What is the safety of electronic cigarettes? – Rolling stone



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Bad news for JUUL enthusiasts – the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Wednesday that the famous e-cigarette brand was one of five manufacturers to "propose plans to immediately and substantially reverse access and appeal of their products ". products to minor users. JUUL, Vuse, Blu, MarkTen XL and Logic account for 97% of total sales of electronic cigarettes and the vast majority of illegal sales to minors, who have made vaping their favorite method of smoking in recent years. These five companies have 60 days to submit their plans "describing how they will handle the widespread access and use of young people" to the FDA, or risk being hit by new marketing restrictions or seeing their products removed from the stores. Juul told the New York Times they will "work proactively" with the FDA, and have already announced that a new version of the app-connected key – designed to help users reduce their consumption – will be released next year. But the government agency seems to have the intention to crack down.

As stated by the FDA in its announcement of new measures to prevent youth smoking, the agency "remains committed to its comprehensive approach to nicotine addiction, including encouraging smokers to combustible cigarettes. . "Apparently, no one expected desserts and fruit-flavored e-cigs to be so appealing to teens who have gone beyond the limits of collecting LipSmackers and scented fruit markers. The result has been a whole new generation of nicotine addicts – but hey, e-cigarettes are not physically harmful like smoking, right? It's just water vapor!

Not enough. While the electric vaporizer was invented in 1927 and the first "smokeless tobacco-free cigarette" was patented in the 1960s, electronic cigarettes did not become available in the United States until 2007. With only a decade of study there is still much to be learned about its effects on health – but to be clear, there is much more than water vapor.

"I would not discourage a smoker from switching to e-cigarettes, but we need more research on the risks of vaping and their comparison," said Dr. Holly Middlekauff, professor of medicine at UCLA, in 2017. a non-smoker to start using electronic cigarettes. "

A 2015 study found that propylene glycol and glycerol, the two solvents used in electronic cigarette juice, could be approved by the FDA at certain temperatures, but that they were producing carcinogenic compounds such as formaldehyde .

A study conducted in February 2018 by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health discovered manganese, chromium and nickel in e-cig vapor, carcinogenic metals associated with lung, liver, immune, cardiovascular and cerebral lesions. (These metals are also present in traditional cigarettes at different concentrations.) The researchers say that the coil that heats and aerosolizes the vapor produces the metals that contaminate both the vapor and juice tanks of electronic cigarettes.

Perhaps more worrying, however, was the presence of lead, which could not be attributed to the coil. As one researcher put it worrisively: "There is no reason to be a leader," and said more testing was needed to reduce its origin.

A study co-authored Middlekauff at UCLA found that habitual smokers of electronic cigarettes were more likely than nonsmokers to show signs of oxidative stress and higher levels of adrenaline, two factors risk of heart disease.

"We do not know if a cigarette smoker is better able to switch to e-cigarettes. Most studies show that carcinogens are present at much lower levels in electronic cigarettes than tobacco cigarettes, "Middlekauff said. "It is therefore conceivable that the risk of heart disease is similar for electronic cigarettes and tobacco cigarettes, but that the risk of cancer is much greater with tobacco cigarettes."

So at least there is good news. Although electronic cigarettes do not make nicotine less addictive or reduce the harms of carcinogenic metals, or they act particularly well for the heart, electronic cigarette smokers have at least less tar than regular smokers. .

As Middlekauff put it, "When it comes to smoking versus vaping, we have to consider the distinction between what is" safe "and what is" safer. "

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