The truth and science behind ceramic coils - By Uwell

Attie

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Now I am impressed by the decision I made to never use ceramic coils ever. I majored in Human Physiology and knew the damage that microscopic fibres from fibreglass and asbestos can do over decades of exposure. Had a suspicion that certain ceramic products could have a similar effect.
Organic cotton ftw. :)

@Attie .....thanks for this.

Extract taken from the article ..... Pg8 of 9

"Finally, ceramic coils may cause death.

Making the ceramic material

The ceramic coil is made from inorganic porous ceramic material. There are tiny pores inside the ceramic material that cannot be seen. Pores play an important role in wicking. In order to produce a porous ceramic material, raw materials such as silica powders and pore-forming materials like starch or other organic polymers are needed. Then they are mixed and put into a mold with high pressure. Samples are obtained with a fixed shape. The samples are put into a furnace and set to a high temperature. Pores are formed while the pore-forming agent combusts and escapes. This kind of pore plays an important role by introducing e-liquid into your vape. However, to make enough pores, the temperature to stick the materials together is lower which causes low tensile and compressive strength. The powders fall off or crack when the ceramic coil is touched or shaken. All the powders can be introduced into the lung by air which is dangerous (the speed of air can reach 223mph when we are vaping).

Vaping

Ceramic coils will absorb more e-liquid. E-liquid is vaporized and evaporated when the coil is working. High pressure from the vapor will expand and damage the structure of the porous ceramic material. Loose powders will fall off and go into the lung.

Causing death

Silicosis is a form of occupational lung disease caused by inhalation of crystalline silica dust. Symptoms are inflammation and scarring in the form of nodular lesions in the upper lobes of the lungs. This is a type of pneumoconiosis. Silicosis can be complicated by the development of severe scarring, where small nodules gradually merge together, reaching a size of 1cm or greater. Progressive massive fibrosis is associated with more severe symptoms and respiratory impairment. Silicosis can also be complicated by other lung diseases such tuberculosis, non-tuberculous mycobacterial infection, and fungal infection, certain autoimmune diseases, and lung cancer ("Silicosis." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2016.)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicosis)."
 
Holy crap! Glad I never touched ceramics either.

I can see the bottom falling out of the ceramics market, going to be a lot of dead stock when this goes large.
 
Thanks for this @Attie you just got me thinking big time mate!!
 
WHAT THE ACTUAL F - HECTIC! What scares me about this is the long term of this ceramic dust in your lungs - with asbestos, you inhale fibers today and in 10 years time you get asbestosis. This is alarming, thank god I didnt get into the ceramic hype.
 
Thanks @Attie
Most interesting and alarming.

I just hope my old Evod coils (which have silica wicks) are okay because if they aren't I will be very upset.
 
Very scary indeed, I wonder if other companies are going to respond to this.

OP updated with all the links and info.
 
I thought this had been an ongoing issue for some time? GrimmGreen addressed it back in Jan of this year:



And that is medical science: some saying a substance is lethal, others saying it's harmless. Vaporesso will now probably come out with their own research saying that Uwell's research is flawed, then Uwell will offer a rebuttal, and so on.

This also supports my assertion, noted in other threads, that medical research is not really being done on vaping as we know it. It's being done on cigalikes and Twisps. How could the Royal College not have picked this up in their testing? Simple answer: they probably don't even know that ceramics are being used. They test cigalikes and Twisps and based their conclusions and statements on that. And this is where we also need to be careful about the Royal College statement about vaping being 95% safer than smoking. Some folks cite that as proven scientific gospel. It isn't. It's an estimate, nothing more. The Royal College's exact words:

the hazard to health arising from long-term vapour inhalation from the e-cigarettes available today is unlikely to exceed 5% of the harm from smoking tobacco.

The important parts are in red. The "unlikely" makes it a projection, not a statement of fact. And they have covered themselves by limiting the statement to the gear that is available now, i.e. the gear they have tested. Some new coil or wicking material, or some new ingredient in juice, could invalidate their statement so they are covering themselves, as medical scientists always do.
 
I thought this had been an ongoing issue for some time? GrimmGreen addressed it back in Jan of this year:



And that is medical science: some saying a substance is lethal, others saying it's harmless. Vaporesso will now probably come out with their own research saying that Uwell's research is flawed, then Uwell will offer a rebuttal, and so on.

This also supports my assertion, noted in other threads, that medical research is not really being done on vaping as we know it. It's being done on cigalikes and Twisps. How could the Royal College not have picked this up in their testing? Simple answer: they probably don't even know that ceramics are being used. They test cigalikes and Twisps and based their conclusions and statements on that. And this is where we also need to be careful about the Royal College statement about vaping being 95% safer than smoking. Some folks cite that as proven scientific gospel. It isn't. It's an estimate, nothing more. The Royal College's exact words:

The important parts are in red. The "unlikely" makes it a projection, not a statement of fact. And they have covered themselves by limiting the statement to the gear that is available now, i.e. the gear they have tested. Some new coil or wicking material, or some new ingredient in juice, could invalidate their statement so they are covering themselves, as medical scientists always do.



AMEN

upload_2016-9-30_10-25-44.png

It literally feels like you cant trust any information nowadays, independent studies are generally better - but then who funds them. Because the conclusion will always lean towards the "funder" strategy. I'm just outraged that these studies are not done upfront. I'm glad it came out in the end though - its best we know this, and make our choices.
 
Aww man, pretty bummed out to learn that I'm gonna get black lung and die but even more so that I finally got my ceramic coil to work properly
 
I just hope my old Evod coils (which have silica wicks) are okay because if they aren't I will be very upset.
You can re-wick them with cotton or rayon, to me they work and taste better.
 
I just found this post in a forum thread discussing the GrimmGreen video linked above:

I just want to put this out there so people understand what the 'risk' of inhaling ceramics is. The only risk would be silicosis. For silicosis to happen, you have to inhale silicon faster than what you body can digest it. To put what the 'danger' is in perspective, all air has silicon in it, the stuff makes up most of the solid material material of the earth, normal "clean air" contains 2 grams per km3. The average person breathes 1.8 km3 a day. The total ceramic in these things is maybe 1gram. Air is not considered contributing to silicosis until it reaches 11grams per km3 or almost 20 grams a day, so unless you're sucking in the entire coil every other hour it is completely safe.

The test should have been: suck constantly on coil for an hour; does coil still exist? if yes then safe; if no then unsafe.

It just kind of pisses me off when people keep saying on ceramic coil reviews "I don't know what dangers vaping with ceramic coils has". It's The Longest Known (like since man first found there's stuff under the ground and we want it so dig it out) and studied (Potters Blot has been researched since Ancient Greece) and the actual environmental tolerance (see dust in air: bad, not see dust in air:good) has been known, and still correct, since times people thought mercury made a good skin lotion ( a serious practice by the Greeks and Persians). But no, people will still come on after this post worried about the dangers of reheating cooked dirt.

I'm not sure how true that is so use it or don't use it. I also found this interesting snippet in the Wiki page on silicosis:

In March 2016, OSHA officially mandated that companies must provide certain safety measures for employees who work with or around silica, in order to prevent silicosis, lung cancer, and other silica-related diseases.[35]
  • Key Provisions
  • Reduce the permissible exposure limit (PEL) for respirable crystalline silica to 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air, averaged over an 8-hour shift.
This for me would be key. Vaping typically happens for around 16 hours per day rather than an 8 hour work shift. So would vaping a ceramic coil result in an intake of more than 25 micrograms of silica per cubic metre of vapour, averaged over a 16 hour vaping day? If not then it appears that vaping ceramics might not be any more hazardous than working in a moderately dusty environment. Anyhow, I'm sure they'll do more research on this and come up with more answers.
 
Oh well guess all us ceramic coil users will just have to suffer. It is alarming but who do you believe?
I find it dificult to believe a company who doesn't have ceramic coils and points fingers around i will rather put my faith in a independent study .

Im sure there are alot worse things to inhale especiallywhen I've eaten my english breakfast with eggs and baked beans, ive had a few close calls from almost passing out from a deadly fart:-D
 
Tongue in Cheek response from me... UWell's coils taste so kak they need to dis alternatives. :p

But serious for a moment... the report is disconcerting but like everything on the internet there is one report that comes out and then the next one is the opposite... and there were reports when ceramics first came out how safe they were... so where exactly is the truth? Probably somewhere in between.

Am I personally worried? No not really... but I will be watching this development with great interest... and once the mass hysteria subsides and the real truth is found I will then make an informed decision.

And on the positive side my cCell driven tanks are all clean and resting since I got my Serpent Mini 25's!
 
Life is about risks for all living things. And making an informed decision if possible which risks you will and will not take... if you have a choice. You can live life to the fullest you can or be afraid to live life. Either way you won't survive it.

I always lived my life to the fullest I could and somehow survived the many risks I took far more years than I thought I would. At this end of the trail surviving every day is a risk. So I don't care whether these coils are safe to use or not and would use them if I wanted to.
 
Living in a big city is a health risk. The more we know the better we can decide.
 
Oh dear. What do I do with my remaining coils? Contribute them to the coming nuclear power stations?
 
Try it by yourself.jpg If anyone has any doubts about this report, please try it by yourself. The report is UWELL's opinion based on taking care of your health. UWELL also waits for the study from the third party or authorities, even the information from ceramic coil provider, they should have done it before.
 
View attachment 71115 If anyone has any doubts about this report, please try it by yourself. The report is UWELL's opinion based on taking care of your health. UWELL also waits for the study from the third party or authorities, even the information from ceramic coil provider, they should have done it before.
Yes one post wonder.

If you scrape the inside of a plastic driptip you will get polymers eventually.

The inside of the glass tank will also release silica with enough scraping.

Point is... that powder does not come off under normal vaping use. Only when youngo fiddle in there with an instrument....

More worrying isnthe following...

How is this a first post on the forum?
If it is an alias for another member... why cannot post that under true id?

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