#776 How does an e-cigarette work?

How does an e-cigarette work? It uses a battery to heat an element that vaporizes a solution of liquid nicotine which the smoker can inhale.

The tobacco plant is native to Central and South America. People there started to eat the leaves as far back as 5000 BC. From there, it changed to burning the leaf and inhaling the smoke. This probably started by accident. The practice spread to North America and in the 1500s it was carried to Europe by explorers and traders. Jean Nicot brought tobacco to France in 1560 and from his name we get the word Nicotine. Despite attempts to ban tobacco, its popularity increased and many tobacco plantations staffed by slaves sprang up in the Americas. American James A. Bonsack invented an automatic cigarette rolling machine in 1880 and popularity began to increase. Vast supplies of cigarettes during both world wars and a concerted effort to show that cigarettes were healthy increased their consumption until smoking peaked in 1964 (at least in America) before starting to decline.

Cigarettes are not healthy. To make tobacco easier to smoke, most cigarettes have a lot of additives and flavors added. 70 of the chemicals found in tobacco smoke are carcinogenic. Many of them also cause heart disease, lung disease, and many other health problems. Tobacco smoke contains, amongst other things, hydrogen cyanide, formaldehyde, lead, arsenic, ammonia, polonium-210, benzene, carbon monoxide, ash, tar, and many other things. Breathing this smoke in is very harmful for the smoker, but it is also harmful for any people that breathe in the smoke, known as secondhand smoking. Cigarette smoking and secondhand smoke are the cause for more than 8 million deaths worldwide every year.

A Chinese pharmacist called Hon Lik was a heavy smoker and he knew that it wasn’t good for his health. He wanted to stop smoking, but he found it very difficult. His father had been a heavy smoker and had died of lung cancer, so he wondered if there was a way to make smoking healthier. Hon Lik didn’t invent the e-cigarette. There are patents for an electronic vaporizer from 1927 and 1963. However, batteries were not small or powerful enough to make it possible. Hon Lik had access to lithium batteries, and he was able to make something small and cheap enough that it could be mass produced and commercially successful. These days, millions are sold every year.

So, how does an e-cigarette work? The device is the same size as a regular cigarette. About half of the e-cigarette is taken up with a rechargeable lithium battery. Lithium is a very light metal, and it can store far more electrons than any other metal. It can last for ten times longer than a regular battery of the same size. The battery is connected to a vaporization chamber which is a tiny heating element. The user connects a disposable container of nicotine liquid to the e-cigarette, which sometimes has cotton soaked in different flavors at the top of it. When the user inhales on the device, or presses a button, the heating element vaporizes some of the nicotine liquid in the vaporization chamber into a mist. This mist passes through the flavored cotton and is inhaled by the user through the mouthpiece, delivering a hit of nicotine. Some e-cigarettes also have an LED that lights up to look like the cigarette is burning.

The nicotine solution is usually made with propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin, which are both used in foods. The nicotine and some other additives are added to this liquid. The idea is that the nicotine solution and flavorings don’t contain the dangerous chemicals that tobacco does and are therefore safer.

The health risks of e-cigarettes are not completely understood yet because they haven’t existed for long enough. They are undeniably healthier than smoking real cigarettes, but they are not as healthy as not smoking at all. They do still have some chemicals, several of which are carcinogenic, and other dangerous particles in them. They can increase the risk of lung disease, asthma, bronchitis, and emphysema. However, two of the biggest problems with them at the moment are that they introduce young people to nicotine, and they damage the environment. Many e-cigarette take disposable tanks of nicotine solution that are often thrown on the ground. Many countries have, or are thinking of, banning e-cigarettes. It is a difficult problem. And this is what I learned today.

Photo by Mr Flame: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-in-black-jacket-10358765/

Sources

https://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/dvb/bio.asp?b=Bonsack_James_Albert

https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/11795/chapter/4

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/tobacco

https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2023/p0622-ecigarettes-sales.html

https://www.nature.com/articles/526S93a

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_cigarette

https://rosedalekb.com/what-is-an-atomizer-on-a-vape/

https://www.podsalt.com/blog/post/how-do-e-cigarettes-work-all-you-need-to-know

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco_smoking

https://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/everyday-innovations/electronic-cigarette.htm