I was doing a bit of thinking about the safety of vaping recently. Clearly its generally a lot safer than smoking. Thats a given.
And we've all given this lots of thought already.
But here was my process, and I just wanted to raise this to promote some thought on the matter. This is where I started:
What are ALL the actual minor concerns, raised by us vapers, safety wise with vaping?
PG/VG?
You pretty much know those are safe.
PG is used by people with serious lung conditions in an identical manner, about as much, or less, than I suck on my e-cig/pv.
I know of people with nebulisers who use them 5-10 minutes continously, three or more times a day. People in hospital who use them continously. Thats more than I am inhaling from my e-cig, and it works exactly the same really (PG + heat = PG steam).
VG: While I think the viscosity of VG makes it seem like it might _maybe_ build up a little, if you had too much continously, the lungs actually have the direct capacity, in the lungs themselves to metabolise glycerin
(Wow right? It's pretty interesting and I have no idea why, perhaps its as a back up fuel for times of starvation so they lungs keep working. Helpful for us vapers though!).
So if this were to happen to any small degree, it would only be if your ratio was too high and you were vaping a lot. Essentially, the lungs clear it out quite well, and so long as your intake never exceeds the clearance, your all good. Given VG is a natural body metabolite, there are no toxicity issues either. Its also low GI, and produces little insulin response, as an energy source.
I think this is a good reason to be a little aware of your ongoing lung capacity though, if your allergic to PG, and go with a 100% VG mixture e-liquid.
Not a general reason though to worry about vaping, however, because the vast vast majority of mixtures are standardly higher in PG, usually 70/30.
So thats the base, PG/VG, not really any issues at all, there to be honest, unless your allergic to PG, and go with the uncommon 100% VG mix -in which case, one can easily get a lung test, and its only a theoretical concern anyway.
Nicotine? Well thats well established medically. Its got its down sides, but its a known quantity and pretty safe.
Flavours? Ya, maybe, but given the small amounts, only really if they are breaking down in some weird way due to heat. Which should be somewhat of any issue for foods too though, ones that are cooked at higher temps that is., which such flavours a frequently used in.
Though, in general, its most likely a very minor issue, we should probably know more about our flavouring - particularly the "smoke point" versus "boiling point". It seems likely that if we knew the smoke point of every ingredient in every flavour used in e-liquids(which I suppose would have to be a low end, and high end, like a range for the overall flavour), there would be ones we would probably avoid more, particularly with hotter vaping temps (or at least use the lower temps for those flavours). I suspect some organic flavours may have a low smoke point for example, by containing natural sugars.
I think perhaps added sweetners here are a similar issue to the way they are little unknown in foods (things like stevia, ethyl maltol). They are clearly not a huge issues however (especially ethyl maltol, being its high smoke point, and being used in tobacco already), but its another consideration for the compulsive health nut.
Filler, coil? Ya, but again, only if the materials are combusting, or breaking down, due to heat.
Ive given this lots of thought, but on re-reflection, it seems like actually the biggest of these small potential issues is more with high temp vaping, especially if they are using silica filler/wicks, or flavours with unknown combustion/smoke points.
With a "cooler vape", lower temp, the more sort of "standard" cig-a-like, you don't really have these same issues, as they related essentially to combustion.
.....
TLDR: Given the popularity, not so much in the world generally, but specifically here on ECF, of mods, variable voltage, low ohm/resistance cartos/clearos/tanks, and the whole "vapier is better" mentality we sometimes see.....
Is this really ideal? Shouldn't higher temp vaping at least be quite mindful of wicks/filler material particularly, and to a lesser degree the smoke point of flavours etc i.e be wary of dipping into the territory of combustion?
Your thoughts?
And we've all given this lots of thought already.
But here was my process, and I just wanted to raise this to promote some thought on the matter. This is where I started:
What are ALL the actual minor concerns, raised by us vapers, safety wise with vaping?
PG/VG?
You pretty much know those are safe.
PG is used by people with serious lung conditions in an identical manner, about as much, or less, than I suck on my e-cig/pv.
I know of people with nebulisers who use them 5-10 minutes continously, three or more times a day. People in hospital who use them continously. Thats more than I am inhaling from my e-cig, and it works exactly the same really (PG + heat = PG steam).
VG: While I think the viscosity of VG makes it seem like it might _maybe_ build up a little, if you had too much continously, the lungs actually have the direct capacity, in the lungs themselves to metabolise glycerin
(Wow right? It's pretty interesting and I have no idea why, perhaps its as a back up fuel for times of starvation so they lungs keep working. Helpful for us vapers though!).
So if this were to happen to any small degree, it would only be if your ratio was too high and you were vaping a lot. Essentially, the lungs clear it out quite well, and so long as your intake never exceeds the clearance, your all good. Given VG is a natural body metabolite, there are no toxicity issues either. Its also low GI, and produces little insulin response, as an energy source.
I think this is a good reason to be a little aware of your ongoing lung capacity though, if your allergic to PG, and go with a 100% VG mixture e-liquid.
Not a general reason though to worry about vaping, however, because the vast vast majority of mixtures are standardly higher in PG, usually 70/30.
So thats the base, PG/VG, not really any issues at all, there to be honest, unless your allergic to PG, and go with the uncommon 100% VG mix -in which case, one can easily get a lung test, and its only a theoretical concern anyway.
Nicotine? Well thats well established medically. Its got its down sides, but its a known quantity and pretty safe.
Flavours? Ya, maybe, but given the small amounts, only really if they are breaking down in some weird way due to heat. Which should be somewhat of any issue for foods too though, ones that are cooked at higher temps that is., which such flavours a frequently used in.
Though, in general, its most likely a very minor issue, we should probably know more about our flavouring - particularly the "smoke point" versus "boiling point". It seems likely that if we knew the smoke point of every ingredient in every flavour used in e-liquids(which I suppose would have to be a low end, and high end, like a range for the overall flavour), there would be ones we would probably avoid more, particularly with hotter vaping temps (or at least use the lower temps for those flavours). I suspect some organic flavours may have a low smoke point for example, by containing natural sugars.
I think perhaps added sweetners here are a similar issue to the way they are little unknown in foods (things like stevia, ethyl maltol). They are clearly not a huge issues however (especially ethyl maltol, being its high smoke point, and being used in tobacco already), but its another consideration for the compulsive health nut.
Filler, coil? Ya, but again, only if the materials are combusting, or breaking down, due to heat.
Ive given this lots of thought, but on re-reflection, it seems like actually the biggest of these small potential issues is more with high temp vaping, especially if they are using silica filler/wicks, or flavours with unknown combustion/smoke points.
With a "cooler vape", lower temp, the more sort of "standard" cig-a-like, you don't really have these same issues, as they related essentially to combustion.
.....
TLDR: Given the popularity, not so much in the world generally, but specifically here on ECF, of mods, variable voltage, low ohm/resistance cartos/clearos/tanks, and the whole "vapier is better" mentality we sometimes see.....
Is this really ideal? Shouldn't higher temp vaping at least be quite mindful of wicks/filler material particularly, and to a lesser degree the smoke point of flavours etc i.e be wary of dipping into the territory of combustion?
Your thoughts?
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