A recent study shows that even when e-cigarette smoking is healthier than traditional smoking, its secondhand smoke still contains hazardous toxins such as chromium, zinc, nickel and lead which are life threatening.
Scientists headed by Constantinos Sioutas, professor at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, performed a study where secondhand smoke from e-cigarettes was closely examined.
The results of the study, which was published online on August 22 by the Journal of Environmental Science Processes and Impacts, revealed an overall 10-fold decrease in exposure to harmful specks with close-to-zero exposure to organic carcinogens.
The same study, however, revealed that even when e-cigarettes may be better compared to traditional cigarettes, they still produce and release harmful toxins into the air.
This means secondhand smoke from e-cigarettes are just as harmful or is more health threatening than that of its traditional counterpart.
In fact, Sioutas and his team confirmed that e-cigarette smoke contains the toxic element chromium, which is absent from traditional cigarettes, as well as nickel that is higher in levels by four times compared to commercial cigarettes.
For this, Sioutas said that even when e-cigarettes contain less harmful elements in their composition, but the aforementioned toxic metals present in its smoke still put human health at risk.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, chronic respiratory pathologies such as pharyngitis, bronchitis, rhinitis, irritation, along with asthma, congestion, hyperemia, development of tracheobronchitis, polyps in the upper respiratory tract, ulceration of the nasal mucosa with possible septal perforation are the long term effects of inhaling chromium.
On the other hand, nickel in the air is a proven haematotoxic, immunotoxic, neurotoxic, genotoxic, reproductive toxic, pulmonary toxic, nephrotoxic, hepatotoxic and carcinogenic agent - according to a study published by the Indian Council of Medical Research.