Following a series of comments by readers who suspect they
might be allergic to the propylene glycol in e-liquid, I decided to write a
short post on allergies caused by e-cigarette use and their symptoms.
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| E Liquid Cigarette |
Before we get started on allergies caused by PG and other
e-liquid ingredients, it’s important to be sure the symptoms you are
experiencing are indeed related to vaping. If you’ve recently given up smoking
and switched to electronic cigarettes, you may be dealing with a series of
smoking cessation side-effects. These can include mouth ulcers, headaches,
nausea, coughing, a skin eruption known as “quit zits”, sputum and phlegm,
among others. The good news is these symptoms go away after a few weeks to a
month, but the bad news is vaping-related side-effects are very much the same,
so it’s hard to identify what is causing them. The best thing you can do is
stop using e-cigarettes for a couple of days and see if your general condition
improves. If it does, you should investigate what kind of e-liquid you’ve been
using and try to identify the problem, but if it doesn’t, it’s safe to assume
the problems are linked to tobacco cessation.
Another thing you have to understand is that you don’t have
to be a new e-cigarette user to experience vaping-related health issues. Humans
can become allergic to various things at any point during their lives, so even
if you’ve been happily puffing on your e-cig for months, even years, you can
start to experience all kinds of bizarre symptoms. The most common culprit
seems to be propylene glycol (PG), the organic compound used as a base for the
majority of e-liquids available on the market today. It holds the nicotine and
flavor in suspension so your e-cigarette can produce those thick plumes of
smoke-like vapor, but it’s also a known irritant and can cause a number of
allergic reactions. In mild cases, they range from a sore throat to sinus
problems, headaches, and even feelings of nausea, while in extreme cases PG can
cause numbness of the face and tongue and itchy hives on the upper body. The
best way to make sure propylene glycol is responsible for any of these symptoms,
and at the same time solve the problem, is to switch to a 100% vegetable
glycerin e-liquid, or at least one with a lower PG content.
If there’s no improvement several days after lowering and
ultimately eliminating PG, you may be experiencing a nicotine overdose or an
allergy caused by artificial flavorings and other added chemicals. Nicotine
overdose is a very serious medical condition characterized by headache, nausea,
dizziness, accelerated heartbeat and sweating. If you’ve been using
high-nicotine juices intensively, switch to 0% e-liquid immediately, and if
your general health keeps deteriorating it’s imperative you seek medical help
as soon as possible. What most vapers don’t know is that the wide majority of
flavors come in a base of propylene glycol, so even though it’s advertised
as 100% vegetable glycerin, it can still contain various amounts of PG and
cause allergic reactions. I would advise contacting reputed e-liquid vendors
(Halo, Totally Wicked E-liquid, Alien Vision, Goodejuice, etc.) and ask if they
make true 100% VG-based juices. Artificial colorings, artificial
flavorings, artificial sweeteners and other additives are approved for
human consumption, but they have not yet been tested for safety when inhaled,
so they could cause irritation or allergic symptoms when vaped.
The important thing is not giving up on electronic
cigarettes and going back to analogs. Switch from propylene glycol to vegetable
glycerin, lower the nicotine content, change e-liquid brand, do whatever it
takes and you’re bound to find what works for you at some point, but going back
to smoking tobacco is the worst thing you can do.
Article Credit: http://vaperanks.com
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