Electronic cigarettes: a systematic review of available studies on health risk assessment

Aziemah Zulkifli; Emilia Zainal Abidin; Najihah Zainol Abidin; Amer Siddiq Amer Nordin; Sarva Mangala Praveena; Sharifah Norkhadijah Syed Ismail; Irniza Rasdi; Karmegam Karuppiah; Anita Abd Rahman

doi:10.1515/reveh-2015-0075

Electronic cigarettes: a systematic review of available studies on health risk assessment

Rev Environ Health. 2018 Mar 28;33(1):43-52. doi: 10.1515/reveh-2015-0075.

Authors

Aziemah Zulkifli¹, Emilia Zainal Abidin², Najihah Zainol Abidin¹, Amer Siddiq Amer Nordin³, Sarva Mangala Praveena¹, Sharifah Norkhadijah Syed Ismail¹, Irniza Rasdi¹, Karmegam Karuppiah¹, Anita Abd Rahman⁴

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
² Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia, Phone: +603 89472643, Fax: +603 89472395.
³ Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
⁴ Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Community Health, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.

PMID: 27101543
DOI: 10.1515/reveh-2015-0075

Abstract

Objective: This paper primarily aimed to review articles which specifically quantified the risk of electronic cigarette's (e-cigarette) usage via the health risk assessment (HRA) approach.

Methods: Systematic literature searches were conducted using PubMed search engine databases. Search terms such as "electronic cigarette", "e-cigarette", "electronic nicotine delivery systems", "electronic cigarette liquid", "electronic cigarette vapors", and "health risk assessment" were used to identify the relevant articles to be included in this review. To enable comparison, hazard quotient (HQ) and lifetime cancer risk (LCR) for the chemicals measured in the selected articles were calculated for three of the articles using the formula: [1] HQ=average daily dose (ADD)/reference dose (RfD) or exposure air concentration (EC)/reference concentration (RfC); [2] LCR=lifetime average daily dose (LADD) × cancer slope factor (CSF) or exposure air concentration (EC) × inhalation unit risk (IUR).

Results: Four articles pertaining to HRA of e-cigarettes were critically reviewed, three of the papers focused on specific chemicals namely nicotine, propylene glycol (PG), glycerol and 1,2-propanediol, while one article evaluated the health risks posed by heavy metals contained in e-cigarettes. The calculated HQs for the chemicals in this review had large variations. HQs of the six chemicals, i.e. nicotine, PG, glycerol, cadmium, ethylene glycol, nickel, aluminum and titanium, were found to have the potential to contribute to non-carcinogenic health risks. None of the LCR calculated had risks exceeding the acceptable limit.

Conclusion: There are limited HRA studies and the ones that were available provided inconsistent scientific evidences on the health risk characterization arising from the usage of e-cigarettes. As such, there is a need to perform more studies on HRA of e-cigarettes by using uniformed and comprehensive steps and similar reference threshold levels of exposures.

Keywords: e-liquid; electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes); hazard quotient; health risk assessment (HRA); margin of exposure; risk characterization.

Publication types

Review
Systematic Review

MeSH terms

Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems*
Humans
Risk Assessment*