Some of the hard science on popcorn lung and diacetyl (self.electronic_cigarette)
by A0G
After seeing the 15th article, I decided to see if I could find, straight from the source, not a blog, the facts of the matter. It's important to have independent reputable sources when convincing others, as they'll generally condemn any other source as having some kind of agenda.
So I set out to find the real numbers on diacetyl in cigarettes vs vapes, as well as some verification that smoking hasn't been related to Bronchiolitis Obliterans (BO) or "popcorn lung".
Here's a link to the study everyone's up in arms about:
Source 1 - http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/advpub/2015/12/ehp.1510185.acco.pdf[1]
From the "Results" section:
Diacetyl was detected above the laboratory limit of detection 39 of the 51 flavors tested, ranging from < limit of qualification (LOQ) to 239 µg/e-cigarette.
(Source 1)
That's from a minimum of none to a maximum of 239 micrograms (1 millionth of a gram).
Next thing is to verify the diacetyl levels in cigarettes. From the NIH website:
Fourteen commercial cigarette brands and one reference cigarette released 301–433 μg of diacetyl per cigarette.
Source 2 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4137810/[2]
That's a minimum higher than the ecig maximum.
Finally, a source for diacetyl from cigarettes not being linked to BO:
Further, because smoking has not been shown to be a risk factor for bronchiolitis obliterans, our findings are inconsistent with claims that diacetyl and/or 2,3-pentanedione exposure are risk factors for this disease."
Source 3 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24635357[3]
The only remaining question is exactly what kind of ecigs they used. Many flavors were from ecigs produced by "large cigarette companies":
We evaluated 51 flavors, including all available flavors from three large cigarette companies (Brands A, B, and C, with 2, 2, and 7 flavors, respectively)
(Source 1)
Interestingly enough, scrolling to the bottom of the study with the actual results table, we find that brands A, B and C, the ones produced by "large cigarette companies" contain the ecig that had the highest diacetyl amount, that 239 µg/e-cigarette we saw earlier. The highest diacetyl concentration we see from any ecig not made by a "large cigarette company" is 38.4 µg/e-cigarette.
Further, the entire study was done based on "flavors we deemed were appealing to youth" (Source 1). This alone is enough to call into question the objectivity of this study, as there is no purpose behind that criteria other than to inflame an argument or provoke outrage. This point is strengthened by the fact that a large number of flavors they selected have names that in no possible interpretation are meant to appeal to youth, such as:
Classic (x2), Menthol (x4), Original, Java Jolt, Gold
source: https://www.reddit.com/r/electronic...some_of_the_hard_science_on_popcorn_lung_and/
