Co-Worker Upset about Secondhand Vapor

[DaveP]

I always wonder if the odorous vapor from microwave popcorn still contains diacetyl. Air fresheners are offensive when people go around spraying the air full of them.

http://www.nrdc.org/health/home/airfresheners/airfresheners.pdf

Ozium Air Freshener
Active ingredients: triethylene
glycol (4.4%), propylene glycol
(4.4%). Inert ingredients:
91.2%.

Ozium takes the particulates out of the air and causes them to sink to the floor. So does the vapor from your ecig. The rest of Ozium is just propellant. You have to wonder what makes up the inert ingredients.

 

[G9K]

Yes, tobacco smoke has been found to contain polonium 210. It is also in food. This is the stuff that was famously used to assassinate Alexander Litvinenko in the UK, and is one of the most poisonous substances known.

Ok, so it's a ubiquitous substance that shows up in all kinds of (organic) things in minute amounts mostly because it's present in the soil they grow in, which, unless it presents a particular and significant danger specifically in tobacco smoke, has no business being included as an alarmist component in a discussion of tobacco smoke. One may as well state that "There's water vapor in cigarette smoke, and PEOPLE DROWN IN WATER!!1!". Overstated alarmism only makes one less credible.

I also seem to recall reading something about a plot to kill Fidel Castro with a nicotine-containing pellet...

 

[Kenzi]

I think a few may benefit from reading the letter (written by CASAA) sent to Boston.
It can be found at the following - CASAA.org

 

[G9K]

From the letter linked by Kenzi:

"Setting tobacco on fire creates tar, carbon monoxide, airborne particulates, dozens of carcinogens and thousands of other hazardous chemicals."

Exactly.

It's the "tar", which I believe equals the "dozens of carcinogens and thousands of other hazardous chemicals", that is the thing that should be stressed, not things like Polonium that are present in such small quantities as to be negligible.

 

[Rimau]

G9K -- They tried to poison my cigar! But it didn't work, I love nic and have been a dictator for over 50 years.

 

[Rimau]

yay I may now have the record for killing threads by posting something.

 

[kinabaloo]

From the letter linked by Kenzi:

"Setting tobacco on fire creates tar, carbon monoxide, airborne particulates, dozens of carcinogens and thousands of other hazardous chemicals."

Exactly.

It's the "tar", which I believe equals the "dozens of carcinogens and thousands of other hazardous chemicals", that is the thing that should be stressed, not things like Polonium that are present in such small quantities as to be negligible.

All these things are debilitating and and co-factors but imo the radioactive polonium is the primary killer. It gets into tobacco primarily from the use of fertilisers based on crushed rocks. It is the one thing that by itself causes cancer - quickly found this article (I have posted better ones including the exact study in question before, somewhere) :

"Polonium -210 is the only component of cigarette smoke that has produced cancer by itself in laboratory animals by inhalation - tumors appeared already at a polonium level five times lower than those of a normal heavy smoker.


Lung cancer rates among men kept climbing from a rarity in 1930 (4/100,000 per year) to the No. 1 cancer killer in 1980 (72/100,000) in spite of an almost 20 percent reduction in smoking. But during the same period, the level of polonium -210 in American tobacco had tripled. This coincided with the increase in the use of phosphate fertilizers by tobacco growers ...

...

The Surgeon General C. Everett Koop stated that radioactivity, rather than tar, accounts for at least 90% of all smoking-related lung cancers."

Read more: http://www.lenntech.com/periodic/elements/po.htm#ixzz1ctCWEsvN"

The difference with smoking is that such heavy radioactive particles can get embedded in the lungs, not expelled as would mostly occur if eaten. It is cumulative and the radioactivity keeps on emitting.

Hence your last sentence is laughable.

 

[nopatch]

Polonium, i think is a significant risk.That polonium is everywhere doesn't quite cut it, since everywhere is not same as having it in your lungs.The same applies to PG/VG ; not regarding radioactivity,though .

When you have problems with vaping listen to your body.Some people apparently have no problem having their lungs filled with PG/Vg vapors while others cannot take them.It is stupid on the part of people to dismiss actual concerns other people have just because they are relatively immune to ill effects of vaping.Vapers should really stop giving lame advices like hydrating and spam with irrelevant details regarding after effects of tobacco quitting .

 

[doubleganger]

The OP is very lucky in one way. I work for a very large corporation that officially treats ecigarettes the same as tobacco as to where you can use them. I do not intend to make an issue of it as these days I'm just happy to have a job.

 

[kinabaloo]

Polonium, i think is a significant risk.That polonium is everywhere doesn't quite cut it, since everywhere is not same as having it in your lungs.The same applies to PG/VG ; not regarding radioactivity,though .

When you have problems with vaping listen to your body.Some people apparently have no problem having their lungs filled with PG/Vg vapors while others cannot take them.It is stupid on the part of people to dismiss actual concerns other people have just because they are relatively immune to ill effects of vaping.Vapers should really stop giving lame advices like hydrating and spam with irrelevant details regarding after effects of tobacco quitting .

Open-minded on the PG/VG in the lungs. I very much doubt it is toxic, but might be bad in restricting normal function in the case of heavy vaping and deep lung inhalation. For now, I think it is fairly innocuous for most people, but might affect some people adversely (though this can be confused with smoking withdrawal).

 

[G9K]

Hence your last sentence is laughable.

“Laughable”? Perhaps, but I’m probably laughing harder than you are.

I’m not going to bother with an unneccessary deconstruction (except: “Negligible”!), but I will point out what you should more appropriately be worried about regarding Polonium:

Since no one seems to have ever figured out how to remove the Polonium from tobacco (published work?), and since there doesn’t seem to be any way to filter it out of smoke and therefore probably no reasonable way to remove it from solution, and since the only commercially viable source of nicotine is from tobacco, then is there Polonium in our nic juice? (How is the Nic isolated, anyway?)

If so, how much? The same as in tobacco per unit of nicotine? Ok, I might be concerned now.

Anyone got a bottle of 100mg/ml and a really sensitive radiation (Alpha/Gamma) detector handy?



Polonium discussion is off-topic, this should have gone into a Polonium thread (say, "Polonium: Threat or Menace?")

 

[K*Rose]

I'm with you.

I don't vape where others can't smoke.

Vaping isn't a right, it's a habit...just like smoking.

Couldn't agree with you more, AG!

 

[kinabaloo]

“Laughable”? Perhaps, but I’m probably laughing harder than you are.

I’m not going to bother with an unneccessary deconstruction (except: “Negligible”!), but I will point out what you should more appropriately be worried about regarding Polonium:

Since no one seems to have ever figured out how to remove the Polonium from tobacco (published work?), and since there doesn’t seem to be any way to filter it out of smoke and therefore probably no reasonable way to remove it from solution, and since the only commercially viable source of nicotine is from tobacco, then is there Polonium in our nic juice? (How is the Nic isolated, anyway?)

If so, how much? The same as in tobacco per unit of nicotine? Ok, I might be concerned now.

Anyone got a bottle of 100mg/ml and a really sensitive radiation (Alpha/Gamma) detector handy?



Polonium discussion is off-topic, this should have gone into a Polonium thread (say, "Polonium: Threat or Menace?")

Chemical filtration (by reaction). Since Po is not an alkaloid, it won't be selected.

You'd need a beta detector anyway
The beta radiation won't get through the plastic bottle, but Po can do a lot of damage in the body. There will be next to zero in e-liquid; 1000s x less radioactive particles than we're breathing from power stations and bombs.

 

[V8porism]

Simple Solution-
DIY some no nic ejuice to vape in your office. Vape nic juice outside your office.

Buy a bottle of FDA approved VG at your local WholeFoods store. Buy a bottle of FDA approved flavoring. Bring both FDA approved bottles with you to work. Show your boss that you are Vaping two FDA approved food products. Tell your co-worker to kiss your rear end and shut up.

VG is sold at WholeFoods for a reason. It is a food product. It is found in many household products & foods.

Unless all other FDA approved food products are banned in your office, you do have a right to consume food products, despite the fact that you are using an ecig device to consume them.

Happy Vaping

 

[roadkillstewie]

Ever consider, as an offer of compromise... an air purifier in/by your office?

 

[Vagablonde]

You are correct, you won't win brownie cookies here. Your contention about smells is correct, although I am not as bothered by scents as much as you, there are perfumes that make me want to gag. In a politically correct world, any scent that bothers someone else should be banned. However I expect we'd end up with a scentless world with that concept. I guess I'm just too old school. Rather than make an issue when something bothers me, I move away.

As to your point on nicotine, I don't believe nicotine in itself has a scent that could be identified and nicotine is not what creates the delusional danger of SHS. That danger is created by the same components found in other "dangerous" products like candles and wood burning fires. The major difference between cigarettes and those two products is that some find the smell of cigarettes stinky and most like the smell of candles and fireplaces.

I'm really only commenting aout the scent part of it,as for the rest throws hands in the air

 

[Forkeh]

Well, if she still gives you a hard time, even though you've been given the green light, you could always tell her that the Propylene Glycol in your PV is the very same PG that they pump through hospital ventelation systems to help sterilize the air. Tell her that you're helping sanitize her work environment!

 

[John Phoenix]

Also consider this about the Tobacco Control Task Force of the American Association of Public Health Physicians and what they have to say:

What about Public Smoking Bans?

State legislatures, however, are and should be concerned about the effects of second hand smoke on the health of non smokers. After all, this has been the catalyst for the smoking bans in public and work places and even the more recent bans on smoking in private homes and automobiles. Some research suggests second hand smoke can cause cancer or induce heart attacks and lawmakers, confused by the anti smoking lobby's constant references to "second hand vapor", worry that e-cigarettes may pose a similar hazard even though there has been no scientific evidence of this.

So the AAPHP advises legislators that "Propylene glycol and glycerin are used as carriers of the nicotine. These cause the visible vapor. These substances are generally recognized as safe. They are commonly used in theatrical fog machines, asthma inhalers and air fresheners. There is no smoke, and no products of combustion." and surprisingly even goes so far as to say "All this creates a situation in which we can confidently state that the risk to others sharing an indoor environment with one or more vapers (E-cigarette users actively using this product) is almost sure to be much less than 1% the risk posed by environmental tobacco smoke."

from: http://electroniccigarettespot.com/...tronic-cigarette-bans-get-advice-from-doctors

 

[PirateVaper]

smelling the breath of someone or smelling car smog should be more dangerous than vaping