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The Conversation, a nonprofit international news organization featuring academics who want to write for a general audience, posted an article written by Ilona Jaspers, PhD, toxicologist and professor of pediatrics and microbiology & immunology.


With vaping-related deaths and hospitalizations in the news and with states such as North Carolina suing e-cigarette companies, the nonprofit international news outlet called The Conversation requested that Ilona Jaspers, PhD, write an expert article on the subject. She’s the director of the toxicology curriculum at UNC-Chapel Hill, deputy director of the UNC Center for Environmental Medicine, Asthma, and Lung Biology, and professor of pediatrics and microbiology & immunology at the UNC School of Medicine, with a joint appointment in the department of environmental sciences and engineering at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.

Here’s an excerpt from her article:

“As an inhalation toxicologist, I study how inhaled chemicals, particles and other agents affect human health. Since e-cigarettes were introduced, I have been concerned about how the scientific community could possibly know the full spectrum of their dangers. After all, it took decades for epidemiologists to discover that regularly inhaling the smoke from burning plant material, tobacco, caused lung cancer. Why would the scientific community be so quick to assume e-cigarettes would not have hidden dangers that might take years to manifest too?”

If you are a faculty member or researcher considering writing for The Conversation, which features articles often picked up by other news organizations such as the Associated Press, The Washington Post, Scientific American, and many others, please contact , communications manager for UNC Health Care and the UNC School of Medicine.