How valid are vaping health claims?

[Kate]

There seem to be a lot of people who claim vaping is safer or healthier in relation to smoking and even safe or healthy in absolute terms.

I am concerned that smokers are being encouraged to vape without being given full details of actual scientific, provable data about safety.

Can we justify saying this is healthy or healthier? What if we all develop lung disease in a few years ... will the healthy claims made by vested interests stand up in court?

These are some of the concerns I've heard about, some seem more risky than others. Does anyone have reliable evidence that these shouldn't be taken into account by anti-vapers looking to bust a health claim myth?


We can take in large doses of nicotine which is a toxin.
We don't know what prolonged inhaling of glycerine or PEG400 does to our bodies.
Ditto all the other additives and flavourings in eliquid.
GRAS (generally regarded as safe) chemicals may be safe to ingest but assumptions about safety to inhale are not valid - diacetyl, a food flavouring causes lung disease.
We don't know how the cocktail of chemicals we inhale interacts.
We don't know if there are chemicals given off by the atomiser coil wick as it degrades.
We don't know what type of plastics are used for storage or cartridges and if they leach chemicals.
We don't know what chemicals are given off by cartridge fillers when they are heated or burned.
We don't know about what sort of paint is used on devices, it could contain lead.
We don't know if there is a safety risk with having a battery/power supply so close to our faces.
Faulty switches, chargers or batteries could cause fires.
We don't know if standards of hygiene or purity of product are maintained effectively at manufacturing facilities because there is no regulation of production.

[Catanonia]

And with so much vapor condensing on my wind sheild whilst driving what is the % chance of an increase in a road traffic accident ?

Got me scared now

[Houdini]

That's all true. We don't know. I guess everybody just assumes its safer then regular cigarettes because there are less chemicals in vaping. Bottom line is we are all the test subjects in this e-cig "hobby".

[Kate]

That's what I think too, we don't know but I'm prepared to be a careful tester because the odds look good.

It's not fair for assumptions to be presented as fact though is it?

[Elendil]

While we do not "know" that it is safer, I think most of us are willing to roll the dice that it certainly couldn't be any worse.

Just speaking for myself, after only 10 days of being analog free, I have finally gotten rid of a persistant "cold" (or whatever it was) that I have had for about 8 months. I can feel the positive effects already. WHile 10 years from now I may sprout a 2nd head or something from vaping. I'll take the 10 years of feeling great in exchange.........

[Houdini]

That's what I think too, we don't know but I'm prepared to be a careful tester because the odds look good.

It's not fair for assumptions to be presented as fact though is it?

No that really isn't fair since no testing has been done. But I think it's fair to say as fact that quitting analogs and using e-cigs will make you feel better in most cases.

[Catanonia]

May I add, although my answer was tongue in cheek I understand the concerns posted in the questions.

Nothing in this life is safe, including consuming nico in one form or another.

But I am not going to wrap myself in cotton wool all my life and never get out of bed , just in case, never happens.

One thing i have convinced my self is that this is much safer than the old way, analogs, and the benefits are certainly out weighing the cons at the moment by a large degree.

If they do a study and it says that snorting PG all day makes your sex drive go down, then I may consider it, maybe....

[0ogier]

An interesting and moot point.

Yes I agree there are a lot of un knowns. However just a couple of points.


Lead in paint - RoHS certification. Yes admittedly only for those tested but that is the same as enything.

Charger safety risk / faults - CE certification.

Battery / power supply close to head - I suppose you can look at mobile phones and hearing aids.

Hygene standards . Again by certification. ( in the case of my supplierSGS GMP Codex ,food hygene) .

As to additives etc in the vapour. I suppose one could look at what we do know, of what is in a cigarette. eg Formaldehyde,hydrogen cyaninde,Carbon monoxide etc etc.)

As to the plastic leaching, Most plastics do have to pass conformity tests.

The heating of the wick - I honestly have no idea.

Forgive the truncating of your points but my typing is carp. and Im wearing out my backspace and delete keys.

But some the concerns you raise are valid.

Kindest Regards

0ogier

[Skad]

I only know two things for sure about vaping.

1. I feel much better now then I did when I was smoking analogs.

2. I'm sure that I've done far worse things to my body then puff on an e-cig.

[Doostin]

We won't know until there is some product testing. Although there are a lot of competing brands and manufaturers, there needs to be some sort of a a collaborative effort to have proper testing done in regards to all the points (if not, more) that Kate has presented.

It is expensive, and it doesn't seem that anyone is going to do it on their own, yet. Good luck getting some venture capital money to do so, the risk is too high for failure in this controversial market, as is the risk of complete loss of investment.

One market where these devices could potentially have success in is the military market. Militaries have been well known to use chemicals, agents, and medicines on their soldiers that haven't been approved. It may seem a little far fetched, but here's a product that soldiers may actually embrace in a field setting, where smoking a cigarette at night can give your location away to an enemy. Instead, they can puff on a non-LED version of an electronic nicotine inhaler.