Are e-cigarettes harmful to others from second-hand smoke?

Jun 20, 2022 Leave a message

Are e-cigarettes harmful to others from second-hand smoke? Online, many people who do not smoke e-cigarettes will ask whether the second-hand smoke of e-cigarettes will harm the health of their families. In fact, there have been many studies abroad on this. Researchers measured particle concentrations indoors after participants used e-cigarettes

· They found that particles vaporized within seconds of exhaling from the aerosol

· For cigarettes, it takes 30-45 minutes for air quality to return to normal levels

A new study compares e-cigarettes with their traditional counterparts to assess how they perform in indoor Spaces, and it does seem to have less impact on the surrounding air.

Will e-cigarettes cause second-hand smoke hazards to others

While the particles in regular cigarette smoke stay in the air for more than 45 minutes, the researchers found that those originating from electronic vapor products vaporized within seconds, even indoors.

Even in the worst cases, there was no ventilation, and the researchers found that particle counts quickly returned to normal levels in trials of e-cigarettes.

The new research is part of a collaboration between Kaunas University of Technology in Lithuania, the Swiss Federal Laboratory for Materials Science and Technology, ETH Zurich and Fontem Ventures.

The participants were regular e-cigarette users and were tasked with using their devices in different ventilation conditions. The researchers then measured changes in the concentration of particles in the surrounding air.

Seconds later, the researchers found that liquid aerosol droplets evaporated, allowing the space to quickly return to normal levels.

Dr. Grant O 'Connell, affairs manager at Fontem Ventures, said there was no accumulation of particulate matter in the room after it was found in the subjects.

"This shows us how the basically different exhaled electronic vapor particles can be compared to the particles released by smoking traditional cigarettes, which stay in the air longer."

Immediately after the participants exhaled, the researchers said e-cigarette particle concentrations were on the same order of magnitude as those found in conventional cigarettes.

A new study compares e-cigarettes with their traditional counterparts to assess how they perform in indoor Spaces -- and it does seem to have less impact on the surrounding air.

Will e-cigarettes cause second-hand smoke hazards to others

But their decay makes a surprising difference.

According to the researchers, it takes 30-45 minutes for particle concentrations to return to background levels using regular cigarettes, which results in an increase with each puff.

"Exhaled electronic vapor aerosol particles have a different chemical composition than cigarette smoke, and here we show that the physical properties are also significantly different," says Dr O 'Connell.

"These data add to the growing body of evidence that e-cigarettes do not cause second-hand smoke hazards