The Hazards Of Second-hand Smoke From E-cigarettes: E-cigarette Vapor Is Not Harmless!

At present, propaganda slogans such as "harmless vaping", "no second-hand smoke" and "do not affect others" are becoming the "standard" of some electronic cigarette advertisements. At the same time, such advertisements have also caused a lot of confusion: Is it harmless to use e-cigarettes? Does e-cigarette smoke affect the health of others?

"Second-hand electronic cigarettes" contain carcinogens, low-quality cigarettes have hidden dangers of deflagration, and the quality of smoke liquids is uneven... Multiple evidences show that, like ordinary cigarettes, electronic cigarettes will also have an impact on public health. Some experts have called for the supervision of the quality of e-cigarette products and the use of public spaces to be put on the agenda.

E-cigarette 'vapor' is not harmless

Recently, People.com.cn visited a number of e-cigarette stores in Guangzhou and Shenzhen and found that many stores regard "harmless and healthy" as the selling point of e-cigarettes. Among them, an electronic cigarette shop located near Guangzhou East Railway Station displayed a signboard of "Healthy Cigarette Replacement Experience Center", and said that "one second to relieve addiction, healthy for cigarettes".

Some shop owners said that the main components of e-liquid are glycerin and propylene glycol. These two substances are edible food additives, and the "vapor" produced by heating will not cause harm to the human body.

In online e-cigarette stores, there are also many advertisements claiming that e-cigarettes are harmless. According to Xia Yinghua, a doctor from the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Provincial Institute of Public Health, 89% of the 14 types of publicity from 18 domestic websites and 12 electronic cigarette manufacturers are said to be "healthy".

"Second-hand electronic cigarettes" are also harmful to health

On an e-commerce platform, an e-cigarette manufacturer posted a photo of an adult smoking an e-cigarette while holding a baby in the product details, and said that "you don't have to worry about your baby's inhalation of harmful second-hand smoke."

Is secondhand smoke from e-cigarettes really harmless? Experts say such claims are inaccurate.

According to Wu Yiqun, a researcher at the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, after heating the liquid, the electronic cigarette will generate aerosol through the atomizer, which is a colloid formed by suspending small solid or liquid particles in the air, and the size of the suspended matter is 0.001-100 microns. not wait. This substance contains a complex chemical composition and is a new source of air pollution.

Some tobacco control agencies imitated the working environment of daily meetings and did such an experiment: in a closed conference room with an area of 25 square meters, when someone smoked two e-cigarettes, the indoor pm2.5 value instantly soared from 5 micrograms per cubic meter to 1300 micrograms per cubic meter.

Data from the World Health Organization also shows that second-hand aerosols produced by e-cigarettes can cause PM1.0 values to be 14-40 times higher, and PM2.5 values to be 6-86 times higher. WHO warns that when the concentration of this aerosol reaches high enough, it will pose a serious threat to human health, especially the health of patients with respiratory diseases.

Not only that, Wu Yiqun said that in the experiment, carcinogens such as nitrosamines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were also detected in e-cigarette liquid or second-hand smoke. In addition, "the content of heavy metals such as nickel and chromium released by second-hand smoke from electronic cigarettes is even higher than that of second-hand smoke from traditional cigarettes."

In addition, research from the University of North Carolina in the United States also showed that vaporized e-cigarette liquid can inhibit the expression of immune genes.

Some cities have begun to pay attention to the harm caused by "second-hand electronic cigarettes" to public health, and have included electronic cigarettes in new tobacco control regulations. A few days ago, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and other cities have included e-cigarettes on the "blacklist" of tobacco control, prohibiting the use of e-cigarettes in public places.