Just to play devil's advocate, yes the tar and stuff you see on the paper is a disgusting example of what cigarettes deposit on you. But not everything bad for you is visible.
While that may be true, in the case of e-cigs, all that's in it is nicotine (optional), Propylene Glycol, water, and flavoring. Nicotine is not the cancer causing culprit, Propylene Glycol has been inhaled for decades with no ill effects (in the theater in fog machines, in fire fighting training to simulate smoke filled rooms, and at your neighborhood Halloween party), water vapour comes out of room humidifiers, and the flavorings are your basic food grade flavorings.
Inhaling the flavorings in your typical e-cig
juice cannot be anymore harmful than the thousands of "flavorings and flavor enhancers" that they pump into analogs.
Regarding Proplyne Glycol:
Potential health effects
Eye
Causes mild eye irritation. Contact may cause irritation, tearing, and burning pain.
Skin
Causes moderate skin irritation. Contact with the skin may cause
erythema, dryness, and defatting.
Ingestion
May cause gastrointestinal irritation with nausea, vomiting and ......... Low hazard for usual industrial handling. May cause
hemoglobinuric nephrosis. May cause changes in surface EEG.
Inhalation
Low hazard for usual industrial handling. May cause respiratory tract irritation.
Chronic
May cause reproductive and fetal effects. Laboratory experiments have resulted in
mutagenic effects.
Exposure to large doses may cause central nervous system depression. Chronic ingestion may cause lactic acidosis and possible seizures. The oral toxicity of propylene glycol is very low, and large quantities are required to incur the dangerous effects described above. The potential for long-term toxicity is also low. In one study, rats were provided with feed containing as much as 5% PG over a period of 104 weeks and they showed no apparent ill effects.
[6]
Because of its low chronic oral toxicity, propylene glycol is
generally recognized as safe (GRAS) for use as a direct food additive. Cases of propylene glycol poisoning are related to either inappropriate intravenous use or accidental ingestion of large quantities by children.
[7]
Serious toxicity will occur only at plasma concentrations over 4g/L, which requires extremely high intake over a relatively short period of time.
[8] It would be nearly impossible to reach toxic levels by consuming foods or
supplements, which contain at most 1g/kg of PG. Propylene glycol is metabolized into
pyruvic acid, which is a normal part of the glucose metabolism process and is readily converted to energy
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Basically at 4g/L, you would have to
vape 10 gallons of the stuff in a single sitting to get any ill effects. I tend to doubt people are that serious vapers. But you never know with this bunch.
