A controversial new study claims that e-cigarettes that operate at 5.0 volts and above cause vapers to inhale cancer-causing formaldehyde-releasing agents up to 15 times as high as regular cigarette smokers who consume 20 sticks a day, implying that vaping isn’t a safer alternative to conventional smoking and could actually be more dangerous.
In a letter to the editor of The New England Journal of Medicine published last Wednesday, researchers from the Portland State University reveal that based on their extrapolation, a high-voltage” e-cigarette user vaping at a rate of 3 ml per day would inhale 14.4±3.3 mg of formaldehyde per day in formaldehyde-releasing agents.” This estimate is said to be “conservative” as the researchers “did not collect all of the aerosolized liquid, nor did [they] collect any gas-phase formaldehyde.”
“In addition, formaldehyde-releasing agents may deposit more efficiently in the respiratory tract than gaseous formaldehyde, and so they could carry a higher slope factor for cancer,” the letter states.
Formaldehyde is a known human carcinogen commonly used in pressed-wood products (particleboard, plywood, etc.), glues, adhesives and paper product coatings. It is also an industrial disinfectant and preservative.
According to Medpage Today, the carcinogenic status of the compound is “on the basis of occupational exposures to liquid formaldehyde.” Therefore, the “key unknown is the actual health risk to humans from inhaled formaldehyde or formaldehyde-releasing agents, either as aerosolized liquid or in gaseous form.”
Meanwhile, the e-cigarette advocacy group American Vaping Association vehemently opposes the Portland State study due to “extremely inappropriate testing methods.”
“When the vapor device in the study was used at the realistic setting of 3.3 volts, formaldehyde was not detected. When the researchers increased the voltage to 5.0 volts and continued to have their machine take puffs for three-to-four seconds, this caused extreme overheating and the production of formaldehyde. This is known in vapor product science as the ‘dry puff phenomenon,’” explains group president Gregory Conley.
“Contrary to the authors’ mistaken belief, these are not settings that real life vapers actually use, as the resulting dry puffs are very unpleasant. In the real world, vapers avoid dry puffs by lowering the length of their puff as they increase voltage,” he adds.
Standard e-cigarettes come in a fixed setting of 3.7 volts. But variable-voltage models are available in the market, which voltage can be turned up to 6.0 volts. Regardless of the perceived unpleasantness of high-voltage vaping, the fact is that option exists and can potentially produce really fatal results.