Study links e-cigarettes to incurable disease called ‘Popcorn Lung’

In analyzing 51 different flavored e-cigarettes, author of the study Joseph Allen and his team found at least one of three top toxins — diacetyl, acetoin and 2,3-pentanedione — in 47 of the e-cigs. Not only that, “the amount of diacetyl in 39 of the e-cigs exceeded the amount that was able to be detected by the laboratory.”

“Diacetyl and other related flavoring chemicals are used in many other flavors beyond butter-flavored popcorn, including fruit flavors, alcohol flavors, and candy flavored e-cigarettes,” said Allen, assistant professor of exposure assessment science at Harvard.

He found this particularly disturbing because of the appeal fruity e-cigarettes such as “Cotton Candy, Fruit Squirts, and Cupcake” may have to young people.

Since e-cigarettes are a fairly new technology, the study’s co-author David Christiani, Elkan Blout Professor of Environmental Genetics, warns that Popcorn Lung may be just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the dangers e-cigs pose to their users:

“Since most of the health concerns about e-cigarettes have focused on nicotine, there is still much we do not know about e-cigarettes. In addition to containing varying levels of the addictive substance nicotine, they also contain other cancer-causing chemicals, such as formaldehyde, and as our study shows, flavoring chemicals that can cause lung damage.”

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References:
www.mdspiro.com
http://news.discovery.com/human/health/could-e-cigs-give-you-popcorn-lung-151208.htm
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/e-cigarette-flavoring-chemicals-linked-to-respiratory-disease/
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/joseph-allen/
http://www.wkbw.com/news/us-news-world/e-cigarettes-linked-to-incurable-popcorn-lung-disease
http://www.abc15.com/news/national/e-cigarettes-linked-to-incurable-popcorn-lung-disease 
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