The Desert Research Institute (DRI) and the University of Nevada, Reno researchers’ new pilot study reveals that a vaping (e-cigarette use) episode exposes the user’s respiratory pathway to a considerable quantity of carcinogens like formaldehyde, which alarms everyone about the dangers of vaping.

"Until now, the only research on the respiratory uptake of aldehydes during smoking has been done on conventional cigarette users," said Vera Samburova, Ph.D., associate research professor in DRI's Division of Atmospheric Sciences and lead author of the study. "Little is known about this process for e-cigarette use, and understanding the unique risks vaping poses to users is critical in determining toxicological significance."

The breath of 12 e-cigarette consumers before and post vaping were tested for measurement of existence of harmful chemicals. Samburova and her associate Khlystov designed a way to measure this during their study. The method enabled them to measure the quantity of aldehydes in the breath. The quantity of chemicals in the exhaled breath was then subtracted from the quantity in the vapors of the e-cigarette. The resultant quantity is the amount that is taken in by the lungs of the user, describes Samburova.

"We found that the average concentration of aldehydes in the breath after vaping sessions was about ten and a half times higher than before vaping," Samburova said. "Beyond that, we saw that the concentration of chemicals like formaldehyde in the breath after vaping was hundreds of times lower than what is found in the direct e-cigarette vapors, which suggests that a significant amount is being retained in the user's respiratory tract."

"Our new pilot study underlines the potential health risk associated with the aldehydes generated by e-cigarettes," said Samburova. "In the future, e-cigarette aldehyde exposure absolutely needs to be studied with a larger set of participants."