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Concept
Electronic cigarette
Summary
An electronic cigarette (commonly and nowadays known as a vape) is a device that simulates tobacco smoking. It consists of an atomizer (often a cotton wick and a heating element coil), a power source such as a battery, and a container such as a cartridge or tank filled with liquid. Instead of smoke, the user inhales "vapor" (though technically primarily an aerosol). As such, using an e-cigarette is often called "vaping". The atomizer is a heating element that vaporizes a liquid solution called e-liquid, which quickly cools into an aerosol of tiny droplets, vapor and air. E-cigarettes are activated by taking a puff or pressing a button. Some look like traditional cigarettes, and most kinds are reusable. The vapor mainly comprises propylene glycol and/or glycerin, usually with nicotine and flavoring. Its exact composition varies, and depends on several things including user behavior.
Vaping is likely far less harmful than smoking, but still harmful. E-cigarette vapor contains fewer toxins than cigarette smoke. It contains traces of harmful substances not found in cigarette smoke.
Nicotine is highly addictive. Users become physically and psychologically dependent. Scientists do not know how harmful e-cigarettes are over the long-term because it is hard to separate the effects of vaping from the effects of smoking when so many people both vape and smoke. E-cigarettes have not been used widely enough or for long enough to be sure.
For people trying to quit smoking, e-cigarette use alongside prescribed nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) leads to a higher quit rate. For those trying to quit smoking without medical help, it is not clear whether e-cigarettes raise quit rates because the evidence is of poor quality.
Construction of electronic cigarettes
An electronic cigarette consists of an atomizer, a power source such as a battery, and a container for e-liquid such as a cartridge or tank.
E-cigarettes have evolved over time, and the different designs are classified in generations.
Official source
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Smoking
Smoking is a practice in which a substance is combusted and the resulting smoke is typically inhaled to be tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream of a person. Most commonly, the substance used is the dried leaves of the tobacco plant, which have been rolled with a small rectangle of paper into an elongated cylinder called a cigarette. Other forms of smoking include the use of a smoking pipe or a bong.
Acrolein
Acrolein (systematic name: propenal) is the simplest unsaturated aldehyde. It is a colorless liquid with a piercing, acrid smell. The smell of burnt fat (as when cooking oil is heated to its smoke point) is caused by glycerol in the burning fat breaking down into acrolein. It is produced industrially from propene and mainly used as a biocide and a building block to other chemical compounds, such as the amino acid methionine. Acrolein was first named and characterized as an aldehyde by the Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius in 1839.
Propylene glycol
Propylene glycol (IUPAC name: propane-1,2-diol) is a viscous, colorless liquid, which is nearly odorless but possesses a faintly sweet taste. Its chemical formula is CH3CH(OH)CH2OH. As it contains two alcohol groups, it is classed as a diol. It is miscible with a broad range of solvents, including water, acetone, and chloroform. In general, glycols are non-irritating and have very low volatility. It is produced on a large scale primarily for the production of polymers. In the European Union, it has E-number E1520 for food applications.
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