Interesting article about the safety of inhaling PG

[Ardeagold]

This may have been posted before but I just found it.

I've heard all the hype about PG and anti-freeze (I know it's not anti-freeze, but anti-freeze does have PG IN it), and I knew about PG being used in asthma inhalers, but I didn't know that the "reason" the FDA has a problem with e-cigs is because they're concerned about the "inconsistent levels of NICOTINE" (or so the article states).

Here are a couple of paragraphs from the article:

Medical Uses

• PG has been used as the aqueous-based chemical additive in asthma inhalers and nebulizers since the 1950s, with no serious side effects known. PG, because of its water-retaining properties, is the compound of choice for delivering atomized medication. It is also a common diluent for injectable medications, constituting 40 percent of the intravenous form of Phenytoin, an anti-seizure drug.
  
  

Electronic Cigarettes

• Persons trying to quit smoking have recently turned to the recent invention of electronic cigarettes. Battery-powered, these devices deliver measured amounts of nicotine diluted in PG and then inhaled. A heating element within the device vaporizes the compounds, thereby allowing for easy inhalation. While many have questioned the safety of electronic cigarettes, their concerns are directed toward the inconsistent amounts of nicotine, not the PG solution in which it is delivered.
  
  

Read more: Danger of Inhaling Propylene Glycol | eHow.com Danger of Inhaling Propylene Glycol | eHow.com
​

 

[rothenbj]

Yes, the nicotine is a major issue. It isn't being provided by BP which is an issue and it's being provided at levels that make it satisfactory as a replacement of the levels provided by BT. This is a major issue since it breaks the BT, BP, BT, BP, BT, BP, BT, DIE "life" cycle of these two gigantic industries and all the money generated for governments and ?non-profit?"health" associations alike.

These smokeless alternatives could lead to a major medical and financial mess with people living longer, needing medical care for years as they age, social security being further pressured as 20% of the population lives longer and longer and corporations are forced to keep older and older high priced employees to support the cost of people not smoking.

The only industry that may support Smokeless alternatives should be the elder care corporations which could see a boom and long term care insurance could become an issue. Perhaps our government could pass legislation for a national insurance to make sure everyone has access to suitable care.

Darn this is looking better already- Social Security Administration, Medical Care Administration and Long Term Care Administration. The government only needs to develop a plan for providing Postmortem care and they'll cover the life cycle. Just remember, if you're not working for the government, you're paying their salaries.

 

[Vocalek]

Actually, the hype about antifreeze, from the perspective of the FDA, had nothing whatsover to do with Propylene Glycol. From the infamous July 2009 press conference called by the FDA: FDA and Public Health Experts Warn About Electronic Cigarettes

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced that a laboratory analysis of electronic cigarette samples has found that they contain carcinogens and toxic chemicals such as diethylene glycol, an ingredient used in antifreeze.

Their press release went on to make it appear that totally harmless trace amounts of chemicals presented an extreme danger of illness or even death.

The FDA’s Division of Pharmaceutical Analysis analyzed the ingredients in a small sample of cartridges from two leading brands of electronic cigarettes. In one sample, the FDA’s analyses detected diethylene glycol, a chemical used in antifreeze that is toxic to humans, and in several other samples, the FDA analyses detected carcinogens, including nitrosamines. These tests indicate that these products contained detectable levels of known carcinogens and toxic chemicals to which users could potentially be exposed.

"Chemicals", as in more than one? "Toxic" as in large enough quantities to endanger health?

The FDA found <1% DEG in one of the 18 cartridges tested. The DEG should not have been there; however the amount found is so miniscule that it is thousands, possibly tens of thousands depending on your body weight, of times below the level required to poison you.

DEG is used in some industrial applications as antifreeze, but DEG is too toxic to be used in ordinary car antifreeze. What causes the confusion is the fact that PG is sometimes used as a "safe antifreeze" so a lot of folks who never read the FDA's press release assume that when someone uses "antifreeze" and "e-cigarettes" in the same sentence, that they must be talking about the PG.

And yes, the FDA did express concerns about inconsistent nicotine levels in cartridges: Summary of Results: Laboratory Analysis of Electronic Cigarettes Conducted By FDA

• Three different electronic cigarette cartridges with the same label were tested and each cartridge emitted a markedly different amount of nicotine with each puff. The nicotine levels per puff ranged from 26.8 to 43.2 mcg nicotine/100 mL puff.
• One high-nicotine cartridge delivered twice as much nicotine to users when the vapor from that electronic cigarette brand was inhaled than was delivered by a sample of the nicotine inhalation product (used as a control) approved by FDA for use as a smoking cessation aid.

Of course the FDA conveniently ignored the fact that a puff of cigarette smoke typically delivers between 48 and 103 mcg of nicotine. http://www.healthnz.co.nz/DublinEcigBenchtopHandout.pdf

Of course, I think the bigger problem is that the FDA refuses to understand that smokers are looking for a safer replacement for smoking, and the Agency evaluated e-cigarettes they tested as though these products were YANRT (yet another nicotine replacement therapy). NRTs do not seek to provide a permanent replacement source of nicotine. The goal of those products is to start you out with less nicotine than you get from smoking and then to wearn you down to zero.