E-Cigarette Safety?

[Shepherdsdriving]

Do you believe there are health risks that coincide with vaping? Besides the fact that nicotine is an additive chemical. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. I’m working on quitting cigarettes by using vaping, and I know that vaping so very much safer than tabacco products. But I’m still wondering if there are health risks. Short term health risks? Long-term risks? Anything you will have to add would be great. Again love to hear your thoughts and knowledge.

 

[tailland]

My answer is the same as in this thread: Curious about other vape opinions..

 

[toughdiamond]

Nicotine might raise the blood pressure (but it might not - test yourself if you're not sure)

Nicotine seems to have a few other possible adverse effects on human health, though nothing really alarming AFAIK.

There's little known about the long term effects of vaping VG and PG, though again there's no hard evidence of any great harm so far.

Faulty, badly-made or badly-used vaping equipment might lead to inhaling something toxic such as formaldehude, heavy metals, or battery acid. Mostly you'd probably know from the taste, but not necessarily.

Toxic impurities might get into the supply chain for e-liquids. The authorities are starting to insist on testing, but still.......the tests might not be perfect and bad stuff might somehow get past the goalie anyway.

Some flavourings might turn out to be harmful when inhaled. The authorities often allow food flavourings and colours that are of questionable safety, and I'm not sure if they appreciate that inhaling a hot vapour of an additive is different from eating it.

Seems to me it'd be safer if somebody could invent a device that worked with just nicotine and water, without the PG, VG and whatever else, but maybe that just doesn't work.

Bottom line, nobody knows yet, but there's good hope that it's not that dangerous. Haven't heard of anybody who's vaped for a decade coming to any harm through it, which probably isn't true of tobacco, what with the smoker's coughs and poor lung function etc., though with those numbers the carcinogenicity might not be apparent in the first 10 years, and cancer is pretty serious of course.

 

[bombastinator]

Nicotine might raise the blood pressure (but it might not - test yourself if you're not sure)

Nicotine seems to have a few other possible adverse effects on human health, though nothing really alarming AFAIK.

There's little known about the long term effects of vaping VG and PG, though again there's no hard evidence of any great harm so far.

Faulty, badly-made or badly-used vaping equipment might lead to inhaling something toxic such as formaldehude, heavy metals, or battery acid. Mostly you'd probably know from the taste, but not necessarily.

Toxic impurities might get into the supply chain for e-liquids. The authorities are starting to insist on testing, but still.......the tests might not be perfect and bad stuff might somehow get past the goalie anyway.

Some flavourings might turn out to be harmful when inhaled. The authorities often allow food flavourings and colours that are of questionable safety, and I'm not sure if they appreciate that inhaling a hot vapour of an additive is different from eating it.

Seems to me it'd be safer if somebody could invent a device that worked with just nicotine and water, without the PG, VG and whatever else, but maybe that just doesn't work.

Bottom line, nobody knows yet, but there's good hope that it's not that dangerous. Haven't heard of anybody who's vaped for a decade coming to any harm through it, which probably isn't true of tobacco, what with the smoker's coughs and poor lung function etc., though with those numbers the carcinogenicity might not be apparent in the first 10 years, and cancer is pretty serious of course.

Nicotine and water can be vaped from any device. It produces almost no noticeable vapor, and makes for a very hot vape. It is possible though. Alcohol also works, though it is the same as vaporized alcohol, so enough of it can make you briefly drunk.

As for PG and VG worries that’s known crap.
they are heavily researched and are used as inhalants in many medicines.
As for flavoring worries that is also crap. Lots of research has been done, and in the USA at least the FDA set out regulations that assure there are not dangerous chemicals in USA made juice.

 

[bombastinator]

Do you believe there are health risks that coincide with vaping? Besides the fact that nicotine is an additive chemical. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. I’m working on quitting cigarettes by using vaping, and I know that vaping so very much safer than tabacco products. But I’m still wondering if there are health risks. Short term health risks? Long-term risks? Anything you will have to add would be great. Again love to hear your thoughts and knowledge.

The big health risks of vaping are if you are under about 16-20 years of age or are pregnant. In both instances it is a growth issue. In teens their brains are still growing and nicotine is a vasoconstrictor. It makes blood vessels smaller. This implies that in underage users it could theoretically result in reduced brain growth, though no research they I know of has actually been done.
There HAS been research done on cigarette smoking pregnant mothers though.There is a high tendency for underweight babies. Again there is very little research on vaping mothers, but the assumption has always been that the reason the babies were underweight is because the nicotine impeded proper growth.

 

[Storm52]

Harm reduction and harm less. Not harmless. I'll assume the risks of vaping, after weighing the the harm of smoking.

 

[bombastinator]

Harm reduction and harm less. Not harmless. I'll assume the risks of vaping, after weighing the the harm of smoking.

Agreed. Numerous studies have found that the risks of vaping are orders of magnitude lower than the risks of smoking. That does not mean they are zero though.

 

[toughdiamond]

Nicotine and water can be vaped from any device. It produces almost no noticeable vapor, and makes for a very hot vape. It is possible though. Alcohol also works, though it is the same as vaporized alcohol, so enough of it can make you briefly drunk.

Interesting. Not long ago I tried adding extra water to my mix (in an attempt to reduce the VG and PG content) and it spat hot steam out of the mouthpiece when I drew on it. I subsequently read that it's a known hazard with high water content, though it would depend on the device. Seems strange that pure nicotine and water isn't readily available if it works.

There must be a lot of users such as myself who wouldn't inhale anything unnecessary such as flavours, though unflavoured nicotine isn't particularly easy to find, so maybe it's just that the market is heavily geared up to gimmicks.

Ethanol is a known irritant and it's been linked to cancer. I wouldn't be surprised if there was also a fire and explosion risk. Certainly wouldn't be as safe as inhaling pure water vapour.

As for PG and VG worries that’s known crap.
they are heavily researched and are used as inhalants in many medicines.

I agree the risks would seem pretty small, but they're not zero. Especially if you're going to vape a lot for your whole life. Until people have used VG and PG in hot-delivery systems for several decades, at the frequency and rate that vapers use their e-liquids, I don't see how complete safety can be assumed. Even then, we've got the possibility that they could react with the nicotine in some way. And medicines are rarely 100% harmless. They're just less dangerous than the disease they're designed to treat, sometimes. Other times they turn out to have safety issues that don't come to light for years and they end up doing harm.

As for flavoring worries that is also crap. Lots of research has been done, and in the USA at least the FDA set out regulations that assure there are not dangerous chemicals in USA made juice.

From what I've read and heard, the FDA tends to see additives as safe if they're not proven to be dangerous. I guess that's why all kinds of questionable food and drugs are legal in the US. High-fructose corn syrup, GM food, chlorinated chicken, hormones in meat, pesticides in the veggies, a plethora of over-the-counter drugs.......FDA-approved doesn't mean it's absolutely safe.

I suspect the root of your declaring my ideas "crap" is that you might think I'm saying vaping is moderately dangerous. I'm not saying that, just that it's not 100% safe. I thought I'd made it clear in the final paragraph of my post when I put the risks into context that they look pretty small. How small is small enough is a matter for the individual. Are you saying the risks don't exist?