Study: E-cigarettes may enhance bacteria’s resistance to antibiotics.

TIME (5/21, Park) reports that according to a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, “the vapor from e-cigs prompts bacteria to become more resistant to antibiotics.” While conventional cigarette smoke produces this effect as well, researchers did not expect e-cigarettes to do the same, “given that they were not supposed to contain the health-harming carcinogens that tobacco smoke does.” However, “when stressed by the e-cig vapors to defend themselves, the bacteria produced copious amounts of biofilm, a sticky, slimy polymer that acts as their armor against things like antibiotics.”