Battery-powered e-cigarettes have become wildly popular
over the last decade, especially among teenagers and young adults. At least
some of this popularity stems from their marketing as safe alternatives to
conventional, combustible cigarettes, as well as their many, often fruity
flavors.
But how much do
we understand about the safety of e-cigarettes, or the more than 7,000
e-liquids on the market?
Based on an
interview that aired on PRI’s Science Friday, “The picture is still unclear,”
says Aruni Bhatnagar, a professor of medicine at the University of Louisville.
“We do not know to what level or to what extent these devices are safe.”
In conventional
tobacco cigarettes, the tobacco is burned and nicotine is transferred into the
aerosol. In e-cigarettes there is no burning, but there is a solution of a
carrier — usually propylene glycol or glycerol which is heated to allow
for nicotine to be inhaled.
“There has been
this belief that nicotine by itself is not as particularly harmful and that if
you deliver it in a certain way which gets rid of the combustion products, then
it might not do as much harm as nicotine,” Bhatnagar says. “But there’s the presence
of all the other 7,000 chemicals that are present in regular cigarettes. But
since we do not know much even about cigarettes and which particular
constituents or chemicals in that cause harm, we can't be sure whether most of
them are gone or some of the remaining ones are still associated with residual
toxicity.”
Even if e-cigarettes are chemically
safer than regular cigarettes, Bhatnagar warns the public health dangers
associated with e-cigarettes make them more dangerous than e-cigarette
companies claim they are.
“The e-cigarette companies have been
claiming that they want to wean people off combustible products and put them
onto safer e-cigarette products and that they are doing it to decrease disease
and morbidity and mortality in the world,” Bhatnagar says.
“But the problem is that they are at the
same time making these e-cigarettes and flavors that would be quite at home at
a birthday party of a third grader. So what are they trying to do, we think, is
to recruit a new generation of nicotine addicts by enticing them with this
variety of different flavors ... Health care activists are particularly
concerned that this might be [leading] back to the 1960s, where the tobacco
companies are luring new addicts into the fold.”
Recently, however, the FDA declared
that e-cigarettes, like other tobacco products, may no longer be sold to
minors. They’re also requiring manufacturers disclose their ingredients and
practices.
Not only is the safety of e-cigarettes
in question, but it’s not even certain the e-cigarettes actually help people
stop smoking, as e-cigarette makers claim. “There is some anecdotal
evidence and some weak scientific evidence but not rigorous randomized control
trials that have shown that they are indeed effective as cesation devices,”
Bhatnagar says.
In the end, simply too little is known
about e-cigarettes to say whether or not they are safe. “We are trying
vigorously to be able to come out with some useful information about the long
term toxicity but it's going to take time,” Bhatnagar says. “We need to see how
much disease is increased or decreased with the use of e-cigarettes. More
information will be known as more tests and studies are done.
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