Why Electronic Cigarette’s Aren’t Going Anywhere

Jane Davies

12 years ago

E-cigarettes are often criticized for containing toxic chemicals including antifreeze ingredient, diethylene glycol, carcinogenic nitrosamines and formaldehyde&period; Some claim that the ingredients used in the vaping liquid and consequently the contents of the vapor are not really known and therefore unsafe&period; These arguments have been harped upon, time and again by anti e-cigarette campaigners&period; And as a result, have become commonplace and rather meaningless&period; These criticisms and arguments have been raised despite the available evidence supporting a contrary view&period;&NewLine;<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-7263" alt="shutterstock&lowbar;123769702" src="https&colon;//medusamagazine&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/shutterstock&lowbar;123769702&period;jpg" width="500" height="334" />&NewLine;Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association (CASAA) funded a new study to take another look at the existing findings on the ingredients used in making the e-liquids and the contents of the vapour generated&period; Even though electronic cigarettes were judged against the most stringent yardsticks, the results yielded no conclusive evidence that e-cig users have an increased risk for developing health issues&period;&NewLine;The research conducted by Igor Burstyn, PhD, revisits the information available on the chemical composition of e-cigarettes and its vapors&period; The effects of exposure to these chemicals were compared to similar exposures during the performance of the person’s occupation&period;&NewLine;A significant observation was that there was a wide difference in the acceptable standards when it came to occupational exposures, as compared to those for intentional exposure&period; Exposure to nicotine of the levels contained in e-cigarettes would be considered minor when it happens in an occupational setting, but this same standard is not considered to be appropriate as e-cig users choose to inhale nicotine&period; In conducting the study, standards updated in 2013 were used and the worst-case scenarios were considered to eliminate uncertainties surrounding the evidence&period;&NewLine;Nitrosamines&NewLine;E-cigarettes contained tobacco-specific nitrosamines, but so did nicotine patches, which are approved by the FDA&period; Since no threshold levels are available, a formula was used to calculate the amount of nitrosamines a person would inhale based on the concentration of nitrosamines in a liquid&period; Smokeless tobacco is considered to carry the least risk of cancer and exposure from vaping was found to be around 160 to 320 times less than this type of tobacco&period;&NewLine;Volatile Organic Compounds &NewLine;Just two of the volatile organic compounds that are found in the vapor from e-cigarettes exceed one percent of the threshold limits, which are considered safe&period; These are acrolein and formaldehyde, which were around 2&percnt; and 4&percnt; of the safe threshold limits respectively&period;&NewLine;Diethylene Glycol&NewLine;The FDA, in an early study, found e-cigarettes to contain diethylene glycol&period; Few studies after that suggest the existence of this chemical in the electronic device&period; Even the quantities detected by the FDA are less than 1&percnt; of prescribed safe thresholds&period;&NewLine;Metals&NewLine;E-cigarette vapor is often criticized about potentially containing harmful metals&period; Actual research has found that the method used for finding these metals results in the destruction of the unaltered original structure and hence, the assessment of the risk becomes difficult&period; Sodium, for example, being highly reactive, would never be detected alone and would normally be found in the form of common table salt&period; Moreover only trace amounts were ever found accounting for less than 1&percnt; of safe thresholds&period;&NewLine;Conclusion &NewLine;The results of this study clearly demonstrate that the so-called toxic elements in e-cigarette vapor are well within safe limits and pose very little risk to the user of the product&period; The risk to people in close proximity of e-cig vapor is significantly lower because exhaled vapors are diluted air in the room&period; The most concerning element in e-cigarettes is propylene glycol with the level found in e-cigarette vapor more than 8 times lower than the occupational exposure limit to be considered safe&period; This means that e-cig users are most at risk from the same ingredient used to generate theatrical smoke&period; With such findings, it is expected that the future for e-cigarettes can only get better&period;&NewLine;