I'd like to challenge your points.
On point 1, you are correct that diethylene glycol is horrible thing to have in your body. Where I beg to differ is that diethylene glycol is not an ingredient that should be in e-cigarette 'juices'. It was in the particular
juice that was tested, and is indicitave of a lack of proper regulation in the manufacturing of these products which occurs in China with no oversight in some cases. There are reputable manufactures that have proper review of ingredients and procedures. Until there is proper regulation, the best advice is to do your research.
In fact, all of the ingredients (nicotine excluded, will discuss later) in a proper e-cigarette
juice have been tested and approved by the FDA for human use, and are already being used as food additives in the U.S. (Propelyne Glycol, Vegetable Glycol). In addition, Propelyne Glycol is used in Asthma Inhalers and is broken down into lactic acid by the body.
On point 2,
snus is the most similar product to e-cigarettes and "no cargonicogenic effects could be attributed to snus use" in the population of Sweden that were exclusive SNUS users. In the preparation of and use of
tobacco products, there are two main factors for major carcinogens; The heat curing process (i.e. even with chewing tobacco), and the burning of plant matrial, that have been attributed to statistically significant increase in Cancer cases.
On point 3: The sciencelab.com infogram (which is not even a study, and has no references to actual studies) cites that the "CARCINOGENIC EFFECTS: Not available." and that inahalation is poisonous. So, the carginogenic effects cited are moot since the linked document does not mention any, however the "inahalation is poisonous" point is to do with inhaling large quantities of Nicotine. Nicotine is acutely poisonous to humans. In fact a 300mg dose can kill you. A 2.5mg dose, from a typical cigarette, by itself, has not proven to cause lung damage or be acutely poisonous. If you have other information on this please post it! I would be curious, as would many others, to see the study. One last point.. Some studies have shown that Nicotine by itself puts you at a higher risk of pancreatic cancer I believe, 3-12x the risk IIRC, however, the low incident rate of this cancer compared to lung cancer and heart disease make the overall risk of Nicotine by itself orders of magnitude smaller than cigarettes.
On point 4: The studies had major flaws. For example, they did not control how, how much, and when the subjects used the e-cigarettes. They used one of the cheapest, inconsistent, and unusable brands of e-cigarettes, and many other issues. There has not been an adequate study of e-cigarettes done.
The WHO is not an authority on its own, defers to others that have done studies, and takes the safest stance on an unresearched issue.
In summary, I am by no means saying that e-cigarettes couldn't have negative health effects. I am saying, however, that the proven carcinogens in real cigarettes are not in e-cigarettes and that all of the ingredients in them (when created properly) are FDA approved and currently being consumed by most Americans.
These things have helped literally hundreds of thousands kick the cigarette habit, many of them long term 1-4 pack/day smokers, including myself (going on 4 months!). I've tried to quit using every approach (except anti-depressents) and have failed miserably. With these I switched quite easily. I may quit these aswell one day, but until that time, I feel much better, my lungs don`t hurt, my chest doesn't hurt, I can taste and smell again and I am not exposing myself to many of the harms of cigarettes. On an editorial note, I ask myself, who has the most to lose with the uptake of e-cigarettes? Government taxes, Tobacco company profits, and pharmacutical companies come to mind.
