There has been a lot of commotion over the last few days about an article about electronic cigarettes that appeared earlier this week in the French magazine "60 million de consommateurs". The media have massaged worldwide on this publication. Most likely, you've seen the headliners passing through the past few days: "Electronic cigarette, not so innocent.", "Electronic cigarette carcinogen?", "Study shows that e-cigarettes are harmful", ... Pretty aggressive messages that caused a lot of Negative publicity as well as concern for a large number of users.
The publication claims that significant amounts of formaldehyde, acrolein and acetaldehyde were found in the vapor of electronic cigarettes. In addition, there are also spikes of nickel and chromium.
Only negative publicity and intimidation or more?
Let's start with the most important thing: there's absolutely no reason to panic. It is frightening that the media jump so heavily on this news without conducting detailed research into the origin of the disseminated information.
In fact, just about all that is needed is to be able to speak of a scientific study.
First and foremost, no mention is made of the laboratory that performed the analysis. There is also no evidence of evidence that allows the (after) published figures / results to be written. Furthermore, it is unclear which products were tested. In addition, serious questions can be asked about the methodology used during this research.
An electronic cigarette was connected via a silicone tube to a machine that continuously sucks air. Every 30 seconds the machine sucks air from the e-cigarette for 3 seconds instead of air in the lab. This is sent via an electro-valve, a device that permits the vapors to pass.
Because there are so many "holes" in the methodology and there is no scientific basis, specialists in this matter will not or hardly attach value to the results of the research.
The reasons for this are actually obvious:
The production of e-fumes via a machine as described in the above construction does not correspond to how an electronic cigarette is used in normal conditions.
There is absolutely no clarity about the duration of the test. As an electronic cigarette "dry burn", the spiral is burnt into the atomizer and indeed substances such as acrolein, chromium and nickel can be released. This can happen, for example, when you keep smoking while no e-liquid is present, or if you continue to use the atomizer when worn out. In practice, however, you will have known for it.
Was the e-cigarette used correctly? Was not it heated too much? Here is no information available. The use of a simple thermometer could have been a problem. It has long been known that harmful substances are released when, for example, VG (Vegetable Glycerin - a component in some liquids) is heated too high. Little news under the sun so ...
The electroventile separating the e-cigarette from the machine and opening and closing 2 times per minute consists of inox. This is an alloy of mainly iron, chrome, nickel and carbon. Possibly a cause of the traces of metals that were recovered?
The results are compared with ordinary cigarettes, but no information about this is available. For example, was a regular cigarette tested through the above-mentioned construction?
And so we can continue for a while.
The exact measurement protocol was not released, which still has to ring a bell. This means that it is not possible to check the results of the research. In other words, it is not possible to carry out a similar study and to test the findings of the study.
And then ...
Dr. Konstantinos Farsalinos, Cardiologist at the Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center in Athens, and for several years known for his studies of cardiological effects of electronic smoking, also points out that the article in "60 million Consumers" is not a presentation of the study Just a discussion / interpretation of the study.
Dr. Konstantinos shows on his website that this interpretation was incorrect. Even if we assume that the research and results would be 100% reliable, it would have been a good conclusion that the amount of chemicals found in the vapor of e-cigarettes is much less compared to ordinary cigarettes.
Or how a wrong interpretation can cause a global snowball effect, can panic and even turn on electronic smokers o