I've seen quite a few people post on this forum saying they are college students, perhaps even grad students.
How about those of you that are, start the scientific testing of e-cigs as your senior projects, or even doctoral thesis? Or talking to others on your campus about it?
Seems to me to be cutting edge work that could garner much attention for your work!
I am sick of the FDA claiming that there isn't any or enough or proper testing of e-cigs. If the manufacturers aren't going to step up to the plate.... Just seems to me that our colleges and universities are the next logical place.
No longer a student, but a recent grad and still working for a research laboratory on campus. And while our laboratory is geared towards scientific programming (and thus not really the proper place to test an eCig) we do still have access to all the major journals, so I've been digging around to see what I can come up with as far as studies on PG, VG, and just glycerin in general.
That being said, PG, VG, and glycerin are 'old news'. While the eCig is a new concept, there's very little academic value in investigating the properties of the
e-liquids and such as they stand; perhaps once eCigs are a big commercial market, there may be some grant money floating around for developing better atomizers or a new type of
e-liquid, but as it stands now that's simply not the case. Any actual research at this point done involving PG is due almost entirely to pure accident. As an example, one researcher was trying to develop an anti-flu spray that could be pumped into the air and after some trial and error discovered that PG was a pretty good anti-microbial.
Colleges and universities, at least in the US, are BUSINESSES. While they're built on lofty goals and ambitions, there's a monstrous amount of bureaucracy associated with them, and research is driven by grant money and donations. This money comes from tax dollars, government agencies, and big companies like Pfizer. There have been several projects that we've worked on here in the lab that have been really 'cool and useful' but we've had to stop researching them due to insufficient funds. Those projects will likely sit around for several years until they're looked at again (due to regearing everyone to a new project with money and completing said project).
The best bet outside of the manufacturer doing these tests, is getting the research done as some sort of senior project/doctoral thesis as you suggested. Even then, it would be difficult to do such a project/thesis and would still take several years to complete. I can only suggest that you get the
device out in the open and spread as much info as you can about it.
