Yahoo – AFP,
Harumi Ozawa, 27 Nov 2014
 |
E-cigarettes
contain up to 10 times the amount of cancer-causing agents as
regular tobacco,
Japanese scientists say (Photo by Joe Raedle / Getty/AFP/File)
|
E-cigarettes
contain up to 10 times the level of cancer-causing agents in regular tobacco,
Japanese scientists said Thursday, the latest blow to an invention once
heralded as less harmful than smoking.
The
electronic devices -- increasingly popular around the world, particularly among
young people -- function by heating flavoured liquid, which often contains
nicotine, into a vapour that is inhaled, much like traditional cigarettes but
without the smoke.
Researchers
commissioned by Japan's Health Ministry found carcinogens such as formaldehyde
and acetaldehyde in vapour produced by several types of e-cigarette liquid, a
health ministry official told AFP.
 |
Supporters
of e-cigarettes say the devices
are a safer alternative to traditional tobacco,
whose bouquet of toxic chemicals and
gases can cause cancer, heart disease
and
strokes
|
"In
one brand of e-cigarette the team found more than 10 times the level of
carcinogens contained in one regular cigarette," said researcher Naoki
Kunugita, adding that the amount of formaldehyde detected varied through the
course of analysis.
"Especially
when the... wire (which vaporises the liquid) gets overheated, higher amounts
of those harmful substances seemed to be produced."
Kunugita
and his team at the National Institute of Public Health, who submitted their
report to the ministry on Thursday, analysed several cartridges of e-cigarette
fluid using a machine that "inhaled" 10 sets of 15 puffs.
One brand,
the name of which was not revealed, showed a more than 10-fold level of
formaldehyde on nine out of every 10 sets.
Another
brand showed similar levels on several sets, but was not consistently that
high.
Kunugita
said the research showed e-cigarettes are not the harmless products many people
assume them to be.
"We
need to be aware that some makers are selling such products for dual use (with
tobacco) or as a gateway for young people" to start a smoking habit, he
warned.
In common
with many jurisdictions, Japan does not regulate non-nicotine e-cigarettes.
'Serious
threat'
Nicotine
e-cigarettes, or so-called Electronic Nicotine Delivery System (ENDS), are
subjected to the country's pharmaceutical laws, but they can be bought easily
on the Internet, although they are not readily available in shops as they are
in some Western countries.
"You
call them e-cigarettes, but they are products totally different from regular
tobacco," the ministry official said.
"The
government is now studying the possible risks associated with them, with view
to looking at how they should be regulated."
In August,
the World Health Organisation called on governments to ban the sale of
e-cigarettes to minors, warning they pose a "serious threat" to
unborn babies and young people.
 |
E-cigarettes
had been growing in popularity as a healthier alternative to
cigarettes (Photo
by Leon Neal / AFP/File)
|
Despite
scant research on their effects, the WHO said there was enough evidence
"to caution children and adolescents, pregnant women, and women of
reproductive age" about e-cigarette use, due to the "potential for
foetal and adolescent nicotine exposure (having) long-term consequences for
brain development".
The UN
health body also said they should be banned from indoor public spaces.
US health
authorities said earlier this year that the number of young people there who
have tried e-cigarettes tripled from 2011 to 2013.
More than a
quarter of a million young people who had never smoked a cigarette used
e-cigarettes last year, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Supporters
of e-cigarettes say the devices are a safer alternative to traditional tobacco,
whose bouquet of toxic chemicals and gases can cause cancer, heart disease and
strokes -- among the leading causes of death in many countries.
But
opponents say the devices have only been around for a few years, and the
long-term health impact from inhaling their industrial vapour is unclear.
Big tobacco
companies are snapping up producers of e-cigarettes, wary of missing out on a
snowballing global market worth about $3 billion.
Earlier
this month, Oxford Dictionaries picked "vape"-- the act of smoking an
e-cigarette -- as their new word of the year.
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