New Study Finds Cancer-Causing Substances in E-Cigarettes

There is now greater reason to doubt that e-cigarettes are a safer alternative to standard tobacco cigarettes and cigars, according to a new research.

E-cigarette vapor contains even more chemicals that cause cancer, a new study published in Environmental Science & Technology shows. Past studies have established that such harmful compounds exist in e-cigarettes, but researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have identified two new carcinogens in e-cig vapor.

As The Science Daily reports, the study also found that there are as many as 31 harmful chemicals overall that are emitted. One of the lead researchers of the study, Hugo Destaillat told Science Daily that normal cigarettes are ‘very unhealthy’ while e-cigarettes have been shown to be ‘unhealthy’. That being said, the toxic substances exist in varying degrees depending on the type of e-cigarette you are smoking.

One major factor that affects the carcinogenic levels is the temperature at which the liquid packets were vaporized. The higher the temperature of the heating coil that vaporized the fluids, the more harmful the chemicals emitted become, researchers argued. One interesting conclusion that the researchers drew based on this observation is that the first puff of an e-cigarette is less unhealthy than the last puff, due to the fact that it takes time for the coil to heat up.

The Verge report on the study also cites a 2009 study by the FDA that identified diethylene glycol, a toxic chemical commonly found in antifreeze in electronic cigarettes.