E-Cigarettes

On my post "Ex-Smoker," I wrote that I quit cold turkey, even though I support any approved method to assist smoking cessation.

Although it is being constantly marketed as an aid to quit smoking, one that has not been approved as such is the electronic cigarette, also known as e-cigarette.

This device is a battery-powered vaporizer that simulates the feeling of smoking. Some e-cigarettes look like traditional cigarettes, but others do not. All of them have a heating element that atomizes a liquid solution named e-liquid. This solution usually contains varying amounts of nicotine (some allegedly do not) and a syrupy synthetic liquid called propylene glycol, a chemical that has been shown to be generally safe to consumers except at very high levels. The user inhales an aerosol, commonly called vapor, made by heating the e-liquid, which can be flavored in thousands of ways.

Hence, there is the term "vaping," which is the action of inhaling that vapor; it is correlated with smoking as the action of inhaling tobacco smoke.

The benefits and health risks of e-cigarettes are still uncertain, especially regarding the long-term and second-hand exposure. Though they come without the carcinogenic tar and combusting products of traditional cigarettes, we know well that those e-cigarettes containing nicotine are including a highly addictive substance, which constricts blood vessels, increases blood pressure, and restricts blood flow to the heart. In addition, nicotine may cause airway problems and has been linked to disturbed sleep rhythms, depression, diabetes, and even some cancers. It can also provoke dizziness and irritability.

Furthermore, the FDA regularly receives reports of adverse events involving e-cigarettes from consumers and health professionals. These events include hospitalization for illnesses such as pneumonia, congestive heart failure, disorientation, seizure, hypotension, and other health problems.

Avrum Spira, a pulmonologist at Boston Medical Center, has been researching the health effects of e-cigarettes. He is concerned about the chemicals that are formed when you heat the e-liquid, because this action changes the chemical composition of the product that is going to be inhaled by the user. Since there are currently thousands of possible combinations to produce the vapor, it is a challenge for researchers looking to identify the agents that are harmful, as each e-cigarette product is potentially different than the next.

According to his research, these devices generate toxic chemicals similar to those found in tobacco that may harm the lungs. Indeed, e-cigarette vapor contains free radical toxins similar to those found in cigarette smoke and air pollution. Free radicals are highly reactive molecules that can damage DNA and cell membranes.

Therefore, e-cigarettes may seem a safer product, as they do not have a lot of the components found in tobacco. But this does not mean they are a safe product at all. In fact, Spira's preliminary research, using genomics to test the effects of the vapor on human bronchial cells, suggests that e-cigarettes may not be benign. He found that the e-cigarette was able to cause cells to become more cancer-like. These cells' genome showed that many of the same genes turned off and on by tobacco cigarette smoke are being turned on and off by e-cigarettes.

After all, our lungs are meant to take in only oxygen, right?

In conclusion, there is still a lot of uncharted territory. Moreover, the industry's duplicity is clear: e-cigarettes are marketed to smokers as a means to wean them off of tobacco, although studies show they do not help much; yet the same devices are marketed to young people who do not smoke, which could get them hooked and eventually end up smoking tobacco.

And there is also the issue of quality control: many devices are manufactured in China under no control conditions. Indeed, the FDA has found that electronic cigarette cartridges labeled as containing no nicotine contained nicotine, and that three different cartridges with the same label emitted a markedly different amount of nicotine with each puff.

In my opinion, the fact that the tobacco industry has entered the electronic cigarettes market is not a good sign. These industries are still trying to persuade people to keep smoking, since they still dare to claim that it has not been proven that tobacco is bad for health. They are still marketing a product that does not list all its ingredients. Cigarette packs only list nicotine and tar as ingredients, but they also include: acetone, acetic acid, ammonia, arsenic, benzene, butane, cadmium, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, hexamine, lead, naphthalene, methanol, toluene and up to 600, which can create more than 7,000 chemicals when burned.

E-cigarettes seem to be a safer alternative to tobacco, but we still do not know what compounds are in the vapor. Although they might have been helpful for some people to quit smoking, the truth is that they seem to be just another tactic designed by the tobacco industry to not lose its clientele.

This article is based on this source.