Unknown danger lurks in e-cigarettes: Harvard study
Posted December 8, 2015 1:03 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A chemical used to flavour e-cigarettes has been linked to lung disease, sparking renewed concerns about the product’s popularity with children.
Researchers at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health found diacetyl in more than 75 percent of flavored electronic cigarettes and refill liquids. The chemical is linked to cases of bronchiolitis obliterans, a severe respiratory disease also known as “popcorn lung.”
The illness was first found in workers at a microwave popcorn processing plant who had inhaled articifical butter flavouring.
Researchers bought 51 different kinds of flavoured e-cigarettes at convenience stores, looking for flavours that would be especially appealing to children. Among them? Cotton candy, fruit squirts, and cupcake.
Diacetyl was found in 39 of the 51 flavours, and there were also concerns about two other chemicals, 2,3-pentanedione, and acetoin. In all, one or more of the three chemicals was found in 47 of the 51 tested flavours.
The chemicals are not found in nicotine – it’s specifically in the flavourings.
“Urgent action” is recommended, the group wrote.
Last year, Queen’s Park said it was cracking down on flavoured electronic cigarettes, in part because they were marketed to children. In 2012-2013, almost half of all young smokers in Ontario used flavoured tobacco.
Toronto Public Health has called for a ban on e-cigarettes.
