Electronic Nicotine Delivery System Research Paper

The electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) or more commonly known as electronic cigarettes or e-cigarettes in short, has garnered worldwide recognition since being introduced to the market in 2004. The way e-cigarettes work is by using a heating element to heat up a solution that typically consists of propylene glycol or glycerol, nicotine and flavouring agents, causing the liquid to atomize into a vapour that is then inhaled thus delivering the nicotine and flavouring. Following their introduction, it has become a widespread trend for young adults that smoke tobacco, to switch to e-cigarettes due to a multitude of reasons. Among the common reasons can be boiled down to the health benefits, the lower cost and as an aid to quit smoking and

It has been proven that smoking tobacco is bad for general health but vaping on the other hand is much safer compared to traditional tobacco smoking because there is no burning involved in the production of the vapour. Thus, there is no presence of tar or carbon monoxide which have been some of the main substances present in tobacco smoke that are known to lead to various diseases. Also, e-cigarettes pose less very little, if any, health threats to secondary smokers. Most second-hand smoke that comes from cigarettes is produced via sidestream smoke that comes from the burning tip of the cigarette. E-cigarettes do not generate sidestream aerosol and as such, it is what is exhaled by the user

that enters the ambient air. The aerosol produced by e-cigarettes consists of nicotine, flavouring and glycerol. Although no long-term studies have been conducted, pollutant levels produced by e-cigarettes are much lower when compared to traditional tobacco burning cigarettes and are likely to pose a much lower health risk. (Hajek et

A multitude of young adults turn to e-cigarettes after smoking tobacco was to help alleviate the withdrawal symptoms that they experience when attempting to quit smoking. Dr. Bullen C. et al. conducted a study involving 40 adult smokers that smoke 10 or more cigarettes a day. The participants were subjected to overnight abstinence before being subjected use one of the following: Ruyan V8 e-cigarette containing 16 mg of nicotine or 0 mg of nicotine, Nicorette nicotine inhaler or their usual choice of cigarette on each of a total of 4 study days spaced 3 days apart. The conclusion was that the Ruyan V8 e-cigarette containing 16 mg of nicotine alleviated the desire for the subject to smoke after overnight abstinence. The e-cigarette also was well tolerated and resulted with a pharmacokinetic profile that was similar to the Nicorette inhalator as opposed to a traditional tobacco cigarette although further evaluation for the potential an e-cigarette to be used as an efficient cessation aid is needed.

From the investigation and research put into this topic, we have come to realize that although e-cigarette use has become globally recognised, studies concerning the long term effects of using e-cigarettes lags behind it’s popularity. Of the few studies conducted on e-cigarette usage, we found that while the long term effects of e-cigarettes remains unknown, the short term usage seems to be much less dangerous when compared to traditional tobacco cigarettes. Although