How safe is vaping as an alternative to smoking? The bioengineer Dr Kelly Burrowes talks about what current research shows in this highlight from the Auckland University's Raising the Bar 2021.

How safe is vaping as an alternative to smoking?

Bioengineer Dr Kelly Burrowes talks about what scientists know so far.

Listen to Dr Kelly Burrowes on vaping

Smoking is still responsible for one in ten deaths worldwide. In the wake of this statistic, electronic cigarettes or vapes have become popular as a tool to help people stop smoking. If the trends continue, vapes will exceed cigarette sales by about 2023.

But is vaping safe? Using computational modelling, medical imaging and experimental measurements, researchers at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute (ABI) are developing new methods to measure and understand lung function.

This informative talk at the 2021 Raising the Bar night was by Auckland University's Dr Kelly Burrowes. She explores research on of the long-term impacts of vaping on our lungs and our bodies as a whole.

About the speaker

Dr Kelly Burrowes is a Senior Researcher in Bioengineering at the University of Auckland.

Her work focuses on developing new methods for measuring, predicting and understanding lung function, including computational modelling and the use of various imaging tools. She then brings these measurements together to understand the lungs and changes that occur due to disease, treatments, and exposure to e-cigarettes.

After completing her PhD, Kelly spent ten years at the University of Oxford with the Computational Biology Group before returning to Auckland.

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Raising the Bar was recorded in association with the University of Auckland

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details