Yes, inhaling anything but pure air is not safe. And that means what? Pure air is an invention since the air we do breathe has everything from volcano exhaust to dangerous chemicals expelled by oak trees, then throw in the stuff that man-made devices throw out. I even remember reading a study that concluded that the lung damage from working around truck exhaust and smoking was the same as working around truck exhaust and not smoking.
You bring up other people experimenting with materials and inhaling stuff and wonder if "we" should. You remember, as another vet has pointed out, that "we" use to be smokers, so should "we" have been smoking in the first place? I have a collection of long term injuries from MX'ing, mountain climbing (actually from the falls, not the actual climbing), and fighting (my sons always thought the stab wound scars were the "cool" ones). Why would I bring up my stupidity? Because it is mine and no one else's. I took the risks and I blame nobody but myself.
The truth is, nobody knows. Nobody will know for quite awhile. And when we do start to know, will the studies seperate the different wick users that used rebuildable atomizers from the stanadard atomizer users and from the cartomizer users? How about the different chemicals used for flavoring? Will they be identified by the industrial process used to extract their nicotine? Those who used nolox on thier threads and those who didn't?
The fact that so much is unknown and there is still experimentation going on frightens some folks. I've read health experts say that smoking burning tobacco is better because that is known and until e-cigs are fully known and understood then tobacco was better.
If you want to study all the different stainless steel chemistries and finishing processes, that's up to you, but realize that there are different classes of stainless steel and numerous types of each class, so lumping a 17-4 and 303 together is a mistake. (Going off sulphur content off the top of my head here for an example.) I don't know much about fibers, but I would be willing to guess that there are a multitude of different processes to finish them that give them different properties and because of that have different chemicals they would exhaust when heated.
You have to do what you feel secure doing. You don't have to be the one to go across the cliff face to secure the line for the rest of the group. Heck you don't even have to be on that cliff face. You can watch to see who makes it the furthest and then follow that path. You could even turn around and go back.
We don't even know that smoking tobacco will kill you. We know it can. You may be like one of my grandfathers who died because of the material that was used in the filters of his cigarettes, not because of the smoke. Or my other grandfather who smoke nearly 4 packs a day and died of the effects from his drinking habit in his late 80's.
I remember my grandmother frying up potatoes and onions in a big iron skillet with lard and seeing the TV had Euell Gibbons on spouting his usual stuff. "Those health nuts are going to be confused when they're in the hospital, in their final days, dying of nothing.", she remarked. (All my grandparents lived longer lives than Euell Gibbons by the way. And if you don't remember Euell Gibbons, look him up, he was actually a pretty cool guy that died of a genetic condition in his early 60's.)
You have to do what you feel secure doing.
