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NEW YORK – Even if you check the list of ingredients on your flavored e-cigarette, you may not know what you're inhaling, according to a new study.
"The flavoring chemicals and solvents, the liquids, that are in electronic cigarettes form new chemical compounds," said Sven Jordt, one of the authors of the study published Thursday in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research and Associate Professor of Anesthesiology. , pharmacology and cancer biology at Duke University Medicine School.
The researchers found that these new compounds can cause respiratory irritation in users of electronic cigarettes.
"Our nose, mouth and throat contain nerve endings that detect painful and irritating chemicals in inhaled air. For example, the burning sensation caused by smoke inhalation is transmitted through these nerve endings. They also cause sneezing and coughing, primarily to protect the lungs from inhaling toxic chemicals, "said Jordt.
"The new chemicals that we've identified in e-cigarettes are activating these nerve endings more strongly. Especially when they are activated over a long period, such as among smokers and potentially consumers of electronic cigarettes, it has been shown that these mechanisms cause inflammation and asthma and contribute to emphysema. "
Electronic cigarettes work by heating a pure liquid called electronic juice, consisting of aromas, propylene glycol, glycerin and often nicotine, until it vaporizes.
The researchers vaporized and then chemically analyzed 10 e-liquids, with two flavors and five different ratios of propylene glycol for each flavor. A ratio of propylene glycol is the amount of solvent used in the e-liquid. The e-liquids were purchased on the AmericaneLiquidStore website. The researchers also created and analyzed their own liquids, including flavors (also called aldehydes) and solvents often used by the electronic cigarette industry.
These analyzes showed that 40% of the aromatized aldehydes were transformed into new compounds called aldehyde PG acetals. "PG" represents the solvent used in the liquid, propylene glycol.
The flavors used in this study were respectively vanilla, cherry and cinnamon: vanillin and ethylvanillin, benzaldehyde and cinnamaldehyde.
When the liquids created by the researchers were transformed into e-vapor, between 50% and 80% of the acetals were transferred. This means "a significant proportion of the acetal PG aldehyde will reach the airways during vaping," notes the study.
These new compounds are also stable in water and in other physiological solutions, so they can stay in the body for a while and have effects that we do not know much about, said Jordt.
The authors indicated that these acetals were not on the labels of the e-liquid ingredients because they are produced after mixing the product.
Jordt says that electronic cigarette manufacturers claim to use well-known chemicals, nicotine and solvents to make liquids, and that nothing changes when they are mixed. Thus, the user thinks he knows what he is exposed to.
"We are open to any additional science in this area," wrote Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Association. The group is a non-profit organization that advocates judicious regulation of vaping products but is sponsored by companies that manufacture vaping products.
"It is essential that adult smokers understand that nothing in this study will change the conclusions of reputable organizations such as the Royal College of Physicians and Public Health England, who both felt that vaping was at least 95% less risky. than smoking, "said Conley. The research that he referred to runs counter to studies that have shown that vaping is more harmful than traditional cigarettes.
The research chemically confirms what many suspected, according to Ilona Jaspers, a professor of pediatrics, microbiology, immunology, and environmental science and engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
"These are very reactive chemicals, and it would be naïve to think that they would remain isolated, would not react, and would not produce secondary and tertiary products that once incorporated into the mix," said Jaspers, who did not participate in the study.
"One of the big problems to remember here is that we have to consider these e-liquids as a potentially dynamic mixture, a chemical mixture that is not necessarily stagnant and that can change over time," she said. she declared.
Users must pay attention to the original ingredients as well as the possibility of what they might become, she says. However, it is not always as easy as it seems.
"The problem is that even with some of the products currently on the market that have a list of ingredients, the consumer has absolutely no idea what it's ultimately exposed to," Jaspers said.
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