A recently available Harvard study reports to have discovered that many electronic cigarette brands expose e-cigarette people to dangerous chemical substances and fails to expose significant facts and this exaggerates the risks of flavoured e-cigarette liquid according to tobacco control specialists.
The study which had been circulated in the “Environmental Health Perspectives” Journal examines numerous E-liquid or E-Juice flavours and discovers levels of possibly dangerous chemicals; diacetyl, acetyl propionyl and acetoin. Researchers discovered one or more of these three chemical substances present in 92% of the 51 distinctive flavours of E-Cigarette fluid. Diacetyl was found in 39 of the 51 flavours which was 75% of the total.
After the study’s publication was revealed, most of the media concentrated on E-Liquid comprising diacetyl, which is a chemical utilized in the flavouring of food and when inhaled in significant levels can contribute to bronchiolitis obliterans, a severe respiratory lung disease.
The disease Bronchiolitis Obliterans is actually frequently referred to as “popcorn lung” due to the fact that employees who worked in production facilities that manufactured artificial butter flavourings for popcorn would often subject themselves to extremely high levels of diacetyl through inhalation. A few cases of “popcorn lung” were found to be so serious that patients were required to undergo a full-blown lung transplant.
Shortly after the Harvard study was revealed to the media, numerous media outlets began pumping out statements such as “Chemicals in Flavoured E-Cigarettes Tied to ‘Popcorn Lung’ Disease.” And “Study links E-Cigarette flavouring to serious lung disease”. But these media statements may be safeguarding the real facts about the risk of popcorn lung from using an electronic cigarette. Dr Konstantinos Farsalinos an expert on electronic cigarette research says “Tobacco cigarette smoke contains high levels of diacetyl and acetyl propionyl, on average of `100 and 10 times greater in comparison to average e-cigarette exposure”.
Dr Michael Siegel who is a professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at Boston University School of Public Health says the study carried out at Harvard has numerous “glaring omissions,” and the actual level of diacetyl exposure from vaping in comparison to tradional tobacco smoking varies by “orders of magnitude”. Professor Siegel who has invested 25 years in the field of tobacco control, points out that the published study “Envrionment Health Perspectives” does not even state that regular tobacco cigarettes consist of diacetyl, and in far greater levels than any E-Liquids or E-Juice. Mr Siegel also discovered “daily exposure to diacetyl from smoking is consequently 750 times higher on average when compared to diacetyl exposure from operating an electronic cigarette. People who use an e-cigarette are on average exposed to a dose of nine micrograms daily of diacetyl compared with 6,718 micrograms for conventional tobacco smokers.
Media headlines declined to dig deep into the study and just posted what the researchers handed them. The worst e-cigarette tested for diacetyl exposure came in at 85 times lower than that of the worst tobacco cigarette tested. The E-Liquid with the highest levels of diacetyl in the Harvard study exposed e-cigarette users to just 239 micrograms versus 20,340 micrograms for heavy smokers. All in all, diacetyl is a very small and rare concern even for tobacco smokers who are subjected to much more exposure of diacetyl compared to e-cigarette users. For e-cigarette users, the risk of getting popcorn lung is virtually impossible at the levels produced by E-Cigarettes on the market.
E-Cigarettes Canada E-Liquid does not contain Diacetyl, Acetyl Propionyl or Acetoin. We do this so that even though there is a very rare chance of problems arising, our customers feel a safe as can be when vaping our E-Liquid.
