www . plosone . org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0057987
PLOS ONE: Metal and Silicate Particles Including Nanoparticles Are Present in Electronic Cigarette Cartomizer Fluid and Aerosol
Can anyone with a more scientific mind rip this to shreds?
I won't rip it to shreds, maybe explain a little after reading the paper. Aerosol refers directly to the vapor produced by the cart from a smoking machine. They tested 60 puffs of 4.7 second duration. I assume since the batteries would cut off at 5 seconds as many do they stopped just short of that.
They found mainly particles from the pieces that make up the atomizer/cart. Most look like they come from the solder joints, the coil, and the wick. The same thing people have been talking about here forever, and the study even directly mentions both this forum, and comments made here at this forum.
The burned carts were also mentioned and it was assumed to have been done at the factory as quality control, such as putting one cart on a machine to at random from a batch to check to make sure it worked. Their words were that some seem to have been "extensively" tested.
They also stated that this brand requires a pretty stiff airflow to activate and the requirement for so much airflow to use the cart probably contributed to the amounts found.
Most of the metals they say came from the solder used to solder the coil to the copper wire, while some came from the larger copper wire that attaches the coil and the juice seemed to have leeched some of it from the copper wire. They also picked up some chromium they assumed came from the battery connection, my assumption would be tiny particles dislodged from natural thread wear when threading the cart onto the battery.
They also found silica particles from the silica wick in the aerosol. It would seem at a higher rate than the metal particles.
As for amounts and how much of a risk it might be I don't have time to dig that up, but the graphs they show do not seem to show much difference between room air levels of particles, though the room air they compared it to had silica but no metal particles of tin or nickel or copper.
My gut feel without spending a day qualifying it is that it shows what we have discussed ad nauseum here on these forums, and the test may have actually been designed after a researcher read up on the issues here on this forum. It shows that solder joints, copper wire, silica wicks and even the nichrome coil such do give off particles, very very small ones. My gut feel is that it's not at a level I personally would be concerned about, especially since I don't use a cartomizer, never have and don't have solder in my ecig. I will likely switch from silica wicks as well.
I may soon get into the nitty gritty and quantify exactly what those amounts of particles mean but at the levels shown it's not something I would worry about short term, but only on a longer 10-20 year time frame. After smoking 40 years, working on asbestos brakes for years back in the day as well as so much welding and grinding and such I have breathed the fumes of for 40 years it's not even on my radar screen. I get likely thousands of times more exposure just from working as a mechanic, going outside on a dusty windy day, or driving through a metro area and breathing the smog.
To put it in perspective, I have surely breathed in more particles of all these types sandblasting the last antique truck I restored than you would in probably several lifetimes of using these carts, but- in this one regard the ecig seems to be on par with a normal cigarette.
