I have recently started smoking electronic cigarettes and stopped regular analog cigarettes.  I’ve read a lot about the obvious benefits of switching to electronic cigarettes and I feel that compared to regular cigarettes they are “healthier”.  But with all the positive information out there, I want to also post about the unhealthy effects of electronic cigarettes.  Many times when scouring the internet for information about a product, you get lost in all the marketing gibberish especially for such a hot new product like the electronic cigarette where a ton of sites have sprung up to try and sell you their version of the e-cig.  I wrote a post earlier about the benefits of electronic cigarettes, this post is to play devils advocate and show you what other people are saying are the bad effects of electronic cigarettes.

Carcinogens Found in Electronic Cigarettes

Although not all brands of cartridges were found with carcinogens, the FDA reported trace amounts in various brands of electronic cigarette.

In one sample, the FDA’s analyses detected diethylene glycol, a chemical used in antifreeze that is toxic to humans, and in several other samples, the FDA analyses detected carcinogens, including nitrosamines

Nicotine is Highly Addictive

Nicotine, a highly addictive substance is the prime ingredient in most of the flavor cartridges.  Although it is being absorbed differently than smoking regular cigarettes, your nicotine blood level increases after using electronic cigarettes.  This can cause addiction to nicotine and in turn tobacco cigarettes.

Children Friendly Flavors

The special flavors such as apple, cinnamon, bubble gum and so forth are appealing to children who discover the electronic cigarettes.  This may lead cause the electronic cigarette to be a “gateway drug” to regular cigarettes.

Electronic Cigarettes are Inconvenient

Electronic cigarettes can be annoying if you have to carry extra cartridges or batteries around.  If you don’t you risk running out of either the e-cig battery or cartridge and going back to smoking regular cigarettes.  The weight of the electronic cigarette is also a negative factor.  It is far heavier than regular cigarettes and makes it annoying for times you want to just have the cigarette in your mouth without holding it in your hands.

Nicotine Poisoning

Nicotine is a poison and although it takes a lot to kill somebody, there is a risk of nicotine poisoning that should be considered when using electronic cigarettes, especially because the effects can creep up on you since the nicotine is absorbed at a slower rate than regular cigarettes.

Electronic Cigarettes and Socializing

It’s difficult to bond with the other smokers while smoking your electronic cigarettes.  When people ask you to take cigarette breaks, its not the same when you bust out your e-cig.  Although you can smoke indoors, it’s still a bit odd and not socially accepted to bust out your SmokeStik or Cigana cigarette yet!

E-Cigs are Illegal

At the time of this writing, in many regions of the world such as Australia, Brazil, Canada, The Netherlands, New Zeland and others countries, electronic cigarettes have legal limitations.  For more information on this check out the wiki page on electronic cigarettes.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.