Second-hand smoke from e-cigarettes contain toxic chemicals

Scientists have issued a warning on passive vaping because of toxic chemicals in e-cigarette vapour.

People in bars where vaping is allowed are exposed to unhealthy levels of formaldehyde, which causes cancer, and acrolein, a toxin which irritates the eyes and skin. 

That is the finding of a study based on as few as three people an hour using the devices in a bar.

The dangers of passive smoking led to the 2007 smoking ban, with the most famous victim being television celebrity Roy Castle, a non-smoker who died of lung cancer after years playing the trumpet in smoke-filled pubs.

However there is no similar law for vaping, although some pub companies including JD Wetherspoon have voluntarily banned electronic cigarettes. 

Last year the World Health Organisation called on Britain to consider a total ban in public spaces due to the risk from 'second-hand vapour'.

Researchers led by Berkeley University in California found toxic chemicals released into bars exceeded their state's guideline safety levels. 

E-cigarettes aren't without their risks

Their study states: 'E-cigarettes likely represent a lower risk to health than traditional combustion cigarettes, but they are not innocuous.'

Following a similar study last year, co-author Dr Hugo Destaillats, from Berkeley, said: 'Regular cigarettes are super unhealthy. E-cigarettes are just unhealthy.'

While e-cigarettes don't produce toxic tobacco smoke, which causes lung cancer, they generate other compounds that are potentially dangerous to human health.

Formaldehyde intake from just 100 daily puffs of one of these devices is higher than the amount inhaled by a smoker on 10 conventional cigarettes a day. 

What is the chemical used for? 

The chemical, used to embalm dead bodies, has been suggested to raise the risk of leukaemia and brain cancer in people who work with it regularly, like funeral directors.

Formaldehyde, along with acrolein, is produced when the main ingredients of electronic cigarettes, propylene, glycol and glycerine, are heated. 

The person vaping is exposed but they also endanger others when exhaling the vapour into the environment.

The study authors calculated levels of this vapour based on the findings of previous studies on vaping in bars. They took into account indoor air volumes and the number of hourly users, which ranged from just over three to 13.

Exceeding guidelines 

The results show, despite e-cigarette vapour evaporating quickly, that formaldehyde in these bars hit an average level of 135 micrograms per cubic metre and acrolein reached 28 micrograms – both exceeding the California guidelines.

Concentrations of toxic benzene, which can cause anaemia and shrink the size of women's ovaries, came close to unsafe levels.

The study, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, also judged the risk to people who use e-cigarettes, based on 250 puffs a day, which was found to be typical usage for more than 800 heavy vapers in a previous study.

This level of us exposed people to unsafe levels of formaldehyde and diacetyl - a chemical used to flavour many e-cigarettes and blamed for an incurable condition called 'popcorn lung' in which the organs become so scarred, a lung transplant can be needed. 

A spokesman from the UK Vaping Industry Association said research shows toxins present in smokers are almost entirely absent in people who vape, and said many toxic chemicals are not allowed under UK regulations.

A statement added: ‘The public health consensus in the UK is clear. Vaping products have been endorsed by Public Health England, the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal Society of Public Health and Cancer Research UK.’ 

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