William Atkins
Thursday, 23 July 2009 19:20
Science -
Health
Page 1 of 3
On Wednesday, July 22, 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning to users of electronic cigarettes: "The products we reviewed so far we found to be illegal."
E-cigarettes, or electronic cigarettes, are battery-powered devices that can provide a dose of nicotine within a propylene glycol/nicotine vapor solution when inhaled. The vapor is similar to smoke inhaled by regular cigarettes, cigars, and pipes.
According to the July 22, 2009 WebMD article “
FDA: E-Cigarettes Bad, but Not Banned,” two E-cigarette devices have been tested by the FDA. These devices are called Smoking Everywhere and Njoy.
Nineteen cartridges from these two brands of E-cigarette devices were tested at the St. Louis, Missiouri FDA facility. Some of the E-cigarette cartridges are advertised as not containing nicotine, while others are advertised as containing nicotine.
Cartridges of E-cigarettes are available in a variety of flavors and nicotine concentrations.
The concentrations vary from high doses (similar to regular cigarettes) and mid and low doses (like “light” or "ultralight” cigarettes), to those concentrations that contain little or no doses of nicotine.
The flavors available include orange, mint, vanilla, strawberry, caramel, and coffee.
The summary of the FDA findings follow (per WebMD article):
• "All but one cartridge marked as having no nicotine actually contained the addictive substance."
• "Cartridges marked as having low, medium, or high amounts of nicotine actually had varying amounts of nicotine."
• "One of the cartridges contained a toxic antifreeze ingredient, diethylene glycol."
• "The devices emitted "tobacco-specific nitrosamines which are human carcinogens."
• "The devices emitted "tobacco-specific impurities suspected of being harmful to humans."
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