Bad news if you thought you could be "healthier" by smoking e-cigarettes instead. Add this to the list of worries that the machine might just blow up in your face. A new cancer study is saying that e-cig vapor alters cells, and in a way not dissimilar to tobacco.

But science isn't a one study subject. It takes lots of testing, and time, before we know what e-cig vapor will do to you. Of course, by then it might just be too late.

The cells exposed to e-cig vapor "showed a similar pattern of gene expression" to those exposed to tobacco smoke. It is unclear if the alterations mean that it causes cancer, but the prognosis doesn't look good either.

"[E-cigarettes] may be safer [than tobacco]," says lung cancer researcher Avrum Spira who led the study, "but our preliminary studies suggest that they may not be benign."

Just quit altogether.

[Nature via Motherboard]