They may look like travel shampoo bottles and smell like bubblegum, but after a few hundred puffs, some disposable, electronic cigarettes and vape pods release higher amounts of toxic metals than older e-cigarettes and traditional cigarettes, according to a study from the University of California, Davis. For example, one of the disposable e-cigarettes studied released more lead during a day’s use than nearly 20 packs of traditional cigarettes.

  • TrackinDaKraken@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    All they had to do was keep it quiet for 15 years until the new generation was addicted.

    Remember when e-cigarettes looked like cigarettes, and were for a brief time allowed to be smoked indoors in public? That’s how it started, we were told they were completely healthy, and a way to “kick the habit”, because it’s “just a habit”, not one of the strongest addictions you’ll ever encounter, according to the people who make millions off of it.

  • Squiddork@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    If you read the paper, it assumes a 100% absorption rate of the heavy metals emitted.

    I’m not here to defend vapes but I think that is a seriously overlooked flaw in this study. Most people don’t puff a cigarette/vape and hold it in their lungs until it’s completely absorbed.

    Couldn’t see anything about the bioavailability of these carcinogens via lungs factored into the absorption rate either.

    Ontop of that the sample size from this study is abysmal and from the same manufacturer and there is also a declared conflict of interest.

    IMO more studies need to be done before we can conclusively determine the damage and risks of disposable vapes.

    • vxx@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      They’re comparing it to cigarettes and other vapes.

      20 times more lead is still 20 times more lead.

      • Squiddork@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        Cigarettes have a myriad of carcinogens like toluene, benzene, formadelhyde, hexamine, napthaline and acetone

        Stating that vapes are more toxic than cigarettes over one metric is disingenuous journalism.

        I’m not disagreeing about the lead content but studies like this get picked up by journalists with the comprehension of a tomato and are then misconstrued into these fear-creating headlines for engagement.

        The adoption of vapes tremendously ate into the big tobacco profits, its an extremely effective way of getting off cigarettes. (for better or worse)

        If we instead listened to these studies and developed a similar form of nicotine replacement therapy with harm minimisation in mind under industry regulation we’d do far more for smokers, vapers and our healthcare systems than any fear mongering ‘don’t do it!’ campaigns which time and time again do not work.

        • vxx@lemmy.world
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          7 days ago

          I said they tested them against cigarettes and older vapes.

          You’re the one msirepresenting the study.

    • lechekaflan@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Some of the studies on smoking I’ve seen were less about understanding how and why people consume tobacco and recommend alternatives, and more like echoing the old practices and beliefs of the temperance movement, which considers tobacco and alcohol as archenemies of humanity. That anytime there’s someone publicly declaring they quit smoking, it’s followed with praises which at times reminiscent of a tent revival.

  • catty@lemmy.worldBanned
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    7 days ago

    Do these threats exist in the exhaled smoke? It seems like people around me don’t GAF about the exhaust from vapes.

    • rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works
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      6 days ago

      Sure, but the diesel bus that just drove by you gave you way more cancer than Brad with his Vanilla Mocha vape did.

      • catty@lemmy.worldBanned
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        6 days ago

        But omg didn’t he look oh so cool blowing out that massive puff of white toxins from his mouth and nose?

        • TheRealKuni@lemmy.world
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          6 days ago

          If you’re blowing clouds like that you’re not using the disposable vapes the article talks about. You’re using sub-ohm coils and a larger rig capable of heating coils designed for the task of making big clouds. You’re also using a liquid with a relatively low concentration of freebase nicotine.

          Disposables vapes use higher concentrations of nicotine in a salt form rather than freebase, and much smaller quantities of liquid per puff, to deliver a hit that feels more like a cigarette.

          Back when I vaped I made my own coils, though eventually I moved on to temperature-controlled ones, which require a purity of metal not found in the cheap-ass nic-salt disposables.

          The toxicity is from the coils in the disposables, not from the eliquid and not from rigs.

          • catty@lemmy.worldBanned
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            6 days ago

            The toxicity is from the coils in the disposables, not from the eliquid and not from rigs.

            Lemmy, where the real knowledge they don’t want you know know is, not facebook/conspiracy anymore, but this shit right here.

    • MiddleAgesModem@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Those people are jackasses and should be shamed. I quit a 6 year cigarette smoking habit with just one year of using an actual vape, not these shitty gas station things. One of the best decisions I’ve made in my life. The potential for smoking cessation is there. But stupid and obnoxious people set the basis for stereotypes.

      • catty@lemmy.worldBanned
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        6 days ago

        The amount of nicotine one gets per puff in a vape is greater than a cigarette. As cigarettes are generally being made illegal, big tobacco needs to circumvent the law (which governments usually give multiple years notice to relevant companies). Sadly, using vapes is not giving up cigarette smoking but merely moving addiction from one nicotine method to another. Teens vaping causing a life-long addiction is no different from teens smoking and doing the same.

    • Ann Archy@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      It’s so fucked that every single actor in the Marlboro commercials died of lung cancer. All of them.

    • SoftestSapphic@lemmy.worldOP
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      5 days ago

      I swapped off vapes back to American Spirits after finding this study lol.

      Marlboro reds are really tasty, but i know they’re horrible for you as far as cigarettes go.

  • Psythik@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    I’m glad it’s never the weed vapes. Quit nicotine and just use those instead. They have low-THC blends to ease you into the habit if you don’t normally partake. Just ask your local dispensary employee—They’re all a bunch of stoners who mainly work there for the free weed (cause the pay sucks), so they love showing newbies the way. Don’t be afraid to ask.

    • catty@lemmy.worldBanned
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      7 days ago

      Go buy weed and pay tax. Weed may be made illegal again but not if you buy it…

      In other news, weed vapes weren’t studied here.

  • WanderWisley@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    What! So you’re telling me that all the people I know who stopped smoking cigarettes and are now smoking vapes it’s bad for them? And yet they tell me it’s actually good and healthy for them? I’m totally shocked!

    • emeralddawn45@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      7 days ago

      Its literally only the shitty disposable ones from china that are owned by the tobacco companies. A good quality vape with real nicotine juice is made with propylene glycol, the ingredient in asthma inhalers, and nicotine. Its literally just a nicotine delivery system. The only unhealthy thing about these disposable ones is the fact that theyre contaminated.

      • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        7 days ago

        Its literally only the shitty disposable ones from china that are owned by the tobacco companies

        Which conveniently somehow skirt flavor bans that banned the good juice in many places, bans that for some reason were lobbied for by the tobacco companies…

        • TimewornTraveler@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          7 days ago

          whole industry is SO fucking frustrating.

          vaping saved my life for a decade.

          it was a battle to keep finding supply, though.

          then disposables flood the market. they fucked up my heart over the last year.

          upon quitting now I’m free from the bullshit war between the companies and consumers, the companies and regulators, the regulators and the addicts, and most of all, free from the war between myself and the addiction.

          But life would be a lot easier if they just let us vape like they did in 2012…

      • BowtiesAreCool@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        I buy Al Fakher crown bars which are low Nic, .5% as opposed to the 5% that most like geek bar use, and they are vegetable glycerine and propylene glycol, and are still made in China.

        I don’t k ow how people hit those 5% vapes they make me cough every time.

        • emeralddawn45@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          7 days ago

          I cant speak to those, i buy my own unflavored vape juice in bulk, but if theyre made in china id still be very wary of heavy metal contamination.

  • Nougat@fedia.io
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    7 days ago

    The three “brands” they tested are all from the same outfit, who most certainly sources them all from the same sweatshop in China. This does not apply to all disposables by any stretch. There’s plenty of better reasons to dunk on disposables.