Are e-cigarettes harmless?

Are e-cigarettes harmless?

E-cigarettes, this unknown.  

Using our Ask the Expert form, Matthew Guidetti asked KNow Science about e-cigarettes. 

Are they healthy or not? 

                 Are they worse or better than normal cigarettes? 

                                                                       What are their side effects?

Astonishingly, scientists have published more than 300 scientific papers on e-cigarettes since 2009. Probably right after the first e-cigarette set foot on the market, when it was just a niche habit or an alternative to cigarettes for the elite, scientists all over the globe were already busy experimenting with e-cigarettes ⁱ.  Data ranges from their modes of action, how routes of administration change their effects and whether they are ultimately safer than conventional cigarettes.

Why has all this science not reached the public? Why are people still uncertain about e-cigarettes when we [scientists[ know so much? 

kNow-Science put two of our scientists, cancer expert Dr. Simona Giunta and brain biologist Dr. Ilaria Ceglia on the task of extracting comprehensible information from the jungle of published data.

So, what's the consensus? 

Here are three main conclusions. Some are predictable, others definitely worth knowing!

1 – E-cigarettes are a great way to stop smoking.

2 – E-cigarettes are dangerous in a different way to normal cigarettes. While tarmac and other toxic substances are gone, the metal mechanisms in many e-cigarettes produced upon vaporization have been shown to release heavy metals, which you inhale with each puff ^1-2.  A much better choice is all-ceramic e-cigarettes, which do not contain metallic parts, and hence have less risk of releasing heavy metals.

3 – E-cigarettes still have all the side effects of nicotine use. Changes to heart rate and blood pressure and propensity to cause lung cancer are still there ^3-4. Ingesting large quantities of nicotine, whichever the route, is not advisable from a health perspective. 

The benefit of e-cigarettes over conventional cigarettes is that they can facilitate smoking cessation ^5-6.

Lung cancer is the number one killer cancer in the world for both men and women. It accounts for 13% of all new cancers, and a recent, extremely well controlled study showed convincingly that about 90% of lung cancers are due to smoking. [i]ⁱ

Doing the simple math, this means that if the all the smokers quit tomorrow the incidence of cancers overall would decrease by over 10%.

Now that you know the [scientific] truth about e-cigarettes, will you embrace the [scientific] truth about health and change your life accordingly?

Thanks for reading from the kNow-Science team.

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1.     http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25180481

2.     http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23526962

3.     http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23526962

4.     http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24343348

5.     http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25303892

6.     http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25301815

ⁱ  http://www.ecigalternative.com/ecigarette-studies-research.htm

^i[i] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Smoking: A Report of the U.S. Surgeon General, 2004.

Cancer. What is it, where does it come from and can you increase your chances of avoiding it?

Cancer, a word that has more than 700 million hits on Google, that features in 100 million news articles and affects, directly or indirectly, the majority of the world population, still remains a mystery to us. So, what is cancer and where does it come from?

Our very own Simona Giunta, from the kNOW SCIENCE team, explains the basics of cancer. To read the full article, click here.

What is a Cell?

Trees in a forest, fish in a river, horseflies on a farm, lemurs in the jungle, reeds in a pond, worms in the soil — all these plants and animals are made of the building blocks we call cells. Like these examples, many living things consist of vast numbers of cells working in concert with one another. Other forms of life, however, are made of only a single cell, such as the many species of bacteria and protozoa. Cells, whether living on their own or as part of a multicellular organism, are usually too small to be seen without a light microscope. 

Cells share many common features, yet they can look wildly different. In fact, cells have adapted over billions of years to a wide array of environments and functional roles. Nerve cells, for example, have long, thin extensions that can reach for meters and serve to transmit signals rapidly. Closely fitting, brick-shaped plant cells have a rigid outer layer that helps provide the structural support that trees and other plants require. Long, tapered muscle cells have an intrinsic stretchiness that allows them to change length within contracting and relaxing biceps. 

Still, as different as these cells are, they all rely on the same basic strategies to keep the outside out, allow necessary substances in and permit others to leave, maintain their health, and replicate themselves. In fact, these traits are precisely what make a cell a cell.[cit. Nature.com]

How does our Brain work?

The brain performs an incredible number of tasks including the following:

• It controls body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate and breathing.
• It accepts a flood of information about the world around you from your various senses.
• It handles your physical movement when walking, talking, standing or sitting.
• It lets you think, dream, reason and experience emotions.

All of these tasks are coordinated, controlled and regulated by an organ that is about the size of a small head of cauliflower.
Your brain, spinal cord and peripheral nerves make up a complex, integrated information-processing and control system known as your central nervous system. In tandem, they regulate all the conscious and unconscious facets of your life. The scientific study of the brain and nervous system is called neuroscience or neurobiology. Because the field of neuroscience is so vast -- and the brain and nervous system are so complex -- this article will start with the basics and give you an overview of this complicated organ.
We'll examine the structures of the brain and how each section controls our daily functions, including motor control, visual processing, auditory processing, sensation, learning, memory and emotions. [Source: Craig Freudenrich, Ph.D. and Robynne Boyd]