Study Claims Some Flavors of E-Liquid More Harmful Than Others

>

Everyone loves their e-liquid flavors. Whether they’re sweet and taste like cereal or cotton candy, or smooth and deliver a mellow hint of cucumber or mint, flavored e-liquid is one of the main things that makes vaping appealing to many tobacco converts, offering deliciousness and diversity in addition to filling your nicotine cravings.

Some of those flavored extracts, however, may be more dangerous and harmful than others. In particular, the flavors of cinnamon, butter, and vanilla are being called out in a study by the University of Rochester Medical Centre in New York where researchers are postulating that some flavors could be harmful to your lungs and white blood cells.

If backed up with more specific studies, this could be a very damaging report for those e-liquids, some of which are my favorite flavors, especially during the winter. More information is needed, however, and this study has a number of reasons why it should be viewed critically.  

Study Lacks Specifics

The first red flag for this validity of this study is the lack of specifics. The flavors that were tested are not named, and the method and dosage of ingestion are not specified. Instead it’s replaced by generalities and statements about the results instead of the process. The only hint was one sentence that said that monocytic blood cells were directly exposed to e-liquids.

The study says, instead, that “flavoring chemicals and e-liquids led to higher production of two well-established biomarkers for inflammation and tissue damage mediated by oxidative stress,” and that this causes “significant cell death.”

Study author Thivanka Muthumalage stated that while the extracts are safe to be ingested, they are not safe for inhalation. This begs a few questions: how were the flavors inhaled? How hot were e-liquids heated for inhalation? The one thing that Muthumalage was specific about was which flavors were more dangerous than others.  

'Cinnamon, vanilla and butter flavoring chemicals were the most toxic but our research showed that mixing flavors of e-liquids caused by far the most toxicity to white blood cells,' he said.

Of these flavors, butter is probably the least surprising to make the list. Vapers have long known that diacetyl, a compound that lends a creamy or buttery note to artificial flavorings, is behind a disease known coloquially as 'popcorn lung,' because the only people who seem to get it have spent years in microwave popcorn factories where there's a high volume of diacetyl in the air from lending the corn its buttery flavor.

The others are more confusing - many, if not most flavor extracts, are designed for use in cooking. As such, some contain oils and alcohols, substances experienced liquid mixologists know to avoid. A more thorough accounting of which specific flavors, including what brands and at what percentage concentration, were used in testing would help us to know how seriously to take the findings.

Vape Studies

As with most studies that involves vaping, the dosage, vaping equipment used, and methodology of the test is very important. A lot of studies in the past, such as the study that falsely declared that vaping held high formaldehyde or benzoic acid levels, lead to scary and misleading headlines about the effects of vaping. These dramatic claims were later debunked because the original tests were inconclusive and didn’t use vapor in a real-world setting.

However, if there is truth to this study, that’s not encouraging news. Flavored e-liquids are one of the most cherished parts about vaping and one of the more appealing aspects for smokers who are looking for a nicotine fix without going back to the combustible cigarettes. We’ll keep an eye out for more specifics on how this study was conducted and report back next time.