Scare tactics used by big tobacco and big pharma are an attempt to slow the rising popularity and growing sales of a market competitor.

One claim is that electronic cigarettes are dangerous due to propylene glycol. This is the ingredient used to create the vapor for the e-smoker to inhale.

Anti-smoking groups picked up the misinformation from the tobacco lobbyists and began claiming e-cigarettes contained antifreeze. Perhaps that is the danger in issuing ingredient warnings when you don’t have a chemist on staff. The most common ingredient used to make antifreeze is ethylene glycol – not the same chemical compound but close enough for scare tactics.

The warnings about propylene glycol and electronic cigarettes contain a grain of truth when PG is linked to antifreeze. Propylene glycol is used as antifreeze in solar water heating systems because of the non-toxic nature of PG. It can be used to winterize drinking water systems. PG is also used for antifreeze in any application where the used antifreeze may eventually drain into soil, water or septic systems.

Propylene glycol has been approved and judged safe to inhale since 1942. If there were serious problem with PG they would most likely have been revealed by now. Instead, propylene glycol has been extensively tested in mice, monkeys and other animals in oral form as well as injected and inhaled.

Studies of propylene glycol have led scientists to question whether this simple and safe ingredient may also help reduce or prevent respiratory illnesses such as pneumonia. The possibility was an accidental result of experiments conducted many years ago. The researchers theorized that propylene glycol vapor was a potent germicide yet no further studies were published to either prove or disprove that theory.

What was clear was the lack of negative effects of propylene glycol. Although some websites and blogs of anti-smoking organizations and tobacco manufacturers raise questions about the safety of propylene glycol in electronic cigarettes, PG is used in products used daily in our homes.

PG is used to make lotions, creams and cosmetics, shampoo, soaps, deodorants, and baby wipes. Propylene glycol is an ingredient in cake mixes, salad dressings, sour cream and popcorn. It is difficult accept the fact there is no risk in using propylene glycol in foods we eat, items we apply to our skin and products used on the sensitive skin of babies and yet believe PG in e-cigarettes is unsafe.

Propylene glycol is responsible for the fog created by fog machines and freely used for theatrical productions and Halloween festivities. PG is a carrier in fragrance oils and an ingredient in massage oils and used to make hand sanitizers and saline solutions.

Propylene glycol is an organic compound that is colorless, clear and almost odorless with a faint sweetness to the taste. When ingested into the body, PG is metabolized into pyruvic acid. This is a natural part of the process of metabolism which turns glucose into energy. It takes very large quantities of propylene glycol to cause damage to health.

If you are looking to buy a great E-Cigarette, I would highly recommend the one from Green Smoke. I have written a review about it here.

Mary Kay Rivers