Seminar - Mechanisms of Environmental Lung Disease: Is Cannabis the New Tobacco?
Do you ever wonder what is in the air you breathe? You should- given that you take around 20,000 breaths per day. Did you also know that cigarette smoke contributes to the toxicity of common air contaminants and remains the largest cause of preventable death worldwide? Despite knowledge about the deleterious effects of tobacco, we are seeing a surge in the use of emerging tobacco-based products such as e-cigarettes. With legalization of cannabis in Canada now a reality, this is even more complex, and we must also consider exposure to cannabis and cannabis-derived products. While most people still use cannabis by inhaling cannabis smoke, vaporized cannabis is becoming increasingly popular. But cannabis is different than other combustion substances because cannabis may offer therapeutic potential to treat a host of acute and chronic diseases- which can be classified as 鈥渄iseases of altered immunity鈥�. While my research group largely focuses on identifying new biological mechanisms to mitigate the damaging effects of cigarette smoke, our new collaborative program aims to decipher the lung and immune impacts of cannabis exposure.
