Negative health Consequences of Dry Hits? (Inhaling burned silica or cotton)

[Submaniac]

I am posting this because I don't really know, and wanted to ask to get some discussion on it.

Like everyone else, sometimes I get a dry hit. On a "dry" hit,there was insufficient juice on the wick when the electricity hit. And like everyone else, when I change my wicking material, sometimes the old material (could be either silica or cotton) has blackening, which (I think) means that I wasn't "vaporizing" juice, as I was actually burning/combusting the wicking material.

Of course I would rather occasional burn the wicking material on an ecig than use a normal cigarette where it is constant combustion.

But does anyone know what the health consequences are of inhaling burned cotton or silica. Like links to something with what burned silica or cotton may do to the lungs. Thanks.

 

[wv2win]

Since I use a tank, I get no "dry hits". Problem solved.

Unless you are inhaling dry hits 5 - 10 times a day, I would think you would have little to be concerned about. Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional.

 

[Jeffk123]

Can't be any worse than inhaling what fumes come off your bbq grill or car exhaust. I have been dripping for awhile And I know when my.wicks are getting dry without taking a huge lung hit of burned cotton. You just have to know your atty and if it tastes off just don't inhale

 

[The Torch]

I doubt it is even half as bad as burning a cigarette filter while inhaling.

JUST MY THOUGHTS:

Silica (I think) won't really burn. The burnt flavor would come from the coil itself. Inhaling burning stainless steel is not good for you as it is basically steel with contaminants. However, consider the size of the coil compared to the kind of surface a welder has to deal with...

Burning anything organic and inhaling it is certainly not good for you, but if one little draw that you're not even inclined on inhaling gets to you, I'm sure you are still in much better shape than smoking cigarettes (especially when you compare the number of chemicals used to make cigarettes)


Sent from somewhere in a tunnel, 42 minutes away from anywhere.

 

[schuff]

Cotton: http://m.aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/119/1/33.abstract

Silica: http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/chemicals/chem_profiles/quartz_silica.html

It is generally considered "safer" to use ekowool. Ekowool is silica however it is more fire ......ant and does not break into crystalline fibers as easy.

 

[Racehorse]

Sub, I think you might look thru the somewhat famed topic, danger of silica wicks. You will or won't learn something there LOL Lots of different angles

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...7764-dangers-silica-wicks-3.html#post10379732

 

[Racehorse]

and here is a long one on cotton wick, some say dangerous (polysacarides), others say not.

Knowledge is power, read what you can and make your own decision.....just giving you links to previous discussions

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/rebuildable-atomizer-systems/549740-opinions-wick.html

and this one: wick materials safe vs dangerous:
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/modding-forum/284030-wick-materials-safe-vs-dangerous.html

 

[Ryedan]

I am posting this because I don't really know, and wanted to ask to get some discussion on it.

Like everyone else, sometimes I get a dry hit. On a "dry" hit,there was insufficient juice on the wick when the electricity hit. And like everyone else, when I change my wicking material, sometimes the old material (could be either silica or cotton) has blackening, which (I think) means that I wasn't "vaporizing" juice, as I was actually burning/combusting the wicking material.

Of course I would rather occasional burn the wicking material on an ecig than use a normal cigarette where it is constant combustion.

But does anyone know what the health consequences are of inhaling burned cotton or silica. Like links to something with what burned silica or cotton may do to the lungs. Thanks.

I do everything I can to avoid dry hits. IMO burning juice is not good for us.

I don't worry about silica burning. I flame silica with a propane torch to clean it and it does not change. Ekowool does change, it hardens, but I don't use it often so I've not explored it much. I've read enough good silica threads here and eslewhere to have come to the conclusion that silica fibers are not going to harm me.

Stainless steel mesh used in wicks is good, but if you overheat it it can form hexavalent chromium on the surface which might be harmful for us. I don't overheat my SS mesh

Cotton obviously burns when it gets dry. I doubt that does us any good. I stopped burning tobacco leaves two years ago and I'm not going to replace that with cotton. I use cotton in about 80% of my wicks and SS in the rest. If you keep cotton wet, it can't burn. I change my cotton wicks almost daily. It's really easy to do that and it's so cheap it's almost free.

That's my take, but as always, YMMV.

 

[edyle]

I think with a dry hit the coil gets too hot, and instead of the glycerin or pg vaprozing , it decomposes and burns, producing various chemicals including the acrolien we hear about sometimes; probably also including co2 and carbon monoxide, although I never seen that mentioned but based on the blackened wick I expect some of that.

that's my opinion on it


some people would say that that's nt a dry hit so much as a burnt taste.

 

[dr g]

yup it's more the burning juice we should be concerned about IMO. though certainly inhaling actual burning wick is no good (silica doesn't burn)

 

[Submaniac]

Thanks for responses guys (and thanks to links to an interesting read). Just as an FYI I just had surgery, so health is kind of on my mind right now. My Kayfun (which is one of the least likely tanks to produce a dry hit, IMHO) gave me a nasty dry hit, even though there was still juice in the tank. My standard procedure is to pull the cotton (I stopped using silica) and rewick after a dry hit. I was just wondering if it was doing some serious damage to my lungs.

 

[Anthal69]

Did you worry about what happened to your lungs when you smoked a ciggy down to the filter and burned it? A tar and carcinogen laden filter?

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

[edyle]

Thanks for responses guys (and thanks to links to an interesting read). Just as an FYI I just had surgery, so health is kind of on my mind right now. My Kayfun (which is one of the least likely tanks to produce a dry hit, IMHO) gave me a nasty dry hit, even though there was still juice in the tank. My standard procedure is to pull the cotton (I stopped using silica) and rewick after a dry hit. I was just wondering if it was doing some serious damage to my lungs.

I've read here that some of those kayfun clones need the feed channels to be dremelled out to widen them otherwise you can get dry hits.

 

[Submaniac]

Did you worry about what happened to your lungs when you smoked a ciggy down to the filter and burned it? A tar and carcinogen laden filter?

No, not really. When I was smoking I was young and stupid. Wised up and went to vaping. Didn't think about dry hits very much when I was vaping. Then I got this bad boy last week.

Getting that certainly motivates you to become a bit more "health conscious".

 

[Anthal69]

That's a knarly scar. Heart or lung surgery? I wasn't downplaying the health concerns. To me, a dry hit is nothing more than a 10 second concentrated campfire smoke hit.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

[Submaniac]

^^Ah man, it's all good. I know you weren't making fun of anything. But to answer your question: Thymoma(Thymus Cancer) stage 1. So I quit smoking to avoid cancer, and then I get a cancer that is not at all smoking related. (And don't worry that much about me because--knock on wood--it is one of the more survivable cancers. Normally your thymus gland stops functioning and turns to fat after puberty. Apparently mine kept on growing, and the tumor wasn't apparent til recently. (It's right by the heart so it is hard to spot on just a chest x-ray). The thymus is directly under the bone in the center of the chest, so it is an open heart surgery, cutting my chest down the middle. The tissue around the area that was cut started swelling (normal process) which was constricting the expansion of the lungs. So when I took a dry hit--it really really sucked.

 

[crxess]

Another Ants promo or just a panic post?

Your Dry hit comes from an under saturated, not a Dry wick.
Your Blackened wicks are built up e-liquid residue
You cannot dry burn cotton, but you can pass Silica through FLAME to clean.

My suggestion is - if you are truly concerned about the risk, Stop/Quit if you can, until you have a satisfactory solution.
I seriously doubt Wick inhalation will be anywhere in the Neighborhood of Tar

 

[Miata GT]

I doubt it is even half as bad as burning a cigarette filter while inhaling.

JUST MY THOUGHTS:

Silica (I think) won't really burn. The burnt flavor would come from the coil itself. Inhaling burning stainless steel is not good for you as it is basically steel with contaminants. However, consider the size of the coil compared to the kind of surface a welder has to deal with...

Burning anything organic and inhaling it is certainly not good for you, but if one little draw that you're not even inclined on inhaling gets to you, I'm sure you are still in much better shape than smoking cigarettes (especially when you compare the number of chemicals used to make cigarettes)


Sent from somewhere in a tunnel, 42 minutes away from anywhere.

I don't think it's the coil 'burning,' otherwise a new coil being dry burned would continuously smoke, even after the machining oil or whatever has burned off.

I'm guessing you're burning the last amounts of ejuice available in the wick and also the crud that builds up on the coil. Note that a fully juiced coil will not glow since there is enough ejuice to absorb the heat. This is not the case when there is not enough around to do so.

 

[Phiberdelic Phreaker]

I wish I could stop the dry hits on my modified Aspire Nautilus, 5/64 drilled-through removed inner heat shield using 30ga 2wire twist @ 1.2ohm with Ramie for wick.

Original image found here : PLOS ONE: Metal and Silicate Particles Including Nanoparticles Are Present in Electronic Cigarette Cartomizer Fluid and Aerosol

 

[Singaw]

Then I got this bad boy last week.

Ouch... When my grandfather, rip, got his he told the doctor to put in a zipper in case they had to open him up again. Needless to say he didn't get a zipper. Best wishes on a speedy recovery.