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The FDA who are currently in court with two Large electronic cigarette distributors, Smoking Everywhere and Njoy, released the results of a laboratory analysis they carried out on samples of the liquid contained in the two electronic cigarettes.
In one cartridge of eighteen, Smoking Everywhere's 555 flavour, the FDA report says they detected a small part (1%) diethylene glycol, a chemical used in some antifreezes. Diethylene glycol or DEG for short is a cousin of propylene glycol. It looks, smells and tastes the same, costs significantly less, though in some cases is fatal.
In the past some animal rights activists have actively petitioned the makers of antifreeze to replace the ingredient in their product with PG as dogs and cats are attracted to it's sweetness and have been known to lick it up from the ground and consequently die. Worse still, this past year it caused the death of 84 children in Nigeria who used a teething formula where the PG had been replaced with DEG.
In China in 2006, a hospital was sued after using fake medicines which contained the dangerous chemical and led to the death of 14 people to renal failure.
Critics of the news release point out that FDA failed to say that their existing regulations already permits DEG at .2% by volume in propylene glycol when used as a food additive. DEG is used as a drying agent for tobacco leaf and so will be found in traditional tobacco products. The nicotine and flavours in some electronic cigarette liquid is derived from tobacco.
The FDA also say that in their analysis, certain tobacco-specific nitrosamines which are human carcinogens were detected in half of the samples tested and tobacco-specific impurities suspected of being harmful to human - anabasine, myosmine, and β-nicotyrine—were detected in a majority of the samples tested.
They also warn that tests carried out cartridges marked as containing no nicotine revealed that all of them except one contained low levels of nicotine.
Dr Michael Siegel, a physician who has 20 years experience in in tobacco control points out on his blog that potentially dangerous tobacco-specific nitrosamines are also found in pharmaceutical NRT's, but no-one has called to halt their sale. The American Lung Association who receive large donations from the pharmaceutical industry today released a statement:
In light of these initial findings, the American Lung Association urges the FDA to act immediately to halt the sale and distribution of all e-cigarettes unless the products have been reviewed and approved for sale by the FDA
Dr Siegel also chided the FDA and the several anti-smoking speakers who also expressed concern over the potential use of electronic cigarettes by youths, due to the marketing of flavoured versions of the products but fail to take same stance against a pharmaceutical company who market cinnamon and cherry flavored nicotine lozenges.
The case brought against the FDA by Njoy and Smoking Everywhere continues with the judge's decision expected sometime soon. Both electronic cigarette companies have had their shipments seized on import and brought a case against the FDA claiming the agency and no legal grounds to do so. The FDA was asked to ban electronic cigarettes by Frank Laudenberg a democrat who received $182,000 in campaign donations from the pharmaceutical industry.
Although the tests were carried out on May the fourth, the results were released after no further evidence can be entered into the case.
News release.
http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm173222.htmThe summary of the results:
http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/PublicHealthFocus/ucm173146.htmFull PDF report:
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Drugs/ScienceResearch/UCM173250.pdf
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