Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I'd like to test how using e-cigarettes can produce thirdhand vapor that is harmful to those who inhale it. How could I set up an experiment with proper safety measures, i.e., using a fume hood? For my variables, I am considering using liquids of different nicotine concentrations to test how the level affects the amount of residue left behind, if any. Speaking of which, how I could test nicotine content in the air, on the walls, on the floor, etc.? Would I need assistance from a high school or college laboratory? Thanks for any help you might be able to provide!

Hi,

This is a very good topic for a project as e-cigs (or electronic nicotine devices, ENDs) are spreading rapidly and they are touted as being safe to use indoors instead of tobacco-based products. Many studies have proven that smoke from combusted tobacco products is harmful to those around the smoker, especially children. ENDs, however, have not been so well-tested although one would expect them to be less harmful because they do not produce all the combustion products and particulates that come from cigarettes.

I did a quick search and came up with a couple of papers that give details on how much nicotine is produced by e-cigs and whether or not they may be harmful to those around the smoker.

http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/2 ... ull#ref-11
http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10 ... 012.724728

As to your project, what are you going to measure as ‘harmful’? Nicotine is addictive but as far as I know it is not linked to cancer or other human diseases. The liquid in the E-cigs cartridges does contain propylene glycol, BHT and some flavoring compounds but these have all been used for over 60 years and the FDA put them on its GRAS, generally regarded as safe, list. Here’s an article that talks about the potential harm from e-cig vapor but even they say nothing toxic was found in the vapor: http://www.webmd.com/smoking-cessation/ ... les-review

How you measure nicotine concentrations depends on how much nicotine is present in your sample. How did you plan to generate secondhand vapor? In reading the papers I see that the amount of nicotine in 100 mL puffs is in the microgram range which requires a fairly sensitive test. I found one nicotine assay kit but it is for testing nicotine content in the liquid used in the e-cigs: http://www.eliquidtest.com/Instructions.aspx

The amount of nicotine in an e-cig cartridge varies but they all contain nicotine in the milligram range per milliliter (mg/mL). There are brands that are advertised as LOW, some as MEDIUM and a few as HIGH. I don’t know if the assay kit above is sensitive enough to detect nicotine in the microgram range. You could call the company that makes the test kit and ask them.

I hope this information is helpful. Post back to this forum with more details about how you plan to collect and assay secondhand vapor from an e-cig and we will try to help you set up workable experiments.

Good luck!

Sybee

Thanks so much for the information!

To be quite honest, I was not positive nicotine was toxic when I first began researching. My teacher informed me that the IRB would likely reject the project unless I was somehow protected from the vapor.

This article, stating that some e-cigarettes produce formaldehyde, a carcinogen, was posted two days ago: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/ ... ation.html

I'm assuming that this wouldn't be approved unless there was some protection, as there have been claims about e-cigs producing harmful vapor.

In order to collect the secondhand vapor, I might use this method: http://www.ehow.com/how_7826777_measure ... e-air.html . It does require help from a laboratory, though, and I am not sure there are any gas chromatography systems in Phoenix that would test the percentage of nicotine.

You are most welcome.

I had read the story in the Telegraph about potential contamination of END vapor with formaldehyde but the source I sent you said the device that produced this carcinogen was being operated at too high a temperature. Normally e-cigs do not produce formaldehyde (http://www.ecigarette-research.com/web/ ... yt-formald).

Nicotine IS toxic. At high enough doses it is lethal, but these amounts are way above what a ‘vaper’ gets from an e-cig (http://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/lo ... nlm34089-3). Nicotine does not promote cancer as do some components in tobacco smoke so using ENDs instead of tobacco should reduce the risk of disease. However, nicotine is addictive and has affects on the nervous system and cardiovascular system, and its affects during pregnancy are unknown..

To get back to your project, what is your hypothesis? If you want to prove that vapor from e-cigs can be a significant source of nicotine for bystanders then you will need an apparatus to collect the vapor and a method of assaying the nicotine content. The assay method you referenced using a gas chromatograph would be sensitive enough and GCs are pretty common instruments in a chemistry lab. If you know someone in the chemistry department at a university, you might be able to get access to a GC to measure nicotine levels with some help from a lab tech.

One idea I had about nicotine detection was to use a biological assay. There is a tiny roundworm (harmless to humans) called Caenorhabditis elegans—C. elegans for short—that is a favorite lab animal since they are easy to raise and their genome and genetics are known and have been studied for many decades. It turns out that these worms can become addicted to nicotine and it affects their behavior (http://www.mbfbioscience.com/blog/2013/ ... c-elegans/). I was thinking that it would make an interesting project if you could show that the vapor from e-cigs affects these worms in some negative way that might be predictive of human disease. I don’t think this has been done before, so would be an excellent study.

I hope I have given you some helpful information on asking a scientifically answerable question. That is the main purpose of a science project. Good luck and keep posting!

Sybee

While I've really appreciated your help with this, I've decided to go in a different direction and do a psychological experiment. I'm just unsure of what I would do with this and I didn't allow myself enough time to thoroughly plan it out. Since I do still want to focus on this topic, I'll be returning to it either next year or the year after, when I have easier access to some of the equipment I might want to use. Thanks again for your help!

You are certainly welcome. Please let us know how we can help.

Good luck on your project.

Sybee