E-CIGARETTES
– SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
News: E-cigarettes linked with blood vessel damage
What's in the news?
●
Smoking cigarettes or other tobacco
products has been proven to cause a host of health problems, from lung cancer
to heart disease.
● In the past decade, electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, have risen in popularity as a potentially safer alternative. But recent studies suggest that these products have their own health risks.
E-cigarettes:
●
E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that heat a solution of nicotine and
different flavours to create an aerosol, which is then inhaled.
● These belong to a category of vapour-based nicotine products called Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS).
Government
Ban:
● In 2019, the Indian government banned the production, manufacture, import, export, transport, sale, distribution, storage and advertisement of all ENDS
Ingredients:
●
E-liquid is composed of five ingredients: vegetable glycerin (a material used in
all types of food and personal care products, like toothpaste) and propylene glycol (a solvent most
commonly used in fog machines.)
●
Propylene glycol is the ingredient that
produces thicker clouds of vapor.
●
The World Health Organisation says, adding
that these solutions and emissions also contain some solutions that are
considered to be “toxicants”.
● The aerosol containing a suspension of fine particles and gases simulates cigarette smoke. Following a puff, the aerosol is delivered to the user’s mouth and lungs and the rest is exhaled.
Impacts
of E-cigarette:
●
The use of ENDS or e-cigarettes adversely
affects almost all the human body systems with impact across the life course,
from the womb to tomb.
●
The cartridges used in ENDS or
e-cigarettes are filled with liquid nicotine, flavouring agents and other
chemicals.
●
A typical cartridge contains about as much
nicotine as a pack of 20 regular cigarettes and can act as a potential source
for nicotine addiction.
●
Studies on these nicotine solvents had
shown a varied degree of release of potential
carcinogens depending on the battery output voltage.
●
The liquid-vaporizing solutions also contain
toxic chemicals and metals that have been demonstrated to be responsible for
several adverse health effects, including cancers and diseases of the heart,
lungs and brain.