The most suggested substitute to cigarette smoking is E-cigarettes. However a recent study shows that chemicals that comprise the most common flavors for the device is said to cause an incurable lung disease.
The Scientists at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health studied 51 different types of flavoured e-cigarettes, one of which is the cotton candy flavor sold by most leading brands and were tested for the chemicals diacetyl, acetoin and 2,3-pentanedione. The said chemicals are tagged 'high priority' in causing risks in the condition of the body's respiratory system.
A lung disease called 'popcorn lung' or medically known as a lung disorder called bronchiolitis obliterans is commonly caused by Diacetyl. An incident transpired where 2000, factory workers inhaled an artificial butter flavor and suffered health complication. Their air passage ways got inflamed and lacerated and developed dry cough and severe shortnesss of breath. Acetoin was also present in their work environment during the incident while 2,3-pentanedione is often used as a substitute for both the other substances.
Researchers have found that a total of 47 of the 51 e-cigarettes had at least one of the chemicals. They put the e-cigarettes in a chamber and had the vapor analyzed. 46 candy flavours contained acetoin, 39 had traces of diacetyl and 23 had 2,3-pentanedione in them.
Lead researcher Joseph Allen found out that the chemicals are also found in some alcohol and fruit flavours, as well as butter-popcorn.
"Some 92 per cent of the flavoured e-cigarettes we tested had one of three flavouring chemicals we analysed for. These products are all available for purchase online," he explained.
"Since most of the health concerns about e-cigarettes have focused on nicotine, there is still much we do not know about e-cigarettes," study co-author David Christiani added.
"In addition to containing varying levels of the addictive substance nicotine, they also contain other cancer-causing chemicals, such as formaldehyde, and as our study shows, flavouring chemicals that can cause lung damage."
The results of the Research are included in the Journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
