Second hand e-cig smoke may be less harmful than regular cigarettes

A new study has demonstrated that a second-hand smoke of e- cigarette has increased levels of certain toxic metals even if they were less harmful as compared to the regular cigarettes.

The study conducted by USC discovered an overall 10-fold decrease in exposure to harmful particles, with close-to-zero exposure to organic carcinogens.

According to hr study, e-cigarette smoke contained the toxic element chromium, absent from traditional cigarettes, as well as nickel at levels four times higher than normal cigarettes despite the lack of harmful organic material and a decrease in the majority of toxic metals emissions.

Constantinos Sioutas, professor at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, said that their results showed that overall electronic cigarettes seem to be less harmful than regular cigarettes, but their elevated content of toxic metals such as nickel and chromium did raise concerns.

Arian Saffari, a PhD student at USC Viterbi and lead author of the paper, asserted that the metal particles likely come from the cartridge of the e-cigarette devices themselves - which opens up the possibility that better manufacturing standards for the devices could reduce the quantity of metals in the smoke.

The study is published in the Journal of Environmental Science, Processes and Impacts.