What are E-cigarettes?

E-cigarettes have many names and are sometimes called ‘e-cigs’, ‘vapes’, ‘vape pens’, ‘mods’, or ‘Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems’ (ENDS). They are battery-operated devices that mimic the act of regular smoking by heating a liquid to generate an aerosol, which is inhaled by users through its mouthpiece and exhaled as a visible vapour.

E-cigarettes contain nicotine, a highly addictive substance that can affect brain development in youth. There are also many cancer-causing substances such as formaldehyde, benzene (produced when heated), and heavy metals such as lead.

E-cigarettes come  in a variety of shapes and sizes, some look like traditional tobacco products like cigarettes, cigars and pipes, while others resemble everyday items like USB flash drives and pens. This should not to be confused with heated tobacco products (HTP), also known as Heat-Not-Burn products, which consist of a small tobacco stick that is heated electronically, rather than burned.

Globally, there is a worrying trend on the uptake of e-cigarettes, especially among youth. The promotion of e-cigarettes to the young has resulted in an exponential increase in the number of young people using e-cigarettes in other countries. For example, in the US, past 30-day use of e-cigarettes increased by nine- to ten-fold between 2011 to 2015¹ among middle and high school students. Youth are often attracted by the packaging and its wide variety of attractive flavours and scents.

Inside an E-cigarette

Below are some of the common harmful chemicals found in e-cigarettes.
Read on to learn how each ingredient affects your body^2,3.

Safeguarding Singaporeans from e-cigarettes

While there are still ongoing health effects of e-cigarettes, existing evidence shows that  the harmful chemical composition within e-cigarettes pose many health risks to their users and non-users.

  Youth are particularly susceptible to long-term and long-lasting effects of exposing their developing brains to nicotine. These risks include nicotine addiction, failure to resist urges and changing the way our brains control attention and learning.

  Many authoritative scientific studies in the United States⁴ and United Kingdom⁵ have shown that youth who use e-cigarettes are more likely to progress to conventional cigarettes.