E-cigarettes may be worse for your health, new research says
Digital Reporter
Friday, November 11, 2016, 11:47 AM - The true benefits and shortcomings of e-cigarettes have been hotly debated for years, and a new study is adding fuel to the fire.
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A new study published in the American Chemical Society's journal Environmental Science & Technology finds that vapours (aerosols) generated by flavoured e-cigarettes contain dangerous levels of hazardous chemicals that are known to cause cancer in humans.
The team of atmospheric scientists who conducted the research with the Desert Research Institute (DRI) are adding to more than 30 years researching air quality in some of the world's most polluted urban environments.
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Titled "Flavoring compounds dominate toxic aldehyde production during e-cigarette vaping," the study confirmed that toxic aldehydes, like formaldehyde, form not by evaporation but instead during the chemical breakdown of flavoured e-liquid during pyrolysis -- the rapid heating process that happens within an e-cigarette or electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS).
"How these flavoring compounds in e-cigarette liquids affect the chemical composition and toxicity of the vapor that e-cigarettes produce is practically unknown," Andrey Khylstov, associate research professor of atmospheric sciences at DRI, in a statement.
"Our results show that production of toxic aldehydes is exponentially dependent on the concentration of flavoring compounds."
To determine these findings, Khlystov and his team measured concentration levels of 12 aldehydes in vapours produced by three widely used e-cigarettes.
Five flavoured and two unflavoured e-liquids were tested in each of the three devices to discover if flavouring additives impacted aldehyde production during vaping.
DRI scientists used a controlled sampling system to simulate the most common vaping conditions. E-cigarette vapor was produced from each device by a four-second, 40-ml controlled puff, with 30-second resting periods between puffs. Image courtesy of DRI.
The research didn't examine variation in "puff topography," meaning things like the volume and velocity of puffs, and the time in between each puff. Instead, it used a controlled sampling system simulating the most typical vaping conditions -- a four-second, 40 ml, controlled puff, measuring 30 seconds between each puff.
Liquids with a higher flavor concentration produced more aldehydes due to pyrolysis of the flavoring compounds. Every experiment found that the amount of aldehydes that flavoured e-cigarette liquids produced surpassed the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists "threshold limit values" for hazardous chemical exposure.
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"One puff of any of the flavored e-liquids that we tested exposes the smoker to unacceptably dangerous levels of these aldehydes, most of which originates from thermal decomposition of the flavoring compounds," Khlystov noted in his statement.
"These results demonstrate the need for further, thorough investigations of the effects of flavoring additives on the formation of aldehydes and other toxic compounds in e-cigarette vapors."
