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3 June 2009 Health warning:
Precautions required with e-cigarettes
Avoid bottled nicotine. Liquid nicotine
(e-liquid) is commonly sold in small bottles of up to 30 mL or more, on the internet, or from stores in the
USA, often meant to last consumers one month; and often unlabelled as
to nicotine dose. Health New Zealand Ltd does not recommend sale or use
of e-liquid permitting a lethal dose of nicotine to be accidentally swallowed.
Nicotine solution sold in child-proofed cartridges or unopenable disposable e-cigarettes or atomisers avoids
this risk.
Acute poisoning
risk. For a child, the lethal dose is 10 mg nicotine.
Many bottles on sale contain many times this amount. Even if the cap of
a liquid nicotine bottle is child proofed, the risk remains if someone
else leaves it open. For
adults, absorption of a fatal dose of 40-60 mg of
nicotine could rapidly occur due to spilling the liquid on one’s
skin while using liquid nicotine to (cheaply) fill an e-cigarette
– a risk heightened by inattention (distraction, fatigue,
alcohol, drugs). (Wash it off immediately). Gloves should always be
worn.
Avoid gravity feed.
E-cigarettes should
not be tipped up above mouth level, as the e-cigarette liquid can ooze
out and drain nicotine on to the lips.
Avoid child-openable brands of e-cigarette and refill
cartridges.
Some brands can be pulled apart or opened by young children, giving
access to the nicotine solution soaking the wick. Flavours in the
liquid can mask the bitter nicotine taste.
Safety results,
April 2009:
E-cigarette
Safety: Ruyan e-cigarette benchtop tests. Poster 5-11. See. www.healthnz.co.nz/DublinEcigBenchtopHandout.pdf
The poster itself is found in the following two powerpoint
files: http://www.healthnz.co.nz/DublinEcigPoster1.ppt
and http://www.healthnz.co.nz/DublinEcigPoster2.ppt
The mist of the e-cigarette has been
rigorously tested in the laboratory. Of over 60 priority-listed
cigarette smoke toxicants tested, trace levels for some only were
detected in the mist of the Ruyan® e-cigarette. The results are to be
submitted for publication shortly in a peer-reviewed journal. On
the basis of findings to date, inhaling mist from the e-cigarette is
rated some two orders of magnitude (100 times) less dangerous than
smoking tobacco cigarettes. The nicotine dose per puff is comparable to
that of a medicinal nicotine inhaler. E-cigarette nicotine is
apparently not absorbed from the lung, but from the upper airways.
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TV3 2008 The Ruyan V8 Classic. An LED lights
up the end. The white part is the battery. The nicotine is housed just
upstream of the fingers.
Legal status (New Zealand)
An
e-cigarette can be imported for sale once the device is registered, but
not with nicotine in the cartridges.
Nicotine
comes under Medicines Act and approval for a new nicotine medicine is
very expensive and takes several years. Import of e-cigarettes and
nicotine cartridges for personal use is allowed.
About the device
This
nicotine inhaler mimics the smoking experience more closely than any
smokeless product to date and provides nicotine without causing smokers
to cough.
It
looks and acts like a cigarette.
It gives the
pleasure of drawback, and a nicotine effect within 15 minutes. It is
likely to be popular as a much cleaner and safer alternative to
smoking, by eliminating the tar and the toxicant gases. More frequent
puffs will deliver more nicotine, which is otherwise much less than
from a tobacco cigarette. Holding the puff in the mouth for longer may
help.
Efficacy results, April
2009:
E-cigarette
efficacy. Poster 5-50, Effect of an E-cigarette on Cravings and
Withdrawal, Acceptability and Nicotine Delivery: Randomised
Cross-over Trial.
On behalf of Ruyan, manufacturer of the
Ruyan V8 e-cigarette, Health New Zealand Ltd sponsored this research
carried out in Auckland
by researchers at the School
of Population Health,
University
of Auckland.
See http://www.healthnz.co.nz/ecig_effect-2.pdf
The study is to be
published in Tobacco Control in early 2010.
Update October
2009
http://www.healthnz.co.nz/ElectronicCigsDarwinOct09.pdf
Note:
Health New Zealand Ltd has no financial interest in Ruyan
or any other nicotine, tobacco or pharmaceutical company.
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