Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: Bill S on 18/02/2014 20:43:29

Title: How safe are e-cigarettes?
Post by: Bill S on 18/02/2014 20:43:29

This was posted on Facebook by a friend yesterday; I thought it was worth opening up for discussion.

“About 6 weeks ago I started "vapping" smoking an e cigarette that uses fluid with pure nicotine in it, yesterday evening my dogs, one a 14 week old puppy were playing in the dining room then all went quiet, either means sleep or up to no good, I went to see what was happening and to my horror, pup had somehow got hold of a bottle of e liquid and had managed to pierce the bottle, the resulting smear of nicotine on her tooth claimed her life this morning after being at the vets all night, the e fluid is lethal be warned, there appears to be no cure, and the lids are not child proof lids, please please share this as nicotine is a lethal poison and people should be warned.”

Title: Re: How safe are e-cigarettes?
Post by: RD on 19/02/2014 09:27:05

Nicotine is "designed" to kill : it's made by the plant as an insecticide ...

Quote from: wikipedia.org/Insecticide

Natural insecticides, such as nicotine ... are made by plants as defenses against insects. Nicotine-based insecticides are widely used in the US and Canada, but are barred in the European Union

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insecticide

Quote from: inchem.org

7.2 Toxicity
           7.2.1 Human data
                 7.2.1.1 Adults
                         The mean lethal dose has been estimated to be 30
                         to 60 mg (0.5-1.0 mg/kg) (Gosselin, 1988).
                 7.2.1.2 Children
                         The lethal dose is considered to be about 10 mg
                         of nicotine (Arena, 1974).
           7.2.2 Relevant animal data
                 Dog:     oral LD50 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_lethal_dose):   9.2 mg/kg
                 mouse:   oral LD50:   3.3 mg/kg  (RTECS, 1985-86)
                 rat:     oral LD50:   50 mg/kg

http://www.inchem.org/documents/pims/chemical/nicotine.htm

Title: Re: How safe are e-cigarettes?
Post by: dlorde on 20/02/2014 16:44:40

E-cigarettes (when used according to the instructions) are considered considerably safer than smoking tobacco in straight cigarettes, which is very dangerous - so it's only relatively safer, but there are yet to be any quality long-term studies on their safety. Some concern has been expressed about the carrier substances (polyethylene or propylene glycol, or glycerol) and their effects on the lung, especially already damaged lungs (e.g. long term smokers, respiratory diseases, etc).

As has already been said, nicotine itself is one of the most powerful toxins known, although in the doses delivered by e-cigarettes, is not expected to be any more dangerous than nicotine patches and other alternative delivery systems.