Another e cig study

[hgvroy]

Have look at this from the UKV forum and draw your own conclusions, it would be interesting to delve a little deeper to find out who funded it






Here's the abstract, and you can read the whole article online at www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/...ne.0057987

Background

Electronic cigarettes (EC) deliver aerosol by heating fluid containing nicotine. Cartomizer EC combine the fluid chamber and heating element in a single unit. Because EC do not burn tobacco, they may be safer than conventional cigarettes. Their use is rapidly increasing worldwide with little prior testing of their aerosol.

Objectives

We tested the hypothesis that EC aerosol contains metals derived from various components in EC.

Methods

Cartomizer contents and aerosols were analyzed using light and electron microscopy, cytotoxicity testing, x-ray microanalysis, particle counting, and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry.

Results

The filament, a nickel-chromium wire, was coupled to a thicker copper wire coated with silver. The silver coating was sometimes missing. Four tin solder joints attached the wires to each other and coupled the copper/silver wire to the air tube and mouthpiece. All cartomizers had evidence of use before packaging (burn spots on the fibers and electrophoretic movement of fluid in the fibers). Fibers in two cartomizers had green deposits that contained copper. Centrifugation of the fibers produced large pellets containing tin. Tin particles and tin whiskers were identified in cartridge fluid and outer fibers. Cartomizer fluid with tin particles was cytotoxic in assays using human pulmonary fibroblasts. The aerosol contained particles >1 µm comprised of tin, silver, iron, nickel, aluminum, and silicate and nanoparticles (<100 nm) of tin, chromium and nickel. The concentrations of nine of eleven elements in EC aerosol were higher than or equal to the corresponding concentrations in conventional cigarette smoke. Many of the elements identified in EC aerosol are known to cause respiratory distress and disease.

Conclusions

The presence of metal and silicate particles in cartomizer aerosol demonstrates the need for improved quality control in EC design and manufacture and studies on how EC aerosol impacts the health of users and bystanders.

[matt1988]

That link isnt working. But depending on who has funded this could mean bad things for us vapors.

[hgvroy]

www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0057987

[hgvroy]

Funding: This work was supported by grants from the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (TRDRP) to PT, a Cornelius Hopper Award to MW, a MARC National Institutes of Health (NIH) fellowship to AV, and a TRDRP Postdoctoral Fellowship to SL. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

[hgvroy]

What I do find odd about this is that the researchers are visiting vaping forums and cherry picking negatives

[Deleted]

There is a good comment on that link that someone posted ...

www.plosone.org/annotation/listThread.action?root=63135

[robby]

The whole study seems to be centred on cartos, mostly of the cheap variety. I am not really surprised at the findings, they look reasonable. If you then re fill cartos over a period of time they are going to look like that and a lot worse. The green stain is copper. If you solder coils in the actual vaping chamber and use copper wire it looks unavoidable that it will migrate to the wadding/wick. I would imagine that if you use citrus fruit flavours the effect will be heightened. That is a personal observation. I personally dont use them, not from any safety point of view (although those pics are a bit scary to me). I just dont get on with them. Millions of those cartos are sold every day in starter kits. There really shouldn`t be any solder joints in there, or copper wire, whether it is "tinned" or not. The "tinning" is obviously not preventing the copper from migrating into the wick/wadding, and the concentration of that will increase with every vape. It looks like a comprehensive study on the construction of cartos, but that is it really. It doesnt seem to go into the health implications of it`s findings.

It is not really anti vaping, it`s all factual. We often complain about the lack of knowledge on e cigs and people`s ignorance of the facts, but looking at this, there will be a high percentage of vapers who are unaware of what is going on in a carto as well.

[robby]

Mar 28, 2013 10:34:08 GMT robby said:

[davess]

I too don't use carto's. Just don't like them, never have.

[giles]

The funding looks good - TRDRP is funded entirely by state (tobacco tax) and private individuals.

It compares e-cigs and fags, and pharma and tobacco company-funded stuff usually leave the fags out.

It's conclusion says "The presence of silicate particles and metal elements in EC aerosol may help guide manufacturers in selection of materials for use in EC products and in their quality control procedures." Rather than saying that these horrible things should be banned and their users burnt at the stake.

Should we worry? Yes. a bit. Cigarettes are of course worse - 200 times as many particles on these researchers' figures (which seem to exclude carbon). E-cigs were worse than fags only on Nickel, which doesn't make it into the top 10 of Cancer research UK's list of cancer-causing particles in fags www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-info/healthyliving/smokingandtobacco/whatsinacigarette/smoking-and-cancer-whats-in-a-cigarette#Other

And it only looks at cartomisers, and only one manufacturer of those.

The problem appears to arise from solder. I would think several devices have solder in contact with juice, although I agree it shouldn't be necessary at all, even in cartomisers.

Does anyone have a dead Boge they can rip apart, see if there's any solder in contact with the stuffing material?

[robby]

I agree giles, it is a reasoned approach and very factual. I think it also throws light on why some governments have simply banned ecigs outright. When stuff like this pops up they take the safety first option and blanket ban them. You might say "Well why dont they blanket ban cigarettes then, they have been proved to KILL people"..................................... money, money, money 

[deesigner]

I would be very concerned about something that uses copper wire, another reason for building your own perhaps? At least you know what wire you're using!

[matt1988]

Ive just taken apart my e-lite tip. There is a small amount of brown on the wadding, then a small amount of other material. Not sure what is is, like a thin plaster I suppose, not the plastic part, which is very brown. The wick is black where it enters the mouth piece. But no green.

Again this has been used but only once, and looking at it I wouldnt want to refill it...

[robby]

Mar 28, 2013 11:52:14 GMT deesigner said:

I would be very concerned about something that uses copper wire, another reason for building your own perhaps? At least you know what wire you're using!

Yes deesigner and solder is not good either.

[robby]

Mar 28, 2013 11:53:00 GMT matt1988 said:

Ive just taken apart my e-lite tip. There is a small amount of brown on the wadding, then a small amount of other material. Not sure what is is, like a thin plaster I suppose, not the plastic part, which is very brown. The wick is black where it enters the mouth piece. But no green.

Again this has been used but only once, and looking at it I wouldnt want to refill it...

Any soldering in there matt1988 ?