No Second-hand Risk
Latest study demonstrates negligible risk to the general public from vaping as a hospital group spreads lies about third-hand dangers
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by Dave Cross
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Beaumont Health is Michigan’s largest health care system and claims, “to provide patients with compassionate, extraordinary care. Beaumont’s commitment to patient and family-centred care contributes to the health and well being of residents throughout the community and beyond.”
Vapers thinking about attending one of Beaumont’s eight hospitals might want to reconsider if the standard of care matches the ignorance on display on the groups latest iTunes podcast about electronic cigarettes.
The podcast offers listeners the chance to “hear from doctors that are knowledgeable, relatable and bringing you the information you need to live a smarter, healthier life. Each episode you can expect an in-depth discussion about health trends with everyday-life application.”
Dr Nick Gilpin begins the one about vaping by stating: “There’s an epidemic happening, and the ones who seem to be targeted most aggressively are teens and young adults.”
It gets worse. The next speaker present uncritical regurgitation of many of the lies spread about vaping.
Dr Rita Patel claims that all vapour contains aldehydes and heavy metals, all juices are made with diacetyl and kids are up to ten times as likely to progress onto smoking: “As soon as they’re addicted to the nicotine they’re moving to cigarettes for the hit.”
Then she says that not only does second-hand vapour exist and pose a danger – so does third-hand vape: “Absolutely, the same chemicals that are in nicotine that you inhale are exhaled. So absolutely, other people are exposed…and the vapour falls on surfaces, and children are getting this on their hands and then into their mouths.”
The proclamations are so ignorant and stupid you have to wonder if they are genuinely looking for a heartbeat in that apple.
They are left looking particularly stupid as a team from the Spanish universities of Madrid Complutense and Coimbra released their work this week – published in the International Journal of Public Health Research. The researchers looked at the potential for passive exposure from vape.
Comparing vapour to smoke, they noted the results of a study by Goniewicz et al., which found toxicant levels in e-cigarettes 9-450 times lower than in cigarette’s smoke.
Using a smoking machine whose experimental conditions and puffing regime could be adapted to replicate real-life conditions, they measured potential nicotine exposure.
They wrote: “The main conclusion of the investigation was the drastic reduction in nicotine exposure of the passive subject when the smoker of a combustion cigarette was replaced by the vaper of an e-cigarette.”
“According to these results, the passive vaper will require to be surrounded by 100 active vapers to reach the same nicotine exposure, as he would receive from only one active smoker.”
In other words, second-hand vape poses all the danger of holding a couple of potatoes and an aubergine – which makes the discussion of a third-hand risk utterly pointless.
In fact, the second-hand greatest risk is that of Beaumont’s lie spreading which could put smokers off trying to switch to ecigs.
Resources:
- The Vaping episode of the Beaumont ‘HouseCall’ Podcast – [link]
- “On the Passive Exposure to Nicotine from Traditional Cigarettes Versus e-Cigarettes” by Martín, Peñín-Ibáñez, González Gonzálvez, Santos-Delgado, and González Ureña- [link]
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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