E-cigs 10 times as carcinogenic as smoking?

[nobody's_hero]

http://news.yahoo.com/e-cigarettes-1...081638013.html

I'm interested in this study. I recently picked up an e-cig a few months ago, and this is concerning. Granted, the time to worry about cancer was before I even picked up that first real cigarette years ago, but I'm also wary of this report since Big Tobacco would have a lot to gain by smearing the competition.

One omission that causes my skepticism of this study is that they don't actually mention the brands of e-Liquid that were involved in the study. Seems that would be something a lot of people would want to know.

[RJB]

I'll have a cigarette in a social setting. Once a week. Sometimes I'll go a year without one. I just don't get addicted.

But I don't trust those vapes. Tobacco is an herb. I like to enjoy an herb in it's entirety as God intended. Ma huang can be used in moderation-- meth is bad news. Same with coca leave versus cocaine. Poppies VS heroine... Wine VS whiskey...

People tend to screw up a good thing in their greed for more.

[Zippyjuan]

http://news.yahoo.com/e-cigarettes-1...081638013.html

I'm interested in this study. I recently picked up an e-cig a few months ago, and this is concerning. Granted, the time to worry about cancer was before I even picked up that first real cigarette years ago, but I'm also wary of this report since Big Tobacco would have a lot to gain by smearing the competition.

One omission that causes my skepticism of this study is that they don't actually mention the brands of e-Liquid that were involved in the study. Seems that would be something a lot of people would want to know.

Big Tobacco is buying a lot of the e-cig companies now. They are getting in as the market is slowing.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/big-t...eck-1409078319

Big Tobacco is finally making its big push into electronic cigarettes. Altria Group Inc. MO +0.53% and Reynolds American Inc. RAI +0.38% together have captured about a quarter of convenience-store sales just weeks into national rollouts of the battery-powered devices.

In a surprising development, though, e-cigarette sales are falling at these traditional retail outlets, reversing three years of rapid-fire growth. That raises questions whether Altria and Reynolds, which already dominate the U.S. tobacco market with a combined 75% market share, are fishing in the right pond with the proper bait. It is unclear at this point if it also calls into question the future of the new "vaping" craze.

About seven in 10 regular cigarettes are sold in convenience stores. That's where Altria, maker of top-selling Marlboro, is distributing its MarkTen e-cigarette, and Reynolds, maker of Camel, is launching its electronic Vuse. That is also where No. 3 tobacco player Lorillard Inc. LO -0.10% is already positioned with the top-selling e-cigarette, Blu. They're all hoping to capture the small but growing number of smokers who are switching to the gadgets, which heat nicotine-laced liquid into vapor and are believed less toxic than cigarettes.

Altria and Reynolds's e-cigarette dollar shares at convenience stores reached 14% and 11%, respectively, for the four weeks ended Aug. 2 after beginning their national rollouts in June, according to Wells Fargo, citing Nielsen store-scanner data. But overall e-cigarette sales at convenience stores shrank 7.5% in the same period, to $41.4 million.

E-cigarette sales also dropped 3.8% to $172 million in the 12 weeks ended Aug. 10 at convenience stores and other traditional retailers like supermarkets and drugstores, according to IRI. Year-to-date sales in such channels are up 12% after soaring roughly 150% in each of the previous two years and about 475% in 2011, the market-research firm estimates.

more at link.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles...o-e-cigarettes

R.J. Reynolds (RAI) announced (PDF) today that it plans to expand its Vuse electronic cigarette brand, tested in four states, to retailers nationally next week, making it the second of the three big tobacco companies to make a serious foray into e-cigs. Lorillard (LO), which acquired Blu eCigs in 2012 for $135 million, now enjoys about 40 percent of the current market; Altria Group (MO) owns two e-cig brands and has plans to expand nationally as well.

[juleswin]

I always thought e-cig was mainly nicotine and flavoring. And I don't think nicotine is a carcinogen. What am I missing?

[tod evans]

Wasn't there a "study" that proved McDonalds french fries were 100 times more cancerous than untreated tobacco?

[specsaregood]

//

[robertwerden]

This is bull$#@!, ecigs are not dangerous

[Zippyjuan]

This is bull$#@!, ecigs are not dangerous

Evidence? I have seen studies suggesting they are "less harmful" but nothing to say competely not harmful. Tobacco cigarettes were once thought of as not just not harmful but even healthy. Lung cancer rates have gone down along with cigarette smoking rates.

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-28554456

(and to note that there are many different "mixes" used in e-cigs- some may be more or less harmful than others and it will depend on how much one smokes them).

[juleswin]

Evidence?

That is an impossible question to answer since just about everything is dangerous. But I think he was trying to say that e-cigs are not more dangerous than reg cigarettes.

[Zippyjuan]

I do think the "ten times" figure is just an attention grabber. "Not more dangerous" is still not "not dangerous". There really isn't enough long term data to say for sure either way.

[presence]

In this study they tested some $#@!ty liquids with formaldehyde and $#@! added to it. Not the sort of stuff most ecig users in the us are vaping.

That's not true. Formaldehyde isn't added, its a byproduct of propylene glycol oxidation:

CH₂OH-CHOH-CH₃ + 2O₂ -> 2CH₂O + 2H₂O + CO<sub>2
(Oxidation of propylene glycol yeilds formaldehyde, water, and carbon dioxide)


http://chemistry.stackexchange.com/q...when-vaporized


Every e-cig I've ever heard of uses propylene glycol as the base.</sub>

[dannno]

"In one brand of e-cigarette the team found more than 10 times the level of carcinogens contained in one regular cigarette,"

Does this mean the entire container which is probably equivalent to 50 cigarettes has 10 times the level of one regular cigarette? That would mean there is an 80% reduction in the amount of chemicals.

Either way, at least they are admitting it is the additives that are cancer causing. Obviously that is something that can be easily adjusted with market forces.

[dannno]

I find it interesting that the brands nor type of electronic cigarette are ever mentioned. As a producer of the e-liquid in the US, we use the same formula as used by hospitals to aid in lung disorders. This type of treatment was approved in 1948 and even made Time Magazine in the same year. This same process was again approved in 1958 as a treatment for lung issues. So tell me this, if it can be used in the medical world with Government approval, then who is funding these studies?

Another commenter said that she makes her own e-liquid. There's no reason you need to add these carcinogenic chemicals.

[presence]

here's the study

http://ntr.oxfordjournals.org/conten...tr.ntu078.full

It was not "additives" that were the issue; moreso voltage and whether the solvent used to hold the nicotine was

vegetable glycerin (VG) or
propylene glycol (PG):








The lesson is to use 3.2v devices and vegetable glycerin based e-liquid.

[KCIndy]

Wasn't there a "study" that proved McDonalds french fries were 100 times more cancerous than untreated tobacco?

I remember that study. It really opened my eyes to how very harmful McDonald's fries could be. After a lot of soul searching I realized I had to make a big lifestyle change when it came to me and my McFries.








I stopped smoking them the very next day.

[presence]

I stopped smoking them the very next day.

[puppetmaster]

I always thought e-cig was mainly nicotine and flavoring. And I don't think nicotine is a carcinogen. What am I missing?

Nicotene is very toxic. Too much can kill.

[Spikender]

For some reason, reading this made me once again realize I'm addicted to nicotine.

Dammit Newports why you gotta be so good yet so bad to me?

[RJB]

Another commenter said that she makes her own e-liquid. There's no reason you need to add these carcinogenic chemicals.

That's interesting. I may have to rethink this. If someone grows their own tobacco, makes an extract through a tincture, infusion, etc. and uses that, I'm guessing it maybe healthier without the ash (tobacco and paper) and other harsh impurities people breath in with a lit cigarrette. I'm wondering about tobacco essential oils as well. This herb does have some strong medicinal qualities if not abused. I have heard of people vaping cannabis that they extract as well. I'm wondering how this technology could be applied to other herbs as well, mullein, mint etc.

[opal]

and yet another reason to go with the VG liquids instead of the PG and blends

still.. not seeing how that's More chemicals than in a cig.. just one byproduct does not equal the,,, what was it.. around 2200 chemicals in big tobacco's products?

[donnay]

here's the study

http://ntr.oxfordjournals.org/conten...tr.ntu078.full

It was not "additives" that were the issue; moreso voltage and whether the solvent used to hold the nicotine was

vegetable glycerin (VG) or
propylene glycol (PG):








The lesson is to use 3.2v devices and vegetable glycerin based e-liquid.

Virgin Vapor Gourmet Organic e-Liquid and Electronic Cigarettes
http://www.virginvapor.com/

[amy31416]

Nicotene is very toxic. Too much can kill.

In its straight, purified, powdered form--it is incredibly dangerous.

[Acala]

In its straight, purified, powdered form--it is incredibly dangerous.

Deadly. I remember a story of a woman who killed her lover by putting nicotine inside a condom. And it is the nicotine in tobacco that causes heart disease. But I thought the carcinogenicity of tobacco came from other components?

[RJB]

Some of the Native American tribes tipped arrows with tobacco extract to poison them.