Significant amounts of toxic metals, including lead, leak from some e-cigarette heating coils are present in the aerosols inhaled by users, according to a study from scientists at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In the study, the scientists examined e-cigarette devices owned by a sample of 56 users. They found that significant numbers of the devices generated aerosols with potentially unsafe levels of lead, chromium, manganese and nickel.
Chronic inhalation of these metals has been linked to lung, liver, immune, cardiovascular and brain damage, and even cancers. E-cigarettes typically use a battery-supplied electric current that passes through a metal coil to heat nicotine-containing "e-liquids," creating an aerosol-a mix including vaporized e-liquid and tiny liquid droplets.
Vaping is popular in part because it provides the nicotine "hit" and the look and feel of tobacco-smoking but without smoking's extreme health risks. Evidence that vaping isn't entirely safe continues to accumulate. Recent studies have found that e-cigarette liquids contain flavorings and other chemicals that harm cells in standard toxicology tests.
Of the metals significantly present in the aerosols, lead, chromium, nickel and manganese were the ones of most concern, as all are toxic when inhaled. The median lead concentration in the aerosols, for example, was about 15 μg/kg, or more than 25 times greater than the median level in the refill dispensers. Almost 50 percent of aerosol samples had lead concentrations higher than health-based limits defined by the Environmental Protection Agency. Similarly, median aerosol concentrations of nickel, chromium and manganese approached or exceeded safe limits.
E-cigarette heating coils typically are made of nickel, chromium and a few other elements, making them the most obvious sources of metal contamination. Aerosol metal concentrations tended to be higher for e-cigarettes with more frequently changed coils-suggesting that fresher coils give off metals more readily.
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