Here at multiCIG, we follow the e-cigarette industry closely, taking a keen interest in all vaping news as and when it develops. To the casual observer, a quick google search could easily leave them with the impression that the emergence of vaping has left global society is in the grip of a terrifying new trend posing a mortal threat to non-smokers and children in particular. One story after another reassures us that the powers that be in right-thinking countries all over the world are taking vital steps to protect us from this deadly contagion.
Dig a little deeper, however, and a different picture emerges – they call it science. Conversely, one study after another delivers a blow to the groundswell of dissent and objection and helps build an increasingly convincing bank of peer-reviewed evidence to counter the ‘vaping is bad’ narrative.
The latest counter-punch came in the shape of a study published in the Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology journal. It demonstrated once again that, when it comes to toxicity, e-cig vapour has more in common with good, old-fashioned room air than it does with tobacco smoke . . . . and then some!
Researchers looked specifically for 8 toxins, carbon monoxide, carbonyls, phenolics, volatiles, metals, tobacco-specific nitrosamines, polyaromatic amines, and polyaromatic hydrocarbons in e-vapour, tobacco smoke and room air. They weren’t of course surprised to find that tobacco smoke was full of noxious compounds, but they were taken aback by the fact that the toxins in vapour bore comparison with the air we all breathe indoors. In fact, there was no significant difference other than the presence of base ingredients, such as propylene glycol, water and small traces of flavouring and nicotine additives.
Scientists needed to expose their equipment to 99 puffs of an e-cigarette before registering even the tiniest measurement of 0.18 milligrams of HPHC’s (Hazardous or Potentially Hazardous Constituents). By comparison, a solitary draw on a Marlboro Gold cigarette measured 30.6 milligrams. Looking at things on a puff-to-puff basis, cigarettes delivered 2000 times more toxins than the e-cigs.
Yet vaping is routinely framed as public health negative.
We have always been consistent in our calls for more academic research into the health implications of e-cigarette use and we are happy to report the pace of study seems to be picking up. Whether or not that is the result of the growing body of demanding increased regulation is a moot point. The reality is a steady drip-feed of scientific papers tells us vaping places us in nothing like the jeopardy inherent to smoking.
It is well known that traditional tobacco products are highly dangerous, containing up to 4,000 toxic chemicals, and that their historical use has been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of millions of people worldwide over the past few centuries. E-cigarettes were developed in a deliberate bid to curtail, in some small way, the damage done by a highly addictive habit that continues to destroy lives and it is good to see it has caught the public imagination in such a marked fashion.
We have every confidence in the quality of multiCIG products and the positive alternative they pose to our customers. We will continue to back vaping as an affirmative lifestyle choice and encourage the good people of academia to carry on doing what they do best and piling up the evidence in its favour.
