Fact Sheets >Yale Medicine Nonetheless, adults who smoke who switch to using e-cigarettes expose themselves to potentially serious ongoing health risks. If they are unable to quit e-cigarettes on their own, they should seek help from a health care professional or quitline. Individuals who are not yet able to stop using e-cigarettes should be strongly discouraged from simultaneous, or "dual," use of any combustible tobacco products, including cigarettes. Continuing to smoke exposes the individual to enormous harms, irrespective of whether the individual is using e-cigarettes part of the time. All individuals should also be strongly counseled to not revert to smoking. Some look like a regular cigarette, but many resemble everyday products like pens, USB drives, highlighting markers, or colorful toy-like items. The success of all these enterprises hinges on the claim that e-cigarettes are healthier than traditional cigarettes. Companies like to paint a black-and-white picture of a new era of safe smoking. "Cigarettes, you've met your match," NJOY proudly proclaims in its Super Bowl ads. E-cigarettes and vaping are part of a trend going back at least nine years in the U.S. First publicized as a safer alternative to smoking tobacco, vaping caught on because it didn’t contain the carcinogens or tars found in most smoking tobacco products. Also, vaping was supposed to eliminate the dangers of secondhand smoke to those nearby. Carbonyls in cigarette smoke are formed mainly by pyrolysis of tobacco sugars83, whereas those in e-cigarettes are formed mainly by thermal degradation of PG and/or VG83,84,85. Flavourings may also contribute to the formation of carbonyls, as well as the characteristics of the e-cigarette devices, especially the applied voltage, coil resistance and wicking material47,48,49,86,87. Poor wicking efficiency may lead to a dry wick and overheated e-liquid (dry puff), which promotes the formation of carbonyls and other toxic compounds2,10,13,15. Coil location, orientation, resistance and wick material, as well as power output, have been shown to affect carbonyl generation significantly13,15,86. Many people diagnosed with EVALI need to be treated in a hospital where medications can be closely monitored, and respiratory support is readily available. "I screen all of my patients, any child over age 12, since [vaping] can exacerbate underlying conditions like asthma," says Yale Medicine pediatric pulmonologist Pnina Weiss, MD. To learn more about e-cigarettes, here are resources from the American Cancer Society and the FDA. There are some e-cigarette brands that claim to be nicotine-free but have been found to contain nicotine. For medical questions, we encourage you to review our information with your doctor. Of the 544 young people who owned e-cigarette devices, 75.7% said that they considered recycling e-cigarettes. Respondents also reported keeping or selling the devices, or returning them to a vape shop. "We do not know what these chemicals do when they are heated and inhaled. These are questions that should be answered before we allow products on the market." One chemical, known as 6-methyl nicotine, has been shown in rodent experiments to be far more potent than nicotine in targeting the brain's nicotine receptors and more toxic than nicotine. Another, called nicotinamide, is marketed as targeting the same brain receptors as nicotine, despite evidence it does not bind to these receptors. The cytotoxic and pro-inflammatory effects of different e-cigarette flavouring chemicals were also tested on two human monocytic cell lines—mono mac 6 (MM6) and U937 [86]. Also, all the tested flavours produced significant levels of ROS in a cell-free ROS production assay. Finally, diacetyl, pentanedione, O-vanillin, maltol, coumarin, and CAD induced significant IL-8 secretion from MM6 and U937 monocytes [86]. It should be borne in mind, however, that the concentrations assayed were in the supra-physiological range and it is likely that, once inhaled, these concentrations are not reached in the airway space. Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are devices made to resemble cigarettes. Despite making great strides to reduce smoking, tobacco is still our biggest killer. Our region has always kept an open mind towards using electronic cigarettes as we can see the massive potential health benefits from switching. Tobacco urges are likely to be strongest in the places where you smoked or chewed tobacco most often, such as at parties or bars, or at times when you were feeling stressed or sipping coffee. Find out your triggers and have a plan in place to avoid them or get through them without using tobacco. Queries sent to the health ministry’s tobacco cell remained unanswered till press time. From October this year it will be an offence to sell e-cigarettes to anyone under the age of 18 or to buy e-cigarettes for them. The government is consulting on a comprehensive array of regulations under the European Tobacco Products Directive. Sign up to get tips for living a healthy lifestyle, with ways to fight inflammation and improve cognitive health, plus the latest advances in preventative medicine, diet and exercise, pain relief, blood pressure and cholesterol management, and more. If your device does not have a lithium battery, you may pack it in either you checked or carry-on bag. Some use a buttery-tasting chemical called diacetyl, which is often added to foods like popcorn. Stores selling them -- called "vape shops" -- are everywhere across the country. Our blog has an easy-to-read guide on the latest vaping regulations and the changes to how to use electronic cigarettes to quit smoking Fact Sheets > Yale Medicine