Naked Science Forum

Non Life Sciences => Chemistry => Topic started by: Airthumbs on 31/10/2012 19:58:52

Title: Disposable E-Cigarettes, are they a con?
Post by: Airthumbs on 31/10/2012 19:58:52
I just took apart one of those disposable electronic cigarettes.  It was extremely difficult to get inside it but here are the results..........

There is a battery about half the size of the e-cig, all this does is flash the led when you have a puff.  There is no other function at all for the electronic bit other then to make the led flash.

The active bit was quite surprising, inside wrapped round a hollow plastic tube was some wadding, again half the length of the e-cig, the wadding has been soaked in some kind of liquid tobacco, i sniffed it direct and now I am having an almighty nicotine rush.  The way it works is to pass air over the liquid wadding and that's how you get your hit.

The one I got was bought for me and I thought it had run out, the wadding is still soaked in the liquid.  It costs around eight pounds.  I imagine if there was no battery, led, and tough metal case concealing it all, the actual price of this product would be very low indeed and definitely put the tobacco companies out of business for the manufacture of cigarettes.
Title: Re: Disposable E-Cigarettes, are they a con?
Post by: CliffordK on 31/10/2012 20:23:43
Just imagine if they were made to be refillable, with a bottle of pure nicotine, and an eyedropper, the abuse potential would be HUGE.

There still may be benefits from electronic heating, although I would agree that the e-cig may in fact be a gimmick. 

I presume that most nicotine is refined from tobacco, although one could potentially develop bacteria or algae to make it, or make it in a lab.  But, if refined from tobacco, it would still require the tobacco farming and associated costs.

(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fthumb%2F7%2F70%2FNicotine.svg%2F177px-Nicotine.svg.png&hash=7943ecd9a36c83096053405a12513cdf)
Nicotine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine)
Title: Re: Disposable E-Cigarettes, are they a con?
Post by: Airthumbs on 31/10/2012 20:32:31
Must find my eyedropper!  :P
Title: Re: Disposable E-Cigarettes, are they a con?
Post by: RD on 31/10/2012 20:46:55
Keep it away from the kiddiewinks ...

Quote
Nicotine is the most commonly reported toxic substance causing symptoms among children who have consumed cigarettes or butts. Although a typical cigarette contains from 9 mg to 30 mg of nicotine, inhalation through smoking is only about 0.5–2 mg per cigarette. The estimated toxic dose of nicotine in non-addicted adults is 4–8 mg, and the lethal dose after one-time ingestion among children is reported as 40–60 mg.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3088460/ (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3088460/)
Title: Re: Disposable E-Cigarettes, are they a con?
Post by: CliffordK on 31/10/2012 21:00:30
According to Wikipedia, only about 2 to 4% of Americans roll their own cigarettes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_paper#Consumption).  How many of those are rolling something other than tobacco?

I wonder if the average person would rather pay outrageous amounts for disposable E-Cigs rather than mess around with refilling them.

Although, I see that some manufacturers do actually sell cartridge refills, as well as liquid refills.  The electronic thing still may be a gimmick.  Perhaps you could convert a fountain pen to an nicotine dispensing device.
Title: Re: Disposable E-Cigarettes, are they a con?
Post by: Airthumbs on 31/10/2012 21:18:02
Well the lethal dose for children is very worrying as I reckon there must be about that much in the wadding of the e-cig.  I mean its so wet I can squeeze it and the liquid drops out, i reckon I could probably get enough to fill a small teaspoon.

From what I can understand there are supposed to be two types of these e-cigs at the moment, one is a disposable the one claiming to be an e-cig, the other re-fill-able ones claim that they have an atomiser inside, however I think the only use for this is to give you the impression you are blowing smoke out but in fact it is water vapor.

I think they are both cons using gimmicks to sell their over priced product.  At the moment these e-cigs do not contain health warnings and if they contain a potentially lethal dose of nicotine then they really should have shouldn't they?

To make your own as your say Clifford K, you could use a pen a little wadding and a pipette to drop the liquid nicotine onto the wadding when it dries up.

If Nicotine is lethal in such low doses then I expect it would be a controlled substance, I am about to go and have a look to see if I can find some online.

Results of online search, SCARY!!  I found a company offering everything including stuff for DIY refills.  They even offer syringes!!  They say these are for measuring small amounts!  I feel a bit ill!
Title: Re: Disposable E-Cigarettes, are they a con?
Post by: CliffordK on 01/11/2012 01:11:48
Syringes are good for measuring small, precise doses...  but you do have to wonder if there is a different purpose.

So...
Are we moving closer to Aldous Huxley's Soma?
Title: Re: Disposable E-Cigarettes, are they a con?
Post by: RD on 01/11/2012 03:36:14
Well the lethal dose for children is very worrying as I reckon there must be about that much in the wadding of the e-cig.  I mean its so wet I can squeeze it and the liquid drops out, i reckon I could probably get enough to fill a small teaspoon.

It will be a diluted solution to match the inhaled nicotine dose of a regular cigarette.

But a refill bottle, say equivalent to a 20 pack of ciggies, could be close to a lethal dose for a child.
Title: Re: Disposable E-Cigarettes, are they a con?
Post by: CliffordK on 01/11/2012 04:49:58
I assume the reusable E-Cigs have essentially 100% nicotine distribution.  But, it is possible that the disposables are designed with a significant quantity that is assumed will not be atomized and breathed in.  So, breaking it open may allow a person access to more nicotine than was intended.

Using it with unintended application methods also might affect the dose availability, and thus toxicity.
Title: Re: Disposable E-Cigarettes, are they a con?
Post by: Airthumbs on 01/11/2012 05:26:49
I assume the reusable E-Cigs have essentially 100% nicotine distribution.  But, it is possible that the disposables are designed with a significant quantity that is assumed will not be atomized and breathed in.  So, breaking it open may allow a person access to more nicotine than was intended.

Using it with unintended application methods also might affect the dose availability, and thus toxicity.

Tell me about it, my hearts been racing all night!  The packet claimed it had 30 cigarettes worth of nicotine.  I had the stuff on my fingers and it really does stink you know!  It's 5.24am here!  Dirty horrible stuff!
Title: Re: Disposable E-Cigarettes, are they a con?
Post by: Airthumbs on 01/11/2012 05:40:52
I've just had a terrible realisation...... (must be all that nicotine)!

It happened when I placed the wadding soaked in nicotine into a see through plastic bag. When I was younger I saw a man sniffing glue from a bag. That was totally sociably unacceptable and the teacher called the police.  The substance he was using is less addictive then Nicotine.

Is this really what our Capitalist machine has encouraged us to do to each other!  I can think of hundreds and hundreds of other examples and I've just about had enough!

I just knew I should have just left that e-cig alone! :-
Title: Re: Disposable E-Cigarettes, are they a con?
Post by: Bored chemist on 01/11/2012 19:21:06
Well the lethal dose for children is very worrying as I reckon there must be about that much in the wadding of the e-cig.  I mean its so wet I can squeeze it and the liquid drops out, i reckon I could probably get enough to fill a small teaspoon.

It will be a diluted solution to match the inhaled nicotine dose of a regular cigarette.

But a refill bottle, say equivalent to a 20 pack of ciggies, could be close to a lethal dose for a child.
Although a typical cigarette contains from 9 mg to 30 mg of nicotine, inhalation through smoking is only about 0.5–2 mg per cigarette. The estimated toxic dose of nicotine in non-addicted adults is 4–8 mg, and the lethal dose after one-time ingestion among children is reported as 40–60 mg.
A pack of 20 would be somewhere between 180 and 600 mg which is enough to kill 3 to 15 children.
Most people do not realise how toxic tobacco is.
Since the e cig only has to contain the dose that's delivered, say 20 cigs worth of 1 mg  i.e. 20 mg, it might actually be safer.
However, the material in the wadding is a solution so, unless they have chosen a solvent with the same vapour pressure as nicotine the concentration will change as the e cig is "smoked".
It would be poor marketing and very dangerous to have the effective dose rise as you smoked it and keeping it constant might be rather difficult so I guess the effective dose falls as you smoke them. But there's bound to still be some left when the ecig is "exhausted" .
That means that the ecig has to contain more then the 20 mg or so that you might expect.

Without a lot more data it's impossible to know.

I just hope that the refill kit includes a pair of disposable gloves (and a severe warning to keep it away from children)
Title: Re: Disposable E-Cigarettes, are they a con?
Post by: mechanic on 26/07/2013 05:59:35
I just took apart one of those disposable electronic cigarettes.  It was extremely difficult to get inside it but here are the results..........

There is a battery about half the size of the e-cig, all this does is flash the led when you have a puff.  There is no other function at all for the electronic bit other then to make the led flash.

The active bit was quite surprising, inside wrapped round a hollow plastic tube was some wadding, again half the length of the e-cig, the wadding has been soaked in some kind of liquid tobacco, i sniffed it direct and now I am having an almighty nicotine rush.  The way it works is to pass air over the liquid wadding and that's how you get your hit.

The one I got was bought for me and I thought it had run out, the wadding is still soaked in the liquid.  It costs around eight pounds.  I imagine if there was no battery, led, and tough metal case concealing it all, the actual price of this product would be very low indeed and definitely put the tobacco companies out of business for the manufacture of cigarettes.

You should have just looked up how e-cigarettes work. The battery serves to heat up a filament inside the tube inside the wadding of tobacco soaked cloth. Air flows past the heating element and produces smoke, you should have tried smoking it without the battery and noticed no smoke comes out.
Title: Re: Disposable E-Cigarettes, are they a con?
Post by: OscarMab on 10/07/2014 17:33:48
I just took apart one of those disposable electronic cigarettes.  It was extremely difficult to get inside it but here are the results..........

There is a battery about half the size of the ecigs (http://ecigfiend.com), all this does is flash the led when you have a puff.  There is no other function at all for the electronic bit other then to make the led flash.

The active bit was quite surprising, inside wrapped round a hollow plastic tube was some wadding, again half the length of the e-cig, the wadding has been soaked in some kind of liquid tobacco, i sniffed it direct and now I am having an almighty nicotine rush.  The way it works is to pass air over the liquid wadding and that's how you get your hit.

The one I got was bought for me and I thought it had run out, the wadding is still soaked in the liquid.  It costs around eight pounds.  I imagine if there was no battery, led, and tough metal case concealing it all, the actual price of this product would be very low indeed and definitely put the tobacco companies out of business for the manufacture of cigarettes.

Well these e-cigs are just useless..Very low quality and bad for you health..
Title: Re: Disposable E-Cigarettes, are they a con?
Post by: chiralSPO on 12/07/2014 17:13:32
I know an analytical chemist who studies the contents of the liquids used for filling and refilling e-cigs. You might be surprised to know what sorts of things go into them (and they're not FDA regulated or anything at this point, so there is no obligation for the manufacturers to report the contents). From my discussions with him it sounds like the ingrediaents are along the lines of: water, propylene glycol, 10–20 different flavoring compounds (like damascenone, menthol, carvone etc.), sweeteners, like sucralose and sorbitol, and finally nicotine and nicotine analogs like nicotinamide, which probably aren't psychoactive, but may interfere with nicotine metabolism. Except for the nicotine, almost all of these compounds can also be found in candy and other foods or food-like products.

All in all, I would much rather use an e-cigarette than smoke a real one. There are all sorts of nasty compounds that are created during the partial combustion process (carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, pyridine, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, soot etc.)