Anything new and innovative causes people to wonder about safety issues, and the e cigarette is no different, perhaps even more controversial than other things that have been introduced to the public. The question of e cigarette safety has caused quite a stir amongst smokers and nonsmokers, legislatures and laymen, and everyone has an opinion and a theory, while there are few facts of any kind to make a solid statement.
The Safety of Tobacco Cigarettes
The question is valid: Should we be concerned about e cigarettes safety? And the answer is simple. Of course. If you are contemplating switching from tobacco to an electronic cigarette you’ll want to be sure that the scary warnings on the packages of cigarettes you are buying, that say Smoking Kills, will not be even worse should there ever be such a thing on the e cigarette starter kits – perhaps warning like “vaporizing kills faster than smoking”.
The Facts:
Although there are few clinical tests that have been conducted, and none that show conclusive results either totally positive or totally negative, the facts we do have are fairly clear for those who do not expect a seal of approval from lawmakers or an endorsement from the FDA. Here are the raw facts:
1. Tobacco Cigarette – If you’re a daily smoker of tobacco cigarettes you inhale the following ingredients which I will read off the box of cigarettes I have in front of me. It’s a pack of Camel Filters and they contain, 0.8mg of nicotine, 10mg of tar, 10mg of carbon monoxide, and that’s just what’s published on the cigarette package. So if you light up a cigarette you are poisoning yourself with carbon monoxide and tar, plus getting your nicotine fix.
2. E Cigarette – Lets compare what you’ll inhale when you puff a little vapor from an e cigarette. The e-liquid is comprised of between 65% to 90% propylene glycol or vegetable glycerin, which is also used as a food additive. The second ingredient is nicotine, diluted between 0.1% to about 6% in the strongest liquids. There are other things like flavor, and about 10% water in some cases where the propylene glycol is only 65% and there is also about 10% glycol in those formulas. There are traces of citric acid and in some formulas have other trace elements that are pertinent to the specific flavor, but there is 0% carbon monoxide, and 0% tar.
So I ask those who are questioning the safety of e cigs if inhaling vegetable glycerin mist with nicotine is worse than inhaling carbon monoxide, nicotine and tar?