Is electronic cigarette harmful?

At present, most of the electronic cigarettes we use are closed electronic cigarettes. The technology we use is electronic atomization technology, that is, to atomize the tobacco oil into gas. Don't mention burning, there is no heating link. (By the way, the foreign product IQOS is of heating and non combustion type.) In short, no matter heating or atomization, the electronic smoke does not burn. 

What is the biggest harm of cigarettes? Tobacco. 

How does the harm of tobacco come about? Burning. More than 70 carcinogens, such as tar and carbon monoxide, will be produced during the burning of tobacco, which is the main source of tobacco hazards. Nitrosamines, the first carcinogen in tobacco, are produced in tobacco combustion.

 Therefore, electronic cigarettes without burning links will reduce the most harmful and serious parts of cigarettes. The atomized electronic smoke without tobacco is more harmful than the non burning electronic smoke with tobacco heating. To what extent? Here are some data:

(1) Science magazine: Electronic cigarettes are relatively safe. A column published by Science magazine on December 13 pointed out that a blanket ban on electronic cigarettes would do more harm than good. Founded by Edison in 1880, Science is one of the most authoritative academic journals in the world. The article pointed out: "According to the most conservative estimate, if the United States replaces cigarettes with nicotine e-cigarettes in the next 10 years, 1.6 million premature deaths can be avoided and 20.8 million people's health can be improved."

(2) The UK Ministry of Public Health pointed out that the harmful substances in cigarette smoke are almost non-existent in the electronic smoke, which is far less than 5% of the harmful substances in cigarette fog (in fact, most of them are less than 1%). The available evidence shows that the chemical substances in the electronic smoke liquid are not related to any serious risk. 

(3) Scientists from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new evidence: there is no second-hand smoke in electronic cigarettes. On July 27, 2020, researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released the latest paper, which showed that the content of tobacco specific nitrosamines (TSNA) metabolite NNAL in the urine of electronic cigarette users was extremely low, only 2.2% of cigarette users, and 0.6% of smokeless tobacco (snuff, chewing tobacco, etc.) users. This research result once again proves that the harm of electronic cigarette is far lower than that of traditional tobacco, and electronic cigarette does not have the problem of second-hand smoke of traditional tobacco.

(4) American Cancer Society: The content of carcinogenic chemicals in electronic cigarettes is far lower than that in cigarettes. In response to the public's doubts about whether electronic cigarettes can cause cancer, the American Cancer Society (ACS) also expressed a clear attitude on its official website: scientists are still studying the possible health hazards caused by long-term use of electronic cigarettes. What is important is the content of carcinogenic chemicals in electronic cigarettes, It is far lower than the content in cigarette smoke. "The study found that the harm of using electronic cigarettes to adults is significantly lower than that of ordinary cigarettes. Cigarette burning will produce more than 7000 chemical substances, of which at least 70 are clear carcinogens, and electronic cigarettes do not have this problem." The American Cancer Society further pointed out in its response, "We encourage people to switch from traditional cigarettes to electronic cigarettes." 

(5) UK Ministry of Public Health: The risk of cancer of electronic smokers is less than 0.5% of that of traditional smokers（ http://GOV.UK ）A report published by the British Department of Public Health (PHE) pointed out that, due to the reduction of more than 70 known carcinogenic ingredients in traditional cigarettes, the risk of cancer of electronic smokers is far lower - the potential risk of cancer of electronic smokers is less than 0.5% of that of traditional smokers. This conclusion is mainly based on the experimental results obtained by the University of St. Andrews in the United Kingdom. By eliminating interference information, setting control test group and modeling, the experiment finally concluded that the relative carcinogenic risk of electronic cigarettes is only about 0.4% of that of traditional cigarettes, less than 0.5%. 

(6) Study on 90 day inhalation toxicity of glycerol, an electronic fumigant in Chinese Journal of Tobacco, in rats: no obvious toxicity The researchers selected 120 Wistar rats for 90 day inhalation toxicity test (recovery period: 28 days), and detected the changes of rats' weight and food consumption during the test; At the end of the exposure period and recovery period, the rats were dissected for hematology, blood biochemistry, urine and other indicators detection, lung bronchial lavage fluid analysis, and histopathological examination of rat organs. The study concluded that there was no significant toxic effect on rats after nasal inhalation of glycerol for 90 days and exposure dose of 750 mg/kg. I hope everyone can treat electronic cigarette rationally.