants, propylene glycol and glycerol, substances that attract and retain moisture and serve as carriers for other e-cigarette ingredients.

Researchers used a 50/50 ratio and a combination of 30% propylene glycol and 70% glycerol.

Cray noted that because propylene glycol can amplify nicotine intake, many vape companies have transitioned away from a high percentage of propylene glycol toward more glycerol in an attempt to position their products as a safer alternative.

During the roughly three-week gestation period, female mice were exposed to the three conditions at a rate of one puff per minute, four hours per day, five days a week.

Compared to mice exposed to free air and those exposed to the 50/50 formula, the offspring of mice exposed to the 30/70 mixture showed a statistically significant reduction in cranial width and height.

“What we see is a consistent narrowing of all of the facial features, and the same thing as we move back into the cranium as well. So globally they’re narrower and a little bit shorter-headed, which does mimic some observable changes that we see in children,” Cray said.

“We also saw a bit of a reduction in weight. These animals were within the normal range for animals of that age, but they still weighed less.”

These findings, published in the journal PLOS One, were consistent across both sexes and were observed in several litters of mice.

“The 50/50 mixture had no dramatic statistical changes — and that’s where we were looking for the difference. We thought heavier propylene glycol should be causing more effects, and it was the exact opposite,” Cray said.

Meanwhile, vaping is increasingly and concerningly popular among young people.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that people aged 18 to 24 are most likely to use e-cigarettes among all adults, and adults 18 to 44 — Gen Zers and millennials — are more likely to be dual users of e-cigarettes and cigarettes compared to adults 45 and over.

“The majority of users are young adults and teenagers, so we are talking about people who are in peak reproductive years. And with development of the head happening very early in fetal development, people could be using these products and not even realize that they are pregnant, which is of great concern,” Cray said.

“This is a small study that speaks to the possibility that nicotine-free vaping is not safe,” he added. “And it’s a sign that we probably should study the nicotine-free products as much as we study the nicotine-laden products.”

The American Heart Association has called the rise in young people using vapes a “serious public health threat,” noting that most still have “highly addictive” nicotine, which can be especially harmful for developing brains.

The vapor may also contain the chemical diacetyl, which has been linked to lung disease, as well as nickel, tin and lead.

Recent research has linked vaping to the possibility of organ failure, heart disease and brain issues like dementia as well.