3 ways electronic cigarettes can harm you and your loved ones

by Dinna Louise C. Dayao / October 7, 2019

One of the more recent developments in smoking is the electronic cigarette.

People have been finding ways to smoke for centuries. But one of the more recent developments in smoking is the electronic cigarette, or e-cigarettes. 

Electronic cigarettes come in many shapes and sizes.

Some e-cigarettes look like regular cigarettes; others resemble pens and USB sticks; and some may come with refillable tanks.

All e-cigarettes work the same way. These battery-powered devices heat a liquid, sometimes called “e-juice,” “e-liquid,” “vape juice,” or “vape liquid.” The liquid comes in flavors like chocolate, mango, and bubble gum. In the process, vapors—or, more accurately, aerosol—are formed that the user can inhale. Using an e-cigarette is called “vaping.”

E-cigarettes smell good and taste nice, and they may seem safe. But as of September 27, 2019, 805 lung injury cases have been reported in the US, and 12 deaths have been confirmed. All reported patients have used e-cigarettes. 

The exact cause of the lung disease that has killed 12 people in the US is still unknown. But there are some very real dangers attached to e-cigarettes.

1. E-cigarettes can blow up and seriously injure—or kill—you.

The lithium-ion batteries in e-cigarettes are prone to overheating and exploding, and have injured many users. Remember King Sardea? The teenager suffered terrible injuries in 2018, after his e-cigarette exploded while he was using it. The blast badly burned his face, tearing out part of his tongue and knocking out many of his teeth. 

King is not the only victim of an e-cigarette explosion. One list cites two other such explosions in the Philippines in 2016 and 2018. Similar incidents have been reported in countries such as Belgium, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. 

In the US, between 2015 and 2017, about 2,035 e-cigarette explosion and burn injuries sent users to hospital emergency departments. What’s worse, two men—Tallmadge D’Elia and William Brown—died after their e-cigarettes exploded and lodged shards into their bodies. In the case of Tallmadge, his e-cigarette was made in the Philippines. 

2. E-juice usually contains liquid nicotine, a deadly poison.

What exactly does an e-cigarette contain? It is hard for consumers to know. “For example,” says the Centers for Disease Control, “some e-cigarettes marketed as containing zero percent nicotine have been found to contain nicotine.”

The negative health effects of nicotine are well-known. Nicotine is highly addictive and can harm the adolescent brain development, which continues it development into the early to mid-20s. Nicotine can damage unborn babies. 

The liquid nicotine in e-juice poses special risks to children. Some e-liquids smell like fruit or candy and comes in colorful packages. This makes them attractive to children, who might open the packages and swallow the e-liquid.

Kids have smaller bodies than adults. Therefore, it takes less liquid nicotine to poison the little ones. “Doctors say a tablespoon of some e-liquids on the market would be enough to kill an adult; half a teaspoon could kill a child,” reports The Guardian.

Eli James “EJ” Hotaling is the first child in the US to die from accidentally swallowing the toxic ingredient in e-cigarettes. The toddler was only 18 months old when he died.

From 2013 to 2017, an estimated 4,745 poisoning cases related to e-liquids among children under age five were treated in US hospital emergency departments.

3. E-cigarette aerosol contains harmful substances.

It can contain nicotine and other dangerous substances, warns the Centers for Disease Control. These substances include the following: 

• Ultrafine particles that can be inhaled deep into the lungs;
• Flavorings such as diacetyl, a chemical linked to a serious lung disease;
• Volatile organic compounds, whose health effects include eye, nose, and throat irritation and damage to the liver, kidney, and central nervous system; and
• Cancer-causing chemicals.

In short, e-cigarette aerosol is not just harmless “water vapor.” This is something teenager Anthony Mayo found out the hard way. “Shocking scans show how vaping left a 19-year-old’s lungs filled with solidified oil,” reports the Daily Mail.

This scan shows how, thanks to a 2-year-old vaping habit, Anthony Mayo’s lungs filled with solidified vape oil. He’s only 19. Yet doctors compared his lungs to “the lungs of a 60-year-old, two-pack-a-day, smoker.”

According to the report, “Doctors found his lungs were severely congested with the solidified vape oil, which they compared to hardened grease from cooking bacon. It had caused Anthony, who has vaped for around two years, to have ‘the lungs of a 60-year-old, two-pack-a-day, smoker’.”