U.S. Study Finds Excess Carcinogens in Mint-Flavored E-cigarettes

Xinhua News Agency, Washington, September 16 - American researchers have found that mint-flavored and menthol-flavored e-cigarettes, as well as smokeless tobacco products, contain excessive levels of the potential carcinogen menthol, adding a new health risk to e-cigarettes.

Menthol is a component extracted from mint plants, which can cause liver cancer, lung tissue deformation, and polyps in mice when ingested. Menthol is classified as a possible carcinogen (Group 2B) by the World Health Organization, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned the use of menthol as a food additive last year.

Researchers from Duke University School of Medicine tested six e-liquids containing menthol and smokeless tobacco products. The results showed that the exposure limits of menthol in e-liquids ranged from 325 to 6012, while in smokeless tobacco products, it ranged from 549 to 1646, both posing a carcinogenic risk.

The FDA stipulates that the "exposure limit" for carcinogens (the maximum non-carcinogenic usage amount divided by the expected daily usage) must not be less than 10,000. The lower the value, the greater the health risk.

The research team published a paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine, stating that daily exposure to menthol from the aforementioned flavored e-cigarettes is about 86 to 1600 times that of menthol-flavored combustible cigarettes. Panayiotis Galiasatos, director of the Tobacco Treatment Clinic at Johns Hopkins University, expressed that these findings are "highly concerning."

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced on the 11th of this month that it will introduce regulations in the coming weeks to ban the sale of non-tobacco-flavored e-cigarette products to control the trend of youth vaping. The U.S. health department has repeatedly warned about the potential health risks of e-cigarettes and is currently investigating over 450 cases of severe lung disease associated with e-cigarette use. Earlier last month, the FDA reported receiving 127 cases of seizures following e-cigarette use and is investigating whether e-cigarettes are the direct cause.

E-cigarettes mainly consist of a battery, a heating vaporization device, and a tube containing e-liquid, which can vaporize nicotine-containing e-liquid for users to inhale. The WHO has previously released a report stating that there is insufficient evidence to suggest that e-cigarettes help with smoking cessation, and smokers can only benefit maximally by completely quitting nicotine.