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E-cigarettes 'Potentially As Harmful As Tobacco Cigarettes' (uconn.edu)
An anonymous reader shares a report: A study by chemists at the University of Connecticut offers new evidence that electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, are potentially as harmful as tobacco cigarettes. Using a new low-cost, 3-D printed testing device, UConn researchers found that e-cigarettes loaded with a nicotine-based liquid are potentially as harmful as unfiltered cigarettes when it comes to causing DNA damage. The researchers also found that vapor from non-nicotine e-cigarettes caused as much DNA damage as filtered cigarettes, possibly due to the many chemical additives present in e-cigarette vapors. Cellular mutations caused by DNA damage can lead to cancer.
While nicotine is a dangerous chemical poison (and useful insecticide) I was always under the impression it was other chemicals in cigarettes that were even more harmful.
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which is a byproduct of combustion. They produce a vapor fog that LOOKS like smoke, but isn't.
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Nicotine is the most dangerous part of a traditional cigarette, per mg. However, much like with coffee and caffeine, nicotine is a very small portion of the traditional delivery method. At the volumes in a normal cigarette, the burnt paper smoke is enough of a lung cancer risk even if it was completely emptied of tobacco products and additives.
At different times, cigarettes have had different additives with different levels of inhaled toxicity, but the smoke always consists primarily of burnt plant materials, filling the smokers' lungs with carcinogenic ash and some small amount of very addictive, fairly toxic nicotine.
The headline says e-cigarettes are harmful; the actual article says they tested a new device by putting chemicals and DNA in, generating metabolites, and reacting them to the DNA to see if the metabolites damage DNA.
So they did a little chemical mixing without testing things like dilution in blood, protective environments of the cell, transport across cell membranes, and so forth.
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E-cigarettes may be as unhealthy as tobacco, in this one legitimate but quite specific dimension, unlike regular cigarettes, which are definitely as unhealthy as tobacco in every respect.
Vaper here. For about 3 months now.
I make my own vaping fluid. It's composed of "pure" VG (VEGETABLE GLYCERIN) and "PG" (PROPYLENE GLYCOL), with added Nicotine and some flavours. PG, VG and nicotine come from reliable, trusted sources, and have no additives whatsoever. Aroma is more complex, but you can live without it if you do not trust its components, although most are at least accepted as food addictives, so should be safe.
To be honest, the way they put it really looks like they are funded by the Big Guys.
All I can say is for the last two months or so I feel much more healthy, no more morning coughs, I already reduced my nicotine intake for more than 50%. I tend to vape a lot, though, but as long as my sources do not lie about the base components (VG and PG) I should be way safer.
There are no such things as "addictives", unless they mean aroma. And again, those, if coming from a reliable, trusted source, should be safe.
Alvie
Nicotine itself is not a useful insecticide, primarily because it's so poisonous to non-target species: Avians & Mammals.
As Nicotine is absorbed through the skin easily, it's also quite easy for somebody using nicotine as an insecticide to poison themselves, as well as anybody else in the area. 30-60 mg can kill a human adult, though the LD50 is generally 500-1000 mg.
The neonicotinoids (similar to Nicotine) are extremely useful insecticides - as deadly to insects, but relatively nontoxic to birds & mammals.
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Author Contributions
The manuscript was written through contributions of all authors. All authors have given approval to the final version of the manuscript.
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
Acknowledgment
The authors thank the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), NIH, Grant No. ES03154 for financial support. We thank Islam M. Mosa for SEM images.
https://www.gov.uk/government/...