Are e-cigarettes a safe alternative to smoking?
An electronic cigarette is a battery-operated device that emits a vaporized solution to inhale. Usually, the solution contains nicotine. The aim is to provide the sensation of inhaling tobacco smoke, without the smoke.
These devices have various names, including e-hookahs, vaporizer cigarettes, vapes, and vape pens.
They come in a range of shapes. Some look like USB drives and others look like pens, for example.
Manufacturers market as tools for quitting or cutting down on smoking, but the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) class them as tobacco products.
United States federal law does not allow the sale of tobacco products to people under the age of 21Trusted Source. However, a major concern about vaping is its attraction for young people.
Vaping is popular among teens. In fact, it is now the most popularTrusted Source form of tobacco use among young people in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Below, learn what contain, how they work, and what research indicates about their risks to health.
In 2019, experts linked vaping with the appearance of a severe lung disease now known as e-cigarette, or vaping, product use-associated lung injury, or EVALI. By February 2020, doctors had confirmed 2,807Trusted Source cases and 68 deaths from this disease, according to the CDC. Investigations are ongoing.
An e-cigarette is a device that may look like a cigarette, a cigar, a pipe, a pen, or a USB drive. The liquid inside may smell fruity, but it can have a high nicotine content.
JUUL devices, for example, look like USB drives. They appeared on the U.S. market in 2015Trusted Source and are now the top-selling brand of e-cigarette in the country.
There is concern about young people using JUUL. Refills come in flavors such as cool cucumber, mango, and mint, which may seem natural and harmless, but a single JUUL refill contains as much nicotine as a pack of 20 cigarettesTrusted Source.
The electronic cigarette (e-cigarette), for many considered as a safe alternative to conventional cigarettes, has revolutionised the tobacco industry in the last decades. In e-cigarettes, tobacco combustion is replaced by e-liquid heating, leading some manufacturers to propose that e-cigarettes have less harmful respiratory effects than tobacco consumption. Other innovative features such as the adjustment of nicotine content and the choice of pleasant flavours have won over many users. Nevertheless, the safety of e-cigarette consumption and its potential as a smoking cessation method remain controversial due to limited evidence. Moreover, it has been reported that the heating process itself can lead to the formation of new decomposition compounds of questionable toxicity. Numerous in vivo and in vitro studies have been performed to better understand the impact of these new inhalable compounds on human health. Results of toxicological analyses suggest that e-cigarettes can be safer than conventional cigarettes, although harmful effects from short-term e-cigarette use have been described. Worryingly, the potential long-term effects of e-cigarette consumption have been scarcely investigated. In this review, we take stock of the main findings in this field and their consequences for human health including coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Electronic nicotine dispensing systems (ENDS), commonly known as electronic cigarettes or Vape 1000 Kali Hisapan, have been popularly considered a less harmful alternative to conventional cigarette smoking since they first appeared on the market more than a decade ago. E-cigarettes are electronic devices, essentially consisting of a cartridge, filled with an e-liquid, a heating element/atomiser necessary to heat the e-liquid to create a vapour that can be inhaled through a mouthpiece, and a rechargeable battery (Fig. 1) [1, 2]. Both the electronic devices and the different e-liquids are easily available in shops or online stores.
