Turns out, toxins produced by e-cigarettes vary by flavor. According to a Penn State-led study, the flavor of an e-cigarette may affect more than a consumer's taste buds.
The team of researchers said that the chemicals making up different flavors also produce different levels of free radicals, toxins often associated with cancer and other diseases. The researchers analyzed popular e-cigarette flavors and the number of free radicals they produced and found that many of the chemicals used to flavor e-cigarettes increased the production of free radicals, while a few actually lowered it.
Free radicals are unstable molecules that can cause damage to healthy cells and have been linked to conditions like inflammation, heart disease, and cancer. Consumers inhale these free radicals when they smoke a combustible cigarette. While e-cigarettes do not give off smoke, they do contain many different chemicals to flavor the e-liquids, which are absent from traditional, or "combustible," cigarettes.
The researchers said that while the flavorings are approved for consumption, they aren't evaluated for safety when heated. This study appears in the journal Free Radical Biology and Medicine.
