Harvard researchers report that many flavored e-cigarettes contain a chemical associated with severe respiratory diseases. The disease scars the tissue of the lungs, causing the small airways to become compressed and narrowed.
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The chemical responsible for that was diacetyl, which was used to create butter flavoring.
The name may sound odd, but Dorshorst says popcorn lung makes it hard to breathe, and it causes permanent lung damage.
This week, new research from the Harvard School of Public Health suggests that the flavorings in some types of e-cigarettes contain chemicals that have been linked to a rare disease called “popcorn lung”.
Since many states still sell e-cigs to minors, researchers purposefully tested flavors “with [the] potential appeal to young people such as cotton candy, Fruit Squirts and cupcake”.
Diacetyl was present at levels beyond the laboratory limit in 39 of the flavors, acetoin in 46 flavors, and 2,3-pentanedione in 23 flavors.
As another group of researchers concluded earlier this year, after publishing a similar study in the journal Tobacco Control, these flavouring chemicals may be technically “food-grade” but that doesn’t mean they’re safe to inhale. At last count, there were about 500 e-cigarette brands and more than 7,000 flavors available, and they work in different ways, delivering varying amounts of nicotine, toxins, and carcinogens.
A total of 47 of the 51 e-cigarettes contained at least one of the chemicals after researchers put the e-cigarettes in a chamber and analysed the vapour.
“Since most of the health concerns about e-cigarettes have focused on nicotine, there is still much we do not know about e-cigarettes”, said co-author David Christiani, an Elkan Gout Professor of environmental genetics.
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E-cigarettes have always been a subject of debate on whether or not the product doesn’t bring health hazards. Flavors like strawberry and butterscotch, for instance.
