this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2025
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They may look like travel shampoo bottles and smell like bubblegum, but after a few hundred puffs, some disposable, electronic cigarettes and vape pods release higher amounts of toxic metals than older e-cigarettes and traditional cigarettes, according to a study from the University of California, Davis. For example, one of the disposable e-cigarettes studied released more lead during a day’s use than nearly 20 packs of traditional cigarettes.

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[–] anarchy79@lemmy.world 13 points 3 days ago

YOU HEARD'EM FOLKS! GO GET YOUR CIGARETTES!

[–] Emerald@lemmy.world 73 points 4 days ago (3 children)
[–] anarchy79@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

IT'S A NATURAL PLANT

lol

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[–] TheLunatickle@lemmy.zip 21 points 3 days ago

I wonder if this is part of why gen Z is turning conservative.

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago

All they had to do was keep it quiet for 15 years until the new generation was addicted.

Remember when e-cigarettes looked like cigarettes, and were for a brief time allowed to be smoked indoors in public? That's how it started, we were told they were completely healthy, and a way to "kick the habit", because it's "just a habit", not one of the strongest addictions you'll ever encounter, according to the people who make millions off of it.

[–] Grizzlyboy@lemmy.zip 57 points 4 days ago (5 children)

I can’t fathom how they’re legal. Disposable e cigarettes? The waste is insane, and the people using then aren’t properly disposing of them either..

[–] UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

There needs to be a $20 deposit on them that you get back when you turn in the empty vape.

Or, hot take, make vapes you can refill.

[–] UnfortunateShort@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

There are ones you can refill, the disposable ones should just be banned altogether.

[–] cmbabul@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

The ones you could refill were the only game in town at the beginning, only thing I ever used. Need to get back on flower for weed but the cartridges are super convenient, at least they don’t have batteries(I know there are disposable weed vapes, not the same as the cartridges)

[–] Darleys_Brew@lemmy.ml 10 points 4 days ago (1 children)

They aren’t in the UK, technically, but manufacturers get around it by making them rechargeable.

I’ve read about people that don’t bother recharging them, though.

[–] Grizzlyboy@lemmy.zip 14 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Have you seen the Brit who made a bicycle battery from disposable ecigs?

He’s the one who made me aware of it, and made me contact political parties about their stance on them.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VcVp9T8f_W4&pp=ygUgRGlzcG9zYWJsZSBlIGNpZ2dhcmV0dGVzIGJpY3ljbGU%3D

[–] Darleys_Brew@lemmy.ml 5 points 4 days ago

That’s interesting, thank you. I’ll give that a watch when when my deaf arse isn’t somewhere with loads of ambient noise.

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 7 points 3 days ago

Because the Trump and Biden FDA banned everything else already. Now they want to ban whats left in order to push people back toward cigarettes which can still be purchased at every gas station, grocery or convenience store in the country.

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[–] Nougat@fedia.io 101 points 4 days ago (36 children)

The three "brands" they tested are all from the same outfit, who most certainly sources them all from the same sweatshop in China. This does not apply to all disposables by any stretch. There's plenty of better reasons to dunk on disposables.

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[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Guess I'm gonna be ultra fucked. I'm not going back to cigarettes. And I already quit nicotine once for seven and a half years. Starting again was the biggest mistake of my life cause I don't wanna go through that again. Oh well, it's not like we have much chance at a future anyway.

[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 days ago

Dude, I hope you try to quit those too. If you've ever met someone who can't breathe from COPD, it's a tough time for them.

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[–] Squiddork@lemmy.world 29 points 4 days ago (2 children)

If you read the paper, it assumes a 100% absorption rate of the heavy metals emitted.

I'm not here to defend vapes but I think that is a seriously overlooked flaw in this study. Most people don't puff a cigarette/vape and hold it in their lungs until it's completely absorbed.

Couldn't see anything about the bioavailability of these carcinogens via lungs factored into the absorption rate either.

Ontop of that the sample size from this study is abysmal and from the same manufacturer and there is also a declared conflict of interest.

IMO more studies need to be done before we can conclusively determine the damage and risks of disposable vapes.

[–] vxx@lemmy.world 14 points 4 days ago (1 children)

They're comparing it to cigarettes and other vapes.

20 times more lead is still 20 times more lead.

[–] Squiddork@lemmy.world 14 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Cigarettes have a myriad of carcinogens like toluene, benzene, formadelhyde, hexamine, napthaline and acetone

Stating that vapes are more toxic than cigarettes over one metric is disingenuous journalism.

I'm not disagreeing about the lead content but studies like this get picked up by journalists with the comprehension of a tomato and are then misconstrued into these fear-creating headlines for engagement.

The adoption of vapes tremendously ate into the big tobacco profits, its an extremely effective way of getting off cigarettes. (for better or worse)

If we instead listened to these studies and developed a similar form of nicotine replacement therapy with harm minimisation in mind under industry regulation we'd do far more for smokers, vapers and our healthcare systems than any fear mongering 'don't do it!' campaigns which time and time again do not work.

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[–] catty@lemmy.world 14 points 4 days ago (11 children)

Do these threats exist in the exhaled smoke? It seems like people around me don't GAF about the exhaust from vapes.

[–] rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 days ago

Sure, but the diesel bus that just drove by you gave you way more cancer than Brad with his Vanilla Mocha vape did.

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[–] Jake_Farm@sopuli.xyz 18 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (20 children)

Where? Why? Is it a quality control issue or an inherent danger of the technology?

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 21 points 4 days ago

Regulatory issues. Adulterants in shitty quality disposables.

Not "vaping inherently dangerous."

[–] TimewornTraveler@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

the disposables are the problem. probably manufacturing or regulations. the way the coils aren't changed, the way it sits in it, the way they use highly concentrated nicotine salts... it's nothing like the classic refillable tank and box mods that just took regular juice with nothing but PG/VG/nicotine/flavoring

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[–] Eww@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago (2 children)
[–] anarchy79@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

It's so fucked that every single actor in the Marlboro commercials died of lung cancer. All of them.

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[–] friend_of_satan@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago

TIL e-cigarettes are illegal in Taiwan.

[–] bathing_in_bismuth@sh.itjust.works 8 points 4 days ago (3 children)

What I don't get, PG/VG & nicotine + flavor chemicals. How the heck does lead get in there? Afaik its not used in synthesis of any of those things

[–] anarchy79@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

Lead comes from the device hardware, not the juice. Heating coils, solder, and metal parts shed particles when hot.

[–] 3abas@lemmy.world 9 points 4 days ago (2 children)

The metal coil that needs to get red hot to vaporize the PG/VG.

[–] tankfox@midwest.social 12 points 4 days ago (12 children)

If the coil is getting red hot it's not producing vapor anymore. Vapor is just boiled oil and the boiling happens at a lower temperature than red hot by a significant amount, and the whole system is configured that the incoming vape juice cools the coil in the process of becoming vapor. This study is about as significant as noticing that if you set the filter of a cigarette on fire it can produce extra-toxic chemicals. No shit, but that's not how they work.

More bullshit ads for plant based vaping alternatives; cigarettes.

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[–] Revan343@lemmy.ca 8 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

It's not from the coil, at least in the cases that this article is about, but other parts of the tank. Shitty manufacturing, anyways

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Or just another shitty study like the one they did in Oregon where they fired the coils for 60 seconds at a time and literally melted the rigs down before measuring what chemicals off gassed from the smoldering pile of plastic and metal.

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[–] elfin8er@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

Esco Bar, Flum Pebble, and ELF Bar for anyone curious.

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