But you addicts out there still won’t stop vaping…
Researchers from John Hopkins University have found traces of hundreds of unknown chemicals in electronic cigarette vaping liquid and aerosols in a new and alarming study. The study also details known and potentially harmful compounds found in e-cigarettes.
Carsten Prasse, senior author of the study explained, “Existing research that compared e-cigarettes with normal cigarettes found that cigarette contaminants are much lower in e-cigarettes. The problem is that e-cigarette aerosols contain other completely uncharacterized chemicals that might have health risks that we don’t yet know about. More and more young people are using these e-cigarettes and they need to know what they’re being exposed to.”
This is one of the first researches to be conducted in a thorough analysis of all the potential compounds found in vape liquids using liquid chromatography/ high-resolution mass spectrometry. Four popular tobacco flavored vape liquids were tested along with aerosols from four different electronic cigarette devices (tank, disposable and pods)
The researchers counted around 2000 chemical compounds in the study out of which most of them had never been studied before. From the small portion of known substances found in the study, six were harmful compounds which included a pair of flavorings linked with respiratory irritation, three industrial chemicals, a pesticide and surprisingly, caffeine.
The surprise finding of caffeine in two of the vape liquids led Mina Tehrani, lead author of the study, to believe, “that might be giving smokers an extra kick that is not disclosed.” Another unexpected finding was the detection of condensed hydrocarbon-like compounds in the vape aerosols which are usually produced during combustion.
“People just need to know that they’re inhaling a very complex mixture of chemicals when they vape. And for a lot of these compounds we have no idea what they actually are,” says Prasse. “I have a problem with how vaping is being marketed as more healthy than smoking cigarettes. In my opinion we are just not at the point when we can really say that.”