The Truth About Popcorn Lung

Posted by Mark Ripley on

Popcorn lung, what is it and can you get it from Vaping?

A few years back and even presently, the Media and the Government have been warning vapers and the public about the dangers of popcorn lung. What is popcorn lung exactly?

Popcorn lung is a nickname for Bronchiolitis Obliterans. It was commonly diagnosed in people that worked in factories that were exposed to inhaling a chemical called Diacetyl; this chemical was used to produce butter flavoured microwave popcorn. They found that workers in these factories had higher levels of Diacetyl in their systems. Over the year’s companies have stopped using Diacetyl for flavouring because of the known dangers.

Do e-liquids contain Diacetyl?

Some e-liquids used to contain small amounts of Diacetyl until a few years ago. However Health Canada made this a restricted flavouring not to be used in the production of e-liquids. 

It was vapers who brought this chemical to the attention of the vaping community. From approximately 2014-2015 the industry started to make efforts in avoiding any flavourings that contained Diacetyl.

So, the question is, can you get popcorn lung from vaping? There have been no cases of popcorn lung from people vaping e-liquids since its inception. The amount of Diacetyl found in e-liquids prior to being restricted was minuscule. To give you an idea, below is an example of the average amount of Diacetyl that was in e-liquids vs a combustible cigarette prior to 2014.

A smoker, smoking one pack of cigarettes can take in about 6718 micrograms of Diacetyl. In 2015 a study was done and it determined that about 9 micrograms of Diacetyl was inhaled from one cartridge. That would mean, smoking a pack of cigarettes contains approx. up to 750 times that of an e-cigarette. Does that mean you can get popcorn from combustible cigarettes then? No, there have been zero reported cases of popcorn lung from current or former smokers.

Since 2016 clickbait articles started to appear with misinformation about popcorn lung being linked to the vaping industry in attempt to scare the public into refraining from e-cigarettes with no foundation to their claims.

If you are worried that your e-liquids are not safe, make sure you are purchasing your e-liquid from a specialty vape shop or a reputable website, where trusted professionals sell regulated eliquids such as ours.

For more information and credited sources, visit www.vaepworld.com


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