Latest Findings on the Safety of E-Liquids

Vaping has been advertised as a safer alternative to combustible tobacco smoking. This is the reason why a lot of people are switching to this safer alternative from their dangerous habit of smoking tobacco cigarettes. There is no debate on whether or not e-cigs are safer than the regular tobacco cigarettes because it’s a given, there still are ongoing discussions on the contents of  e liquid. There’s not much information available regarding the long-term effects of vaping as the phenomena are very new to the world and a lot of research hasn’t been carried out on this subject. You will find a lot, actually almost all, experts claiming that the activity is far safer than smoking tobacco.

The Contents of an E-Liquid

There are four basic ingredients that are found in almost all e-liquids, propylene glycol, water, nicotine, and flavoring. Some e-liquids contain vegetable glycerin instead of propylene glycol and some use the combination of both vegetable glycerin (VG) and propylene glycol (PG) in certain ratios. Both of these ingredients have other usages too, so we would take a look at those uses to find out if there are any potential hazards on their long-term usage. Most e-liquids offer various amounts of nicotine content from as low as 0mg to usually seen going as high as 24mg so we would discuss the effects of nicotine usage as well.

Nicotine

Most people with the dangerous habit of smoking tobacco cigarettes do that because of their nicotine dependency. The fact that you can get addicted to nicotine is enough to express how dangerous it is. A lot of research has been carried out to discuss the usage and the related side effects of nicotine.

Nicotine keeps people hooked to smoking tobacco cigarettes that contain hundreds of very harmful particles. The tendency of nicotine to become an addiction is the only drawback that the experts have been able to find so far on its pure inhalation. The researchers who carried out a research on rats in 1996 stated:

“our study does not indicate any harmful effect of nicotine when given in its pure form by inhalation.”

Tobacco addiction expert from King’s College London, Ann McNeill said that..

“We need to de-demonize nicotine,”

During an interview with Scientific American. Ann McNeill has been an active member of the Quit Smoking Community and has also carried out several studies on the usage of electronic cigarettes. She has devoted her energies to finding various new ways to help people in quitting their bad habit of smoking. The professor believes that electronic cigarettes can be an effective way of helping people to quit smoking. While e-cig liquid can also contain nicotine, she thinks that it is still a lot safer alternative.

Propylene Glycol

Propylene glycol is basically an odorless and tasteless synthetic liquid which has been classified as an additive by the Food and Drug Administration Authority (FDA) and is also “generally recognized as safe” to be used as a food ingredient. It is mostly used in for flavoring and food coloring. This is the ingredient which is responsible for creating vapor clouds during vaping. The CDC claims that “Propylene glycol is generally considered to be a safe chemical.”

Vegetable Glycerin

If you look up for the effects of VG usage, you will find out that there hasn’t been a lot of research carried out on this subject. But that thing that would put you to a relief is that Vegetable Glycerin is used to replace Propylene Glycol in e-liquids because some users avoid using the “Chemicals” based PG. VG based e-liquids also provide a strong throat hit which a lot of vapers prefer during vaping. Vegetable glycerin is naturally found in a lot of fruits, vegetables and dairy products and is considered safe to consume and for skin applications.