Poorly-done e-cig vapor study gets big headlines but means nothing Posted on January 22, 2015 A new research letter in the New England Journal of Medicine reveals how shoddy this once-respected medical journal has let its peer-review standards become. The authors, from Portland State University in Oregon, titled their work “Hidden formaldehyde in e-cigarette aerosols” in an apparent (and successful) attempt to get more media and advocacy attention than their inaccurate study would have normally garnered.
The study examined the aerosol produced by a tank system electronic cigarette. The aerosol was collected and analyzed for formaldehyde. Two voltage settings were used: low (3.3V) and high (5.0V).
The main findings were that at low voltage, no formaldehyde was detected, but at high voltage, “high” levels of formaldehyde were detected. Using these levels, the authors extrapolate to derive an overall lifetime cancer risk from vaping, which they claim is higher than that from cigarette smoking.
The authors, and of course the media reports on this study, jumped to the thoroughly unsupported conclusion that the cancer risk associated with vaping is higher than that associated with smoking.
The conditions used to study the e-cigarette aerosol at the high voltage setting were unrealistic and under such conditions, a vaper would never be able to use the product. This is because the wattage being used was so high that the vaporizer was overheated (for a conventional e-cigarette it would likely damage or burn the coils), creating a horrible taste which a vaper could not tolerate. This is sometimes referred to as the “dry puff phenomenon.” This problem renders its conclusion invalid.
Essentially, what this study demonstrates is that if you overheat a vaping system, it will produce high levels of formaldehyde. However, such conditions are not realistic, as they could not be tolerated by an actual vaper. Therefore, extrapolating from this study to a lifetime of vaping is meaningless.
One simple explanation can be found on the blog site of one of the world’s leading experts on e-cig/vapor physics and toxicology, Dr. Konstantinos Farsalinos of the Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center, Athens, Greece:
Thus, it is more than obvious that once again the atomizer was overheated, which of course will result in very high levels of formaldehyde production. What the authors ignore is that these conditions, commonly called dry-puff phenomenon, [are] easily detected by vapers [e-cigarette users]. In fact, overheating results in an unpleasant taste that none can withstand. As a result, no vaper is ever using the e-cigarette at such conditions and, thus, will never be exposed to such levels of formaldehyde.
ACSH’s Dr. Gil Ross had this comment: “This flawed study will be used to attack e-cigs as not only not safer than smoking cigarettes, but perhaps even more toxic. Nothing could be further from the truth. Those who promulgate this falsehood should be aware that even if the study were done correctly — which it was not — such a conclusion is the worst kind of destructive fiction. Formaldehyde was not even studied, in fact, but something called formaldehyde releasing compounds. And formaldehyde is a very weak carcinogen, with only a slightly increased chance of cancer among highly-exposed workers over a lifetime. The presence of one such carcinogen in vapor cannot be compared to the toxic stew of carcinogens and other toxins in cigarette smoke. Nevertheless, those with a vested interest — either financial or ideological, or both — will jump for joy over another opportunity to denigrate vaping. The result: smokers trying to quit will avoid trying e-cigs and stick to the ‘tried-and-true’ but abysmally ineffective approved methods, feeding Big Pharma and government tax collections and slowly killing themselves.”
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