While there is ample evidence supporting the dangers of secondhand smoke from combustible cigarettes, investigators are just beginning to evaluate how e-cigarette products impact nonsmokers.
A recently published report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine found that there is moderate evidence for “increased cough and wheeze” in adolescents who use (electronic nicotine delivery systems) ENDS, and that there is a relationship between ENDS use and increased asthma exacerbations.
“Little is actually known regarding the effects of ENDS use on health, and even less is known regarding secondhand exposure to aerosols from these products,” said lead investigator Jennifer E. Bayly, BS, a doctoral student and medical research scholar at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, told MD Magazine®.“People often refer to these aerosols as “vapor” and may perceive them as only containing water and, therefore, completely harmless, which is not true.”
While ENDS aerosols contain lower levels of toxins compared to combustible cigarettes, the vapors are not free of toxic ingredients. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), ENDS contain heavy metals, ultrafine particulate, and cancer-causing agents.
Previously, I have written about E-Cigarettes (The E-Cigarette Controversy… Continues…). In the beginning there was very little data about ENDS. Even today the data now obtained is still very much ion its infancy. Data on secondhand exposure to the vapor is almost non-existent. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t a risk. It just means that it hasn’t been studied very well at this time. The common sense lesson here is simple. If there are chemicals within the vapor going in then there are chemicals in the vapor going out. It is not possible to absorb 100% of the chemicals in the vapor and just exhale water. Pretty simple really…