THE INDEPENDENT - Researchers have urged that expectant mothers receive warnings regarding a "potential harm" associated with a widespread chemical used to give vapes their taste.
Laboratory tests revealed that vanillin, a widely used flavouring additive in e-cigarettes, has the potential to "compromise core processes of early human development".
According to specialists, women attempting to get pregnant as well as those currently expecting ought to be informed of the outcome, while regulatory bodies should evaluate requiring e-cigarette brands to list all ingredients on their packaging.
During a range of laboratory experiments, the team subjected embryonic stem cells to the compound.
"We focused on vanillin because it is frequently used in e-cigarette fluids, it is often used at high concentrations, and because we knew that embryonic cells had a channel called TRPV4 on their surfaces that would likely bind with vanillin," explained study lead Professor Prue Talbot, from the University of California, Riverside in the US.