The first test was done on the e-cigarette "Smoking Everywhere Platinum." It is made in China and available online. It is distributed out of Florida across the United States.
Results
The liquid that is heated and turns into a vapor is put inside of a centrifuge and spun. What resulted was a small metal pellet.
"There is quite a bit of tin. Most of this material is composed of tin," said Talbot. "There is also some oxygen, some copper and some nickel."
The electronic microscope revealed a possible source for the tin was the solder used to cover the wires inside of the e-cigarette.
"A lot of the solder seems to have come off, some of it has spread and come off and melted on the side," said Talbot.
"They smoke differently," said Talbot. "They seemed to be manufactured differently. There are many different styles. There are many different models. There is no such thing as a single e-cigarette."
For the second test, Talbot's team looked at the Mistic e-cigarette, a brand Team 10 purchased at a local drug store.
In the "spin" test, no tin was found because there were no solder joints used in this brand.
What the cigarette machines found while puffing on the Mistic e-cigarettes were low concentrations of copper, calcium and potassium, but Talbot says more research is needed.
