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. 2020 Aug 5;17(16):5650.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17165650.

The Impact of Device Settings, Use Patterns, and Flavorings on Carbonyl Emissions from Electronic Cigarettes

Yeongkwon Son  1   2 , Clifford Weisel  2   3 , Olivia Wackowski  4   5 , Stephan Schwander  2   3   4   6 , Cristine Delnevo  4   5 , Qingyu Meng  2   3   4
Affiliations

The Impact of Device Settings, Use Patterns, and Flavorings on Carbonyl Emissions from Electronic Cigarettes

Yeongkwon Son et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Health impacts of electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) vaping are associated with the harmful chemicals emitted from e-cigarettes such as carbonyls. However, the levels of various carbonyl compounds under real-world vaping conditions have been understudied. This study evaluated the levels of carbonyl compounds (e.g., formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, glyoxal, and diacetyl, etc.) under various device settings (i.e., power output), vaping topographies, and e-liquid compositions (i.e., base liquid, flavor types). The results showed that e-vapor carbonyl levels were the highest under higher power outputs. The propylene glycol (PG)-based e-liquids generated higher formaldehyde and acetaldehyde than vegetable glycerin (VG)-based e-liquids. In addition, fruit flavored e-liquids (i.e., strawberry and dragon fruit) generated higher formaldehyde emissions than mint/menthol and creamy/sweet flavored e-liquids. While single-top coils formed 3.5-fold more formaldehyde per puff than conventional cigarette smoking, bottom coils generated 10-10,000 times less formaldehyde per puff. In general, increases in puff volume and longer puff durations generated significantly higher amounts of formaldehyde. While e-cigarettes emitted much lower levels of carbonyl compounds compared to conventional cigarettes, the presence of several toxic carbonyl compounds in e-cigarette vapor may still pose potential health risks for users without smoking history, including youth. Therefore, the public health administrations need to consider the vaping conditions which generated higher carbonyls, such as higher power output with PG e-liquid, when developing e-cigarette product standards.

Keywords: carbonyl; e-liquid; electronic cigarette; flavoring; power; vaping topography.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) Formaldehyde and (b) acetaldehyde levels (µg/puff) generated by combinations of base materials (100% VG, PG:VG 1:1 (v/v), and 100% PG) and device power outputs (6.4, 14.7, and 31.3 watt for low, medium, and high power, respectively). 90 mL puff volume, 3.8 s puff duration, and 24 s intervals was used as vaping topography, and 12 mg/mL nicotine was added into all e-liquids.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Carbonyl levels (ng/puff) generated by different flavored e-liquids (ST: strawberry, DF: dragon fruit, MT: menthol, CM: cinnamon, BC: Bavarian cream, SC: sweet cream, BG: bubble gum, and GC: graham cracker, 10% by volume, 1% for cinnamon flavor in VG-base) and non-flavored VG e-liquid (VG). Other vaping parameters are 6.4 watts power output, 90 mL puff volume, 3.8 s puff duration, and 24 s puff interval.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Formaldehyde levels (log-scale) from e-cigarettes with different coil structure (top- and bottom coil) and power outputs (low and high levels determined by lower and higher power outputs [5 watts for top coil and 18 watts for bottom coil] used in the literatures). Red dots indicate our results, and black dots are the results obtained from literatures [4,13,14,15,19,22,45,46,47,48,49]. Formaldehyde levels in cigarette smoke from literatures [50,51,52] are shown for comparison purpose.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Estimated daily carbonyl exposures (µg/day) for (A) e-cigarette vapers and (B) conventional cigarette smokers.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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