Author: Lindsey Konkel / Source: Science News for Students
Think electronic cigarettes without nicotine are harmless? Think again.
A new study shows that the flavorings in e-cigs can harm human infection-fighting cells.E-cigarettes work by heating a flavored liquid to make a mist that users inhale, or “vape.” These flavored liquids, called e-liquids, usually contain nicotine. But not always. Manufacturers add nicotine for vapers who want a buzz from their e-cigarettes. It’s the same stimulant that true cigarettes deliver. That nicotine — made from tobacco — qualifies most e-cigs as “tobacco products.”
The nicotine may be useful for adults who are addicted to cigarettes and want to wean themselves off. But nicotine can harm children and teens. That’s why some young people may choose to vape instead of smoke, and use nicotine-free products. But the new data suggest that e-cigs can still be toxic, even without nicotine.
“We know these flavors are really attractive to teens,” says Irfan Rahman. He works at the University of Rochester in New York. He says studies have shown that one reason many teens try e-cigarettes is an interest in fruity and candy-flavored products.
As a toxicologist, Rahman studies whether various materials can poison the body’s cells or tissues. His team decided to test whether certain flavored e-liquids are toxic (meaning poisonous).
They tested several common e-liquid flavorings. These included cinnamon roll, cotton candy, melon, pineapple, coconut and cherry.Such flavorings are considered safe in foods. That’s because after a person swallows them, they’re broken down in the gut. But that doesn’t mean these same chemicals are safe to breathe in. They could harm parts of the respiratory tract, such as the lungs.
Rahman’s team didn’t expose people to these flavorings, in case they were harmful. Instead, they tested e-liquid chemicals on human cells in a dish. This helped them judge whether the chemicals might also harm cells inside the body.
The answer: Some of the vaped flavorings did prove toxic to those cells. The researchers published their findings in the January Frontiers in Physiology.
Cells vs. cinnamon
After a person vapes, e-liquid chemicals could pass through the walls of small vessels in the lungs to enter the blood, says Thivanka Muthumalage. He’s a researcher in Rahman’s lab.
Rahman’s team wanted to know what would happen when these chemicals encountered blood cells. In one set of tests, the researchers exposed blood cells directly to the flavorings. They chose a type of white blood cell called a macrophage (MAK-roh-fayj). These cells are part of the immune system, which fights disease. Macrophages hunt down and “eat” particles that shouldn’t be in the blood stream. Those foreign particles could be germs or other things that might make people sick.
The team used doses of flavoring chemicals similar to what are in the e-liquids that you can buy at…
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