AN East Lancashire vaping business has rejected a study which concludes that electronic cigarettes could be as bad for the heart as smoking the real thing.

Researchers said vaping could damage the aorta in a similar way to smoking and they would not encourage using such devices.

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A study, presented to the European Society for Cardiology, found that a typical vaping session caused similar damage to the main artery in the heart as that suffered by those who smoked cigarettes.

A spokesman from Blackburn’s Totally Wicked group said: “Vaping is not as dangerous as smoking.

“We know from independent studies undertaken by Public Health England and the Royal College of Physicians that vaping is at least 95 per cent less harmful than smoking.

“Most of the reported changes in this study were induced by asking participants to puff continuously for 30 minutes and obviously this is not what happens when vapers use their devices in real life.”

The findings appear to contradict advice from Public Health England, which said last year vaping is ‘95 per cent less harmful than smoking’.

It found that the effects from a 30 minute session of vaping were similar to those from smoking a cigarette for five minutes.

Sir Bill Taylor, chairman of Healthwatch Blackburn with Darwen, said: “We welcome this report and we will be looking into it and its findings.”