Special issue on electronic cigarettes

Abstract

The recent rise in public interest in electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) such as electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) has attracted significant attention from health practitioners, policy makers and regulatory authorities, investigative researchers, and the private industry. Tobacco use is clearly preventable, and according to health authorities at regulatory agencies is the single largest preventable cause of disease and death in the United States (FDA, 2016). E-cigarettes have been developed in recent years and predicated as an alternative to combustible cigarettes in a harm-reduction strategy. However, there are many outstanding questions regarding the role and impact of electronic cigarettes in public health, and many of these have been brought forth in both scientific and medical publications as well as government reports Long-term adverse health effects of e-cigarettes or ENDS remain poorly understood. Unlike combustible cigarettes or other smoked tobacco products , it is believed that e-cigarettes have less toxic and carcinogenic byproducts. However, recent data indicate that many e-cigarettes seemed to have significant amounts of for-maldehyde, acetaldehyde and heavy metals, including nickel and chromium. Additionally, continuous exposure to ENDS has resulted in increased airway resistance with increased bacterial colonization and adverse vascular hemodynamics. A current view is that there are limited data and a need for new knowledge regarding enhancing our current understanding of the potential human health effects and risks of electronic cigarettes (Callahan-Lyon, 2014). Moreover, there is a need for description of toxicological methods and monitoring for biomarkers, a better understanding of potential beneficial effects, further hazard characterization of e-liquid, and development of frameworks for assessing the risks of these new and emerging tobacco products as well as many other areas in clinical science, non-clinical science, and social science. In an effort to stimulate and increase new scientific knowledge on the toxicological aspects and methods for assessing health effects of electronic cigarettes, Toxicology Mechanisms and Methods, presents its Special Issue on Electronic Cigarettes. A brief summary of the content in this Special Issue follows. One of the components of ENDS that are often of focus by consumers is new e-liquids. E-liquids are known to contain flavors and have been shown to play an important role in the overall experience of electronic cigarettes (Costigan and Meredith, 2015). Consequently, having a framework for assessing the toxicology of e-liquids is important. In this issue, a research article appears which describes a framework using an in vitro systems toxicology assessment of e-liquids (Iskandar et …