Myth: E-cigarettes contain “only harmless water vapor”
Fact: Studies are finding that unregulated electronic cigarettes, or e-cigs, may not be as harmless for you after all and they may even cause lung cancer like normal cigarettes.
E-cigs use a battery-powered device to heat a solution, that often contains nicotine, along with many other ingredients or “flavorings” known as e-liquid. This produces an aerosol that can be inhaled (vaping). Research by Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY, suggests the way particles are broken down in e-cigs may irritate lung tissue and cause disease.
Potentially harmful substances such as formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acrolein have been found in various levels, likely created by heating of propylene glycol and/or glycerol. The safety of these ingredients is unknown when they are heated and inhaled.
“Just because something is ok to eat – – it may not be ok to inhale.”
Particles in tobacco-based cigarettes have a median size of 0.3 to 0.5 microns, but in e-cigs they are a lot smaller at 0.18 to 0.27 microns. This means particles can travel deep within the lungs and embed themselves in the alveoli, the tiny air sacs in the lungs where the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide takes place, causing damage.
Additionally, e-cigs contain a metal filament used to heat the liquid and create vapor. Over 25 different kinds of metals have been detected in e‐cig vapor some particles small enough to enter the blood and go to other organs.
We know that there are some short term effects, but since E-cigs have only been around in the last decade, the long term effects still remain unclear. Cigarettes were introduced in the 1880’s, but it was not until the Surgeon General’s report in 1964 that the link to lung cancer was clearly established.