The vapor from electronic cigarettes contains two previously unidentified chemicals that can cause cancer, according to a new study. The new research, published in Environmental Science & Technology, also shows that levels of harmful chemicals vary between e-cigs.
Researchers in the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory used two different electronic cigarettes and simulated vaping at different battery power settings. Then they analyzed the e-cigs’ vapor. They found that the vaporizers released 31 harmful chemicals, including two possibly cancer-causing compounds that had never been previously found in e-cig vapor. The amount of chemicals produced varied, based on the temperature at which liquids are “vaporized” by the device’s “heating coil.” The higher the temperature inside the coil, the higher the amount of chemicals emitted.
E-cigs with one heating coil instead of two also released higher chemical levels, probably because two coils better distribute the heat between them, which means their temperatures don’t climb quite as high.
