Is the second-hand vapor produced by electronic cigarettes safe for you?
Electronic cigarettes are a relatively new invention, and they have been advertised as being a much healthier alternative to standard cigarettes. In fact, one of their major selling points is the fact that the vapor that is inhaled and then expelled by the user is completely harmless, and does not contain the same contaminants that standard cigarette smoke does.
New Information on the Safety of Electronic Cigarette Vapors
However, a recent study conducted by scientists at the University of California Riverside has found that this is in fact a myth, and that the vapors from electronic cigarettes have the potential to be harmful to the user and those people around them. The team at the University of California Riverside is among the first scientists to conduct health studies on e-cigs, and they have found alarming levels of toxins in some models. Some of these toxins come from high concentrations of tin, copper, potassium and calcium.
These findings have now thrown in to doubt the validity of the claims that using an electronic cigarette is harmless. The problem is, is that the fact that these nanoparticles of tin and other elements are present and the fact that these particles are being inhaled, means that they can enter the bloodstream quickly and easily and therefore be carried to the various organs of the body. More worryingly, it also means that these particles are potentially being released in to the atmosphere, every time an electronic cigarette user exhales, which is something that could be potentially damaging to the health of people situated near to the user.
The Potential for Long-Term Health Problems
As of yet, there has not been any scientific studies in to the longer term effects on health of people that use electronic cigarettes on a regular basis. However, studies have shown that people breathing in second-hand vapor from an electronic cigarette have amounts of nicotine in their system.
For a lot of people, electronic cigarettes have become a useful and less expensive alternative to smoking normal cigarettes, and one of the incentives to switch was the fact that they were being marketed as being safe to use around other people. However, due to the fact that e-cigs are still relatively new on the market, there is no legislation as to what can and cannot be included in the capsules, and this is something that is concerning a lot of people at the moment.