E-shishas: What's up with the vape trend?
Unlike smoking a conventional cigarette, e-shishas from manufacturers such as Elf Bar, Aroma King or Salt do not emit an unpleasant tobacco smell, but vaporize flavored liquids depending on the selected flavor. That smells good. This is exactly where the fallacy lies: due to the rather pleasant scent, the vapor of e-cigarettes is classified as harmless and the disposable e-cigarette is quickly used at home or in the office. But vapes contain nicotine salts and release pollutants into the indoor air. How much the liquids of the disposable shishas affect the air quality, we have explored in our practical test.
Note: We do not aim to teach health. We only investigate the verifiable changes in air components during vaping.
Disposable e-cigarettes - more harmful to the environment than classic cigarette
Smoking e-shishas generates a lot of waste. This is because the disposable e-cigarettes from Elf Bar, Aroma King, Salt & Co, which are already packaged in plastic, are only activated once and disposed of when they are empty. In addition, liquid and battery are already contained in the vape, so they actually belong in the hazardous waste, but rather end up in plastic waste or in public trash cans.
The air-Q experiment: How does the air quality change when vaporizing Elf Bars & Co. in the home?
Our air-Q Lab experiment took place in a living room with about 22 m². Before the start of our experiment, we aired the room until 10:30 p.m., so that all values were in the optimal range. Afterwards, our test person smoked e-shisha indoors for 20 minutes until about 22:50 with the windows closed. The air-Q science was used to observe the following measured values: particulates (PM₁ - PM₂,₅ - PM₁₀), carbon monoxide (CO), humidity (ρ), volatile organic compounds (VOC), oxygen (O₂), carbon dioxide (CO₂) and the air-Q health index. In doing so, we had the air meter record the readings even after vaping until 11:30 pm. This allowed us to track the development of air quality in the room even after smoking the e-cigarette and to see how long the changed air constituents persisted in the room.
How do the readings particulates and carbon monoxide change when vaping Elf Bar and Aromaking?
Unlike cigarettes or real shishas, where combustion processes cause an increase in carbon monoxide and particulate matter, vaping a disposable e-cigarette only involves vaporization. Right at the beginning of the test phase, particulate matter levels for PM 2.5 particles increased slightly from just below 4 μg/m³ to slightly above 4 μg/m³. The particulate matter value reached a peak around three-quarters of eleven. After that, however, the measured value dropped again and then fluctuated in an alternating increasing and decreasing line. In contrast, the particulate matter level of the larger PM10 particles dropped for the time being and also alternately decreased and increased again during the course of the test. However, the relatively low baseline value was not significantly exceeded throughout the test, and the average load was 3 μg/m³. Accordingly, our study shows that smoking an e-shisha at least avoids the harmful particulates - compared to smoking a conventional cigarette.
In contrast to the small increase in harmful particulate matter, the carbon monoxide content in the room air rose continuously in a stepped line when vaping the e-shisha. Shortly before the e-cigarette was ignited, the air-Q detected a carbon monoxide content of just over 2.65 mg/m³. By the time the vape went out, CO levels reached 2.725 mg/m³ and rose to 2.77 mg/m³ by the end of the experimental period - an increase of 4.5 percent. The average carbon monoxide load was 2.71 mg/m³.
Does vaping in the room affect the humidity?
When smoking an e-cigarette, liquid is vaporized. It changes its aggregate state from liquid to gaseous and is blown out as vapor. In the air, the temperature of the vapor drops and the liquid becomes liquid again, which means that the humidity in the room also increases. During our test, both the absolute and relative humidity increased. The absolute humidity increased from about 7.8 g/m³ to 9 g/m³ due to the vapor. The average value was 8.55 g/m³. Relative humidity averaged 54 percent and increased from about 50 to just under 60 percent.
Influence of steaming on the measured value Volatile organic compounds
In the test, the VOCs rose sharply and clearly exceeded the recommended limit of 4,000 ppb. While the initial value was already 4,000 ppb when the e-shisha was lit, it peaked at over 7,000 ppb by the end of the test phase - an increase of 75 percent. VOCs can cause headaches, dizziness and nausea. You may be familiar with this effect from the smell of aggressive cleaning products. We cannot say whether the VOCs are harmful in this case, because a VOC sensor is very sensitive to different substances. In the best case, you "only" breathe in fragrances, like with a scented candle. In the worst case, you breathe in dangerous aldehydes, which can even be carcinogenic. How dangerous an e-shisha is varies from liquid to liquid.
How does smoking an e-shisha indoors change the oxygen as well as carbon dioxide content of the air?
The air-Q was unable to demonstrate a negative or positive influence of steaming on the oxygen content in the room air. The average measured value was 20.79 percent. The measurement line does not show any rise or fall. The carbon dioxide content, on the other hand, increased constantly, rising from an initial 750 ppm when the disposable e-cigarette was activated to about 1,000 ppm around 11:40 p.m.. An increase of about 33 percent. However, the CO² content in a room always increases when there is a breathing person in it, so we cannot attribute the slight increase to the e-cigarette alone.
What does the air-Q health index reveal about the measured value development during vaporization?
After ventilation, there is sufficient oxygen in the test room - both the health index and the performance index are at 32 percent. This value drops rapidly to 0 and does not recover during the entire test period.
Conclusion
Smoking an e-cigarette indoors has been shown to affect air quality. Many measured values reacted to the vapor and rose sharply, such as VOC or carbon dioxide. The health and performance index is also strongly affected, as relevant measured values exceeded limits in the test. We therefore recommend refraining from vaping indoors, or at least opening the windows when doing so, or ventilating extensively following smoking, in order to reduce the increased pollutant levels. Nevertheless, vaping has a comparatively harmless impact on indoor air, like smoking tobacco. For example, there is no risk of carbon monoxide poisoning, as there is with real burns. Of course, we recommend living completely smoke-free to avoid harming yourself and the environment.
Contributed image: air-Q editing/ canva.com
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