Currently e-cigarettes for sale in Hong Kong & all over the world* are labelled as nicotine-free. However, the council said they contain other toxic chemical substances (Flavoring*) – like propylene glycol, aldehydes, glycerin, formaldehyde* and acetaldehyde – which can bring health risks to human. Some e-cigarettes contain chemicals and heavy metals such as tin, chromium and nickel, which might harm a fetus during pregnancy*. Study* published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives suggests that 70-75 per cent of flavoured electronic cigarettes contain toxic chemical (diacetyl) linked to deadly 'popcorn lung' (bronchiolitis obliterans). Diacetyl is known to cause inflammation, scarring and constriction of the tiny airways in the lung known as bronchioles, reducing air flow. Smoking an e-cigarette makes you less likely to cough*, even when coughing would benefit your health, according to research by Peter Dicpinigaitis, professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Coughing keeps you from choking and removes agents that may cause infection.

    British research recently said that many teenagers – even those who have never smoked traditional cigarettes – are experimenting with e-cigarettes, later, more than one-third of teens and young adults who tried the battery-powered devices wound up smoking tobacco within one year, even though they had said they would never be interested in smoking, according to the results of a nationwide survey. The researchers said e-cigarettes were the “alcopops of the nicotine world.”* A New York Times*, WebMD* & Forbes* articles confirmed it*, and revealed that hundreds of e-cigarette manufacturers in China operate with little or no oversight.* According to WebMD* & University of California*, e-cigarettes may not help smokers quit tobacco*, moreover, users of e-cigarettes tend to be much more dependent on nicotine* than traditional cigarette smokers. E-cigarette use actually lowers smokers' chances that they'll quit tobacco by about 28 percent, according to an evidence review published online Jan. 14 in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal. "We found that e-cigarette use was associated with significantly less quitting," said study senior author Stanton Glantz, a professor with the University of California, San Francisco's Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education. "E-cigarettes are being promoted as a means of quitting, but they're actually having the opposite effect."
     And with all of this, electronic cigarettes presents substantially less risk than combustion cigarettes, which expose smokers and people around them to over 7,000 chemicals including more than 60 known or suspected carcinogens.

materials: forbes, smokefree, teens.webmd