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Burning debate lights up over safety of electronic cigarettes

Dec. 17, 2010
World Science staff

A heat­ed de­bate is de­vel­op­ing over the safe­ty of “e-cig­a­rettes” or elec­tron­ic cig­a­rettes, billed as a sup­posedly safer sub­sti­tute for or­di­nary smokes.

Two sci­en­tif­ic re­ports this month take op­pos­ing sides on wheth­er that safe­ty claim is val­id. Uni­vers­ity of Cal­i­for­nia-River­side re­search­ers is­sued an ur­gent warn­ing about e-cig­a­rettes in a study pub­lished this mon­th’s is­sue of the re­search jour­nal To­bac­co Con­trol. But a Bos­ton Uni­vers­ity School of Pub­lic Health sci­ent­ist, in a re­port for the Jour­nal of Pub­lic Health Pol­i­cy, de­clared those con­cerns far overblown.

Uni­vers­ity of Cal­i­for­nia-River­side re­search­ers cite this pho­to as a de­mon­stra­tion of how e-cig­ar­ette fluid can leak out of a cart­ridge, mak­ing it hard to han­dle without touchi­ng the nico­tine solu­tion in­side. (Cred­it: Tal­bot lab, UC River­side)

A heated debate is developing over the safety of “e-cigarettes” or electronic cigarettes, billed as a supposedly safer substitute for ordinary smokes. Two scientific reports this month take opposing sides on whether that safety claim is valid. University of California-Riverside researchers issued an urgent warning about e-cigarettes in a study published this month’s issue of the research journal Tobacco Control. But a Boston University School of Public Health scientist, in a report for the Journal of Public Health Policy, declared those concerns far overblown. While further research is certainly needed, “a preponderance of the available evidence shows [e-cigarettes] to be much safer than tobacco cigarettes,” wrote the school’s Michael Siegel with a co-author. Whereas conventional cigarettes burn tobacco, the tobacco-less e-cigarettes use battery-generated heat to vaporize nicotine along with other chemicals present in a cartridge. Since coming onto the market in the United States more than three years ago, e-cigarettes have proven controversial, Siegel said; the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has threatened to ban their sale and six national anti-smoking groups have opposed them. The groups worry that the FDA hasn’t evaluated e-cigarettes for safety or effectiveness, that they may contain dangerous chemicals, and that they’re marketed toward children. The University of California researchers, in their study, evaluated five e-cigarette brands and found what they described as design flaws, lack of adequate labeling, and several concerns about quality control and health. They concluded that e-cigarettes may be harmful and urged regulators to consider removing e-cigarettes from the market until their safety is adequately evaluated. Nothing is known about the chemicals in the aerosolized vapors from e-cigarettes, according to the University of California authors of the Tobacco Control paper. “There are virtually no scientific studies on e-cigarettes and their safety. Our study – one of the first studies to evaluate e-cigarettes – shows that this product has many flaws, which could cause serious public health problems in the future if the flaws go uncorrected,” said Prue Talbot, the director of the school’s Stem Cell Center, whose lab led the research. Talbot, a professor of cell biology and neuroscience, examined the design, accuracy and clarity of labeling, nicotine content, leakiness, defective parts, disposal, errors in filling orders, instruction manual quality and advertising for the following brands of e-cigarettes: NJOY, Liberty Stix, Crown Seven, Smoking Everywhere and VapCigs. The scientists contend that batteries, atomizers, cartridges, cartridge wrappers, packs and instruction manuals lack important information regarding e-cigarette content, use and essential warnings; that cartridges leak, which could expose addictive and dangerous nicotine to children, adults and pets; that there are currently no methods for proper disposal of e-cigarettes and accessories, creating a risk of environmental nicotine contamination; and that the manufacture, quality control, sales, and advertisement of e-cigarettes are unregulated. “Contrary to the claims of the manufacturers and marketers of e-cigarettes being ‘safe,’ in fact, virtually nothing is known about the toxicity of the vapors generated by these e-cigarettes. Until we know any thing about the potential health risks of the toxins generated upon heating the nicotine-containing content of the e-cigarette cartridges, the ‘safety’ claims of the manufactureres are dubious at best,” said Kamlesh Asotra, a research administrator at the institution. Boston University’s Siegel, on the other hand, reviewed 16 laboratory studies that identified the components in electronic cigarette liquid and vapor. He said his study, published online ahead of print in the journal, found that carcinogen levels in electronic cigarettes are up to 1,000 times lower than in tobacco cigarettes. “The FDA and major anti-smoking groups keep saying that we don’t know anything about what is in electronic cigarettes,” said Siegel, who added that he has no financial interest in e-cigarettes. “The truth is, we know a lot more about what is in electronic cigarettes than regular cigarettes.” “Taking these products off the market would force thousands of users to return to cigarette smoking,” Siegel said. “Why would the FDA and the anti-smoking groups want to take an action that is going to seriously harm the public’s health? The only ones who would be protected by a ban on e-cigarettes are the tobacco companies, as these new products represent the first real threat to their profits in decades.” The report also reviews what Siegel said is preliminary evidence that electronic cigarettes can be effective in suppressing the urge to smoke, largely because they simulate the act of smoking a real cigarette.