Safety of electronic cigarettes remains unclear
Wednesday January 20th, 2010
The jury is still out on the safety of electronic cigarettes, experts say today.
These reusable battery-powered devices allow nicotine to be inhaled in a vaporised solution. They contain no tobacco, so reduce exposure to toxic compounds.
Drs Andreas Flouris and Dimitris Oikonomou, of the Institute of Human Performance and Rehabilitation in Greece, reviewed the safety evidence.
On the website of the British Medical Journal, they write: "The sector for alternative smoking products is in a froth of excitement about the potential to increase its market share and revenues."
Electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, may help smokers to quit. But "recently the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expressed serious concerns about their safety".
The authors explain that studies on the health effects of actively or passively smoking e-cigarettes are lacking. Recently, three toxicological analyses have been published.
The FDA's analysis found a large variation in nicotine content among similarly labelled cartridges, and that nicotine was found in all cartridges, including samples that said they didn't contain nicotine. But the private enterprise Health New Zealand concluded that labelling accurately reflected nicotine content.
The FDA, but not Health New Zealand or publicly funded Greek research institute, Demokritos, found diethylene glycol, a "highly toxic liquid involved in a number of prominent mass poisonings".
Overall the FDA advises caution on the potential harmful effects of e-cigarettes, Health New Zealand recommends e-cigarettes compared with normal tobacco products, and Demokritos maintains a neutral position.
This is "all the knowledge we currently have about e-cigarettes", warn the authors. "More rigorous chemical analyses are needed, followed by extensive research involving animal studies and, finally, clinical trials in humans," they advise.
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