Electronic Cigarette Research - Harmless or Harmful ?

Some electronic cigarette users who use e-cigs heavily, especially the 'chain vapers', have been complaining about 'vaping' giving them a sore throat - especially that first e-cig of the day.

Some research has been carried out about e-cigarettes and the industry.
 
The situation appears to be that large powerful businesses are heavily promoting their products by marketing them as being safer and healthier than tobacco cigarettes when clearly no long term clinical tests of 20-30 years or so can have been made.

In the past non-smokers (who avoided smoking tobacco out of health concerns), were marketed to using the idea of snuff and chew tobacco as being safe because, as they said at the time, ‘the danger was in the tar, not the nicotine'.

However, try repeating that to Sean Marsee who was targetted by the Nicotine Industry at age 12 and died at age 19 from oral cancer from his addiction to chewing (not smoking), snuff tobacco (along with many other consumers of smokeless chewing tobacco).¹
 
As another example, for four years the Lorillard Company promoted the "health benefits" of its 'Micronite' asbestos filters (!) that were supposed to reduce the effects of the tobacco smoke in the 1950's !!! - Unsurprisingly, many of those who smoked these cigarettes were stricken with mesothelioma, the hallmark cancer resulting from asbestos exposure; simultaneous exposure to asbestos and tobacco smoke have a synergistic effect that increases the health dangers of exposure to these substances (but it is known now that nicotine promotes tumour growth so that shouldn't be too much of a surprise).²
 
Smoking (or 'vaping') electronic cigarettes in public will encourage others to smoke – which is one reason why the smoking epidemic started in the 50's-70's, and also one reason why the industry has produced them to look like tobacco cigarettes.

Many vapers say that e-cigs give them a sore throat. This is not unexpected.
 
If you do you some research you will find that nicotine is a poison more toxic than arsenic or strychnine. The myth about nicotine being safe and all of the danger being in the smoke has been overturned by recent research in the last 10-15 years or so.

Nicotine is a dangerous addictive psychoactive drug – it is known to encourage tumour growth by (at least) inhibiting programmed cell death, affecting signalling pathways to spread cancer (metastasis), and actively promoting the development of new blood vessels, to feed developing tumours and abnormal development growth – for example, nicotine has been proven to cause birth defects in pregnant women using nicotine replacement therapy (such as NRT patches).^3,4

Propylene glycol is the other major chemical present in electronic cigarettes - it's the chemical that is responsible for the visible fumes/vapour arising from e-cigarette usage.
 
The manufacturer of propylene glycol states that, due to it being a known irritant, it "does not support or recommend its use in applications where inhalation exposure or human eye contact with mists of propylene glycol is likely, such as fogs for theatrical productions...".⁵

With this being the view of the manufacturer of the propylene glycol chemical it doesn't take much to realise that the manufacturer of the chemical itself doesn't really want to get involved in promoting the use of propylene glycol in electronic cigarettes

And those claims made for the safety of propylene glycol by the Nicotine Industry refer to it having been cleared by health authorities for ingestion. i.e. inclusion in foodstuffs.

We not aware of propylene glycol having been cleared for inhalation. The major difference here is that ingestion brings the chemical into contact with the relatively robust digestive system whereas inhalation brings the chemical into contact with the delicate and sensitive cells and membranes of the lungs.
 
No one knows what the long term effect of inhaling nicotine and propylene glycol, combined together, will be. They may well both interact together, as did the Lorillard company's asbestos filters and nicotine.
  
No one knows what the untested, long-term consequences of addicted e-cig users chain vaping all day long, believing them to be safe and harmless - but it's easy to predict that it won't be good.

It really is no wonder that so many countries have already banned electronic cigarettes.
 
Why gamble with your life just to keep big business in business ?
 
If you have a sore throat when using e-cigs (and, especially, even if you don't), just listen to what your body (and the bodys of other users) are telling you - and quit smoking and vaping nicotine altogether.

Note. Following initial publication of this article the World Health Organisation released a statement, on 9th July 2013, regarding e-cigarettes⁶ - which noted that "delivery to the lung might be dangerous" (see full text of WHO statement on e-cigarettes here).

Support the Smokeless Society

Currently there is no regulation of electronic cigarettes in the UK. There are no age restrictions on who can buy and use electronic cigarettes. Electronic cigarettes can be freely advertised, displayed and promoted. Electronic cigarettes can be used, legally, indoors and in public places.

Electronic cigarettes have been either banned or controlled in many countries - but there is no such control in the UK !

The Smokeless Society believes that electronic cigarettes should be subject to the same legislation and controls as tobacco cigarettes - in order to avoid introducing children to a lifetime as an addicted smoker; to keep families together; and to reduce the drain on national healthcare budgets.

So, please, support our campaign against the public use of electronic cigarettes.

If you are concerned about this latest development by the Nicotine Industry, just register on this website as a supporter of the Smokeless Society, sign the government e-Petition, and ask your friends to do the same.

Thank you.

First published - 1st June 2013

Last updated - 10th July 2013

Sources

1. http://www.ok.gov/okswat/documents/Sean%20Marsee%20Story.pdf

2. http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/You_can_see_the_proof_of_Kent%27s_Health_Protection

3. http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0007524

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine

5. http://www.dow.com/productsafety/finder/prog.htm#HealthInfo

6. http://www.who.int/tobacco/communications/statements/eletronic_cigarettes/en/index.html