So this afternoon I spent some time reading through the recent Surgeon General's report about e-cigs. About the only positive thing I found in it was that e-liquid "generally contains fewer toxicants than combustible tobacco products."
I didn't read the whole 298 pages but I read all the intros, conclusions and summaries, as well as the first two chapters, and overall it's not looking favorably at e-cigs. Although it primarily addresses young adults, my feeling is this report will play a big role in the hands of the FDA to justify the rules they want to implement.
Here is the final conclusion on page 269:
"E-cigarette use, particularly among youth and young adults, has become a public health concern that warrants immediate and coordinated action. The increase in e-cigarette use among youth and young adults in the past few years is cause for great concern. Many questions remain about e-cigarettes and their long-term impact, even as evidence on patterns of use and risks to health continue to emerge. But we know enough about these health risks to take action now to protect the health of our nation’s young people. We cannot wait. Strategies to prevent and control the harms of e-cigarettes among youth and young adults need to be precautionary. Therefore, we must take a precautionary approach by implementing these strategies and protecting the health of our nation’s young people. We know what works to effectively prevent tobacco use among young people. Now we must apply these strategies to e-cigarettes—and continue to apply them to other tobacco products. To achieve success, we must work together, aligning and coordinating efforts across a wide range of stakeholders. We must protect our nation’s young people from a lifetime of nicotine addiction and associated problems by immediately addressing e-cigarettes as an urgent public health problem. Now is the time to take action."
And I found this summary on pages 137-138 interesting:
"Although some typical constituents of the e-cigarette aerosol have been identified, the potential short- and longterm health consequences of inhalation of the heated and aerosolized constituents of the e-liquids, including solvents, flavorants, and toxicants, still require further investigation to quantify health effects. Commercial and custom-mixed e-liquids are produced with undisclosed manufacturing procedures, packaging materials, and purity standards for their constituents, increasing the risks of potential health consequences. E-cigarettes are a source of extremely high doses of fine particles (e.g., aerosol) in the human respiratory system. Fine particles are emitted when the solvents PG and VG are aerosolized, and mild respiratory effects have been documented, but adequate assessments are lacking. An additional concern is the aerosolization and inhalation of flavor additives in e-liquids. While some of the chemicals used may be generally recognized as safe for use in foods, they have not been thoroughly tested for their potential sensitizing, toxic, or irritating characteristics when inhaled. Further, given the extent of possible variations in the ratio of flavor additives, with up to 7,700 unique e-liquid varieties available (Zhu et al. 2014b), these chemicals may be toxic in the concentrations present in manufactured or do-it-yourself e-liquids. Finally, other hazardous compounds and carcinogens have been detected in e-liquids, or in the heated aerosol produced by e-cigarettes, including formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and acrolein."
