Flavorings Mixed With e-Cigarette Liquids Are Toxic, Says Study
In 2016, the US Food and Drug Administration announced new federal regulations on electronic cigarettes that will be the same as traditional tobacco cigarettes and chewing tobacco.
In a new study presented during the virtual European Respiratory Society International Congress, it was found that flavorings combined with solvents in e-cigarettes to produce new poisonous chemicals irate airways, stimulating reactions that can result in problems with breathing, heart health, and blood vessel.
North Carolina-based Duke University School of Medicine anesthesiology, pharmacology and cancer biology professor, Sven-Eric Jordt said during the said conference that e-cigarette makers claim that the products are safe to use "as they vaporize a specified set of chemicals described to be "chemically stable."
Professor Jordt added, their co-author, Dr. Hanno Erythropel, an analytical chemist, and their colleagues at the Yale University discovered new chemicals in e-liquids and disclosed they are "formed when the manufacturers mix components."
The professor added that they become more anxious about the high levels of such compounds that had not gone through any investigation. Therefore, they decided to conduct what they called the "toxicological tests," Jordt said.
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Exposure of Bronchi to Flavoring Chemicals
In their laboratory experiments, scientists observed what transpired when cells lining the bronchi got exposed to flavoring chemicals like vanilla, berry or fruit, and cinnamon flavors.
In addition, the study authors also looked at the result of the new chemicals that formed as an outcome of mixing the flavored chemicals with the solvents PG or propylene glycol and VG or vegetable glycerine, the primary solvents e-cigarettes have.
Prof. Jordt explained, "Bronchi are exposed to e-cigarette vapor" when an individual breathes them into his lungs.
Researchers continuously observed that the new chemicals that were built up from the flavors and e-liquid solvents were more poisonous than any of their parent compounds.
Berry and Cinnamon Flavors More Toxic than Vanilla
The study also found that new chemicals that produced berry and cinnamon flavors were more toxic compared to those that produce vanilla flavor.
These new chemicals, researchers said, triggered "sensory irritant receptors in nerve endings in the bronchi," also known as TRPV1 and TRPA1, which are said to be both responsible for a series of inflammatory reactions.
Furthermore, the professor added, triggering the sensory irritant receptors can result in increased heart rate and, among susceptible individuals, can result in hypertension and irregular heartbeat.
The professor elaborated that such action can increase secretions as well, "in the nasal passages and all over the lungs and airways" that cause coughing and difficulties in breathing.
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What E-Cigarette Manufacturers are Recommended to Do
Dr. Jordt also said that there is a need for e-cigarette manufacturers to list all the chemicals they use in their products, not just their original but also the other new chemicals formed when the flavoring chemicals and the solvents get mixed, not to mention when the liquid gets stored at a particular period.
Jordt elaborated, their findings propose that e-cigarettes emit chemical mixtures that contain a wide variety of chemical products with unforeseen toxicological properties.
Regulators, he said, should be aware that such compounds can form so that studies on toxicology can be instituted to examine their safety.
The professor added that the regular should also conduct or provide financial support to additional research on what he described as the "fate of chemicals in e-liquids," and their toxicology in particular.
Once the levels of toxicity have been determined, Jordt concluded, regulators can already evaluate the risk level from e-cigarettes and provided recommendations to manufacturing companies to lessen concentrations "to alleviate risks to acceptable levels."
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Sep 04, 2020 08:10 AM EDT
