Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.
We’ve all been exposed to the e-cigarette wave sweeping the
country over the last half decade. E-cigs now have a larger population using
them than smokeless tobacco as of 2015.
Smokeless tobacco has been around for hundreds of years, yet
only about 3.5% of Americans use it.
E-cigs have been around about 10+ years
and already about 10% of US adults and 13% of high school students use it. A
National Institute of Drug Abuse survey found that 9% of 8th
graders, 16% of 10th graders and 17% of seniors had used e-cigs in
the last month.
Use of e-cigs by youth now tops their use of tobacco. Some
may see this as a good trend, but I have a bit more skepticism. There are
health risks in e-cigs and they may serve as a gateway to tobacco use. A recent
study published by JAMA Pediatrics revealed
that young people who use e-cigs are more likely to start using tobacco cigarettes
than their peers who did not.
Unfortunately, e-cigs are widely viewed as a ‘safe’
alternative to smoking tobacco. Research is accumulating to the contrary.
E-cigs contain a different set of dangers than tobacco, but are harmful
nonetheless.
E-cigs are not currently regulated by the FDA, but the feds
are looking into some form of oversight. E-cigs are not required to label or
disclose anything on their products. Right now there are over 450 brands of
e-cigs and over 7700 flavors available in America.
Smoking e-cigs, or vaping, as they say, does expose you to
health risks you just don’t need. Many of the flavorings were never intended to
be inhaled, yet go deep into the lungs with each breath.
One of the artificial flavorings is diacetyl, a butter
flavoring used in microwave popcorn. Diacetyl or a chemically similar
alternative called propionyl, was found in 74% of sweet tasting e-cigs. Of
those that contained it, over half exposed the user to levels that exceed
limits put in place for work environments. Research already shows diacetyl has
properties that can affect brain health and may trigger Alzheimer’s disease. It
has also been linked to lung damage, including permanent scarring and
inflammation in the airways, in workers at a microwave popcorn plant who breathe
it daily.
Other flavors than just the sweet ones have concerning
compounds such as Aldehydes and cinnamaldehydes. These compounds have been shown
to lead to respiratory inflammation, airway constriction and lead to death of
human cells in lab tests.
Separate research has shown e-cigs emitted higher levels of
certain metals including nickel, silver and zinc than tobacco cigarettes. Some
of these metals are toxic even in minute amounts.
Even the FDA has recently detected the deadly antifreeze
chemical diethylene glycol in the e-cig cartridges, along with nitrosamines,
which are linked to cancer.
Second hand vapors from e-cigs contain carcinogens and
reproductive toxins such as acetaldehyde, benzene, cadmium, formaldehyde,
isoprene, lead, nicotine, toluene and others. These are obviously chemicals a
health conscious person wants little part of.
Do your health a favor; don’t add to your already unavoidable
toxic load by taking aerosol poisons into your body voluntarily. These things
should be viewed in the same light as tobacco products, unhealthy.