Review on metallic components released due to the use of electronic cigarettes

Abstract

The use of electronic cigarettes (ECs) is recognized as a source of many pollutants, just like conventional cigarettes (CCs). The analysis of EC aerosol samples has confirmed the presence of various metallic species. Most of these metals originate from various parts of the cartomizer, e.g., solder joints, wires, and silicate beads. The metal concentration levels in EC samples were shown to be generally two to four orders of magnitude lower than those of CCs. However, the use of ECs can still pose significant human health hazards as consumers are exposed to the toxicity of those metals and many other hazardous pollutants released simultaneously via the vaping of ECs. The review also describes the detection and quantification of various metals in ECs and CCs. This review was carried out to assess the level of metal species released from ECs and to suggest proper guidelines to control consumer exposure.

Metal/Metalloid Levels in Electronic Cigarette Liquids, Aerosols, and Human Biosamples: A Systematic Review

“…Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are battery-operated devices that generate aerosols by heating a liquid solution (e-liquid with or without nicotine) with a metal coil (Bansal and Kim 2016;Mishra et al 2017). The use of e-cigarettes is increasing among both former smokers and young adults who have never smoked due to the perception of safety (Goniewicz et al 2013) and appealing flavors (Farsalinos et al 2015;Zare et al 2018).…”

“…Reviews on e-cigarettes have summarized e-cigarette development (Cooke et al 2015;Glasser et al 2017), their impact on decreasing smoking use (Kalkhoran and Glantz 2016;Rahman et al 2015), health and physiological effects Pisinger and Døssing 2014;Zucchet et al 2017), and effects of vaping on indoor air quality (Fernández et al 2015;Zainol Abidin et al 2017). Some of these reviews reported on metal levels; in addition, two systematic reviews have specifically evaluated metals/metalloids in cig-a-like cartomizers (Mishra et al 2017) and in e-cigarette aerosols (Gaur and Agnihotri 2019). Overall, previous reviews reporting on e-cigarette-related metal/metalloid levels focused on aerosols, e-liquids, or human biosamples, separately.…”

A Summary of In Vitro and In Vivo Studies Evaluating the Impact of E-Cigarette Exposure on Living Organisms and the Environment

“…Vaporized e-liquid solution is contaminated with various metals, such as aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, iron, manganese, nickel, lead and zinc, which pose a threat to human health [44]. In addition, trace metals can also be delivered to the aerosol through components of the electronic nicotine delivery system, such as the atomizer and batteries; this contamination may be exacerbated by the high temperatures involved in the production of the aerosol [45].…”

E-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury

“…Thermal decomposition products (thought to originate from e-liquid components, primarily propylene glycol and vegetable glycerine), including formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and acrolein, have been identified in e-cigarette vapour (Klager et al, 2017). Klager et al (2017), Mishra et al (2017), Eaton et al (2018), McNeill et al (2018), Olmedo et al (2018), Blount et al (2020) Review © 2020 The author…”

“…Bronchiolitis obliterans induced by diacetyl and 2,3-pentanedione (buttery flavouring) has long been recognised (Holden and Hines, 2016). An increasing number of studies has also found toxic metals such as nickel, lead and chromium in e-cigarette emissions, most likely released from the metallic coil used to heat the e-liquid during aerosol generation (Mishra et al, 2017;Olmedo et al, 2018). While it is well established that metals can be toxic for multiple organs and systems through inhalation, no studies have looked at the specific health effects of metals in e-cigarettes.…”