Chemicals in flavoured vapes could be highly toxic when heated, says new study

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Scientists have moved one step closer to uncovering the health implications of e-cigarettes, as new research claims that chemicals in vapes could become highly toxic when heated.A new study has identified 505 hazardous chemicals, including 127 which are acutely toxic, and 153 health hazards, formed as a result of vaping.

Artificial intelligence (AI) was used by scientists to simulate the effects of heating chemicals found in 180 vape flavours.

Scientists believe their method may help uncover the long-term health risks of vaping before clinical diseases emerge in the general population.E-cigarette liquid flavouring is heated to high temperatures, creating vapour which is then inhaled.

As vaping is a relatively new practice, its risks to health are still being uncovered. A separate study recently found that teenagers who vape maty be at high risk of exposure to toxic metals.Findings, published in Scientific Reports, suggests that while these flavourings, originally sourced from the food industry, are safe, they were not intended to be heated to high temperatures and inhaled.Study authors Donal O'Shea, and Dan Wu, from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and Akihiro Kishimoto from 1 IBM Research Tokyo, Japan, wrote: "The aerosols produced by e-cigarette vaping contain immensely complex uncharacterised mixtures of pyrolysis products, the health implications of which are, as yet, mostly unidentified."They added: "In advance of health effects of vaping becoming apparent in the general population, AI can be exploited to give guidance to the public, policy makers and health care professionals.