Sorry to hear what you're going through, and I hope it works out for the best.
Not just Atlantis users should be worried.... Anyone still vaping with disposable heads with silica wicks (a known carcinogen) should strongly reconsider, and find a setup that allows you to use cotton.
There's no evidence that amorphous silica wicks cause cancer. Indeed, there's no evidence that they cause any sort of health problems at all. Silicosis is something found in mine (quartz) workers, sandblasters, glass industry workers, and other people who work around raw
crystalline silica dust that is composed of very fine airborne particles. The wicks we use are amorphous and cannot cause silicosis. For one, they are submerged in liquid, so there's no fine particles flying around. And, two, as I said, they are amorphous which means there's no extremely fine particles or "dust." I do not believe the Atlantis uses silica anyway (Aspire claimed it was some sort of ceramic).
Cotton has its own problems. For one, it burns at a much, much lower temperature than silica and releases chemicals not healthy to inhale when it does. (The reason the vape industry used silica in the first place is because of its high heat tolerance). Cotton is also responsible for a lung disease known as
Byssinosis. However, just like with silica, it is only found in people who work around raw cotton in the textile industry where there are fine cotton particles flying around in the air. Not likely to be a problem with cotton submerged in e-liquid.
Basically, any substance that produces fine dry airborne particles is probably not a good idea to be around for long periods without protection. Luckily this isn't likely to be a problem with vaping since the wick (should) be completely submerged and saturated with liquid, whether it be cotton or silica.
I use cotton because it's 1) Cheap and 2) Very malleable and easy to wick. I am still not thrilled about it, though. I think the vape industry really needs to look at alternatives. I would bet some kinds of ceramics would be a good choice (very high heat tolerances), though I am skeptical of the ceramics Aspire used that easily crumble in the hand and (now) end up in people's mouths and throats. Also, not everyone can vape on cotton. Dimitris, for instance, made a video blog about how cotton landed him in the ER (neck, chest pains, difficulty breathing). He has since went back to silica and hasn't had a problem. I suspect that a small bit of cotton always gets burnt in our attys and this bit of smoke can really affect some people (whether an allergy or whatever).
I am all about safety. I am not a cloud chaser or someone trying to be cool. I am just a guy who wants to stop smoking for good. I really hope 2015 will be a year where the vape industry stops it with the watt wars or the sub-ohm wars and starts competing with each other over who can release a safer product. For instance, is there any way to devise a filtering technology for e-cigs to prevent incidents like this? As I said above, are there alternative wicking (and wire) materials? Just things I hope that some engineers are thinking about.
