Vape liquids may release hundreds of toxic chemicals when inhaled, study finds

A new study from Ireland has found that flavoured vapes may produce over 100 toxic chemicals that cause immediate harm when inhaled.

Vaping products work by heating chemicals to high temperatures that form an aerosol that is then inhaled. The study, published in Nature on Wednesday, used artificial intelligence to see how chemicals from 180 vape flavours transform and affect the human body when heated.

It noted that the chemicals used in e-liquids tend to derive from food and cosmetics, meaning they are not specifically developed for vaping. Mixtures are most commonly made with vegetable glycerin, according to Health Canada.

When these chemicals are heated to high temperatures with inhalation into the lungs, they produce “unknown secondary chemical entities,” the study says.

The researcher’s AI tool categorized these unknown chemicals and found about 127 acute toxins, 153 health hazards and 225 irritants in the studied vaping products.

Acute toxins are described as harmful chemicals that produce immediate adverse effects, even from a single dose of a substance.

Donal O’Shea, an author of the study, says the sheer array of “health hazard chemicals” people are exposed to every time they inhale from a vape is shocking.

“That’s the take home message, I guess, is that if you heat a chemical, it tends to turn itself into a variety of different chemicals which we should not be inhaling into our lungs,” O’Shea told Global News.

He says exposure to an acutely toxic chemical creates a high risk of “immediate serious injury,” if the dose is high enough.

Previous studies have also found that some flavoured vaping products produce dangerous chemicals. Between 2017 and 2019, researchers at Health Canada found about 22 chemicals in vaping products sold in Canada.