Adding mint flavor to e-cigarette liquid makes it more toxic and more harmful to the lungs, a new study suggests.
Mint flavor e-cigarette The researchers found that the liquid produced more toxic particles than menthol-free juice.
They used a specially designed “vaping robot” to simulate the mechanism of human breathing and vaping behavior to analyze the difference in mint flavor.
They also examined the medical records of e-cigarette users and found that those who used menthol e-cigarettes had shallower breaths and worse lung function compared to non-menthol smokers — regardless of age, sex, race and whether they smoked nicotine or marijuana product.
“Many people, especially young people, mistakenly believe that e-cigarettes are safe, but even nicotine-free e-cigarette mixtures contain many compounds that can damage the lungs,” said senior author Kambez H Benam, an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. explain.
“Just because something is safe to eat as food doesn’t mean it’s safe to inhale.”
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The vaping robot accurately simulates the temperature, humidity, puff volume and duration of vaping, which means it can simulate healthy and diseased breathing patterns and reliably predict vaping-related lung toxicity.
The researchers developed the robot to improve testing of how mixing e-cigarette liquids and adding flavors affects their composition and health effects.
It overcomes the limitations of traditional tests that involve using rats and mice or growing cells in the lab.
The nasal anatomy of rodents is very different, and lab-based tests can take weeks or months to provide reliable results.
The study was published Tuesday in the journal Respiratory Research.