E-Cigarettes

Originally created as a cessation to combustible tobacco cigarettes, e-cigarettes are an up and rising way of portraying a healthy alternative to smoking. However, while being portrayed as a healthy substitute e-cigarette devices are designed to deliver the same highly addictive nicotine that is found in tobacco cigarettes. E-cigarettes primarily include a battery, or some type of electronic circuit that delivers vaporized nicotine through the heating of a nicotine containing solution, often called e-liquids, to the body that produce smoke visible smoke called vapor that can be inhaled and exhaled. When the device is triggered, the heating element turns on and aerosolizes a solution, sending nicotine aerosol into the lungs.

Hildick-Smith et al. (2015) report that, the growth of e-cigarettes among the adolescent population has become so rapid that it has surpassed that of conventional cigarettes in 2014 (p. 1). Despite their sudden growth little is
2). Carcinogens and chemicals such as nicotine, formaldehyde, and diacetyl have been found in e-cigarettes that have been proven to be of harm to human health. For example, diacetyl has been showed to cause acute-onset bronchiolitis obliterans, which is a severe and irreversible obstructive lung disease (Rowell and Tarran, 2015, p. 8). Chemists have found various levels of chemical metals in vapor including chromium, nickel, tin, silver and aluminum when the heating elements of e-cigarettes are operated at high voltage. These chemical findings have also been related to findings in combustible cigarette usage. E-cigarettes also may potentially contain harmful compounds that are not found in tobacco products, such as propylene glycol. Propylene glycol allows for the formation of a visible vapor and is known to be a respiratory