E-cigarettes More Dangerous says New CDC Study

While many think of the new smokeless electronic cigarettes, known as an e-cigarette, as much less harmful to your health, a new CDC study is finding that may not be the case. What’s more, the new information shows that the e-cigarettes are especially harmful to young children.

According to the CDC study, there has been a dramatic increase in e-cigarette-related calls to poison centers, related to the high levels of nicotine exposure through e-cigarette liquid.



Perhaps most alarming from the study are results which show that over half (51.1 percent) of the calls to poison centers due to e-cigarettes involved young children 5 years and under, and about 42 percent of the poison calls involved people age 20 and older.

“This report raises another red flag about e-cigarettes – the liquid nicotine used in e-cigarettes can be hazardous,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “Use of these products is skyrocketing and these poisonings will continue. E-cigarette liquids as currently sold are a threat to small children because they are not required to be childproof, and they come in candy and fruit flavors that are appealing to children.”

The analysis, published in this week’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from the CDC, compared total monthly poison center calls involving e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes, and found the proportion of e-cigarette calls jumped from 0.3 percent in September 2010 to 41.7 percent in February 2014.

Poisoning from conventional cigarettes is generally due to young children eating them. Poisoning related to e-cigarettes involves the liquid containing nicotine used in the devices and can occur in three ways: by ingestion, inhalation or absorption through the skin or eyes.