Flavour Chemicals, Synthetic Coolants and Pulegone in Popular Mint-flavoured and Menthol-flavoured E
Thursday, July 15, 2021
Posted by: Natalia Gromov
Omaiye
EE, Luo W, McWhirter KJ, et al.
Flavour Chemicals,
Synthetic Coolants and Pulegone in Popular Mint-flavoured and Menthol-flavoured
E-Cigarettes.
Tobacco Control Published Online First: 30 June 2021. doi: 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2021-056582
Background.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently banned flavours from
pod-style electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), except for menthol and tobacco.
JUUL customers have quickly discovered that flavoured disposable e-cigarettes
from other manufacturers, such as Puff, are readily available. Our goal was to
compare flavour chemicals, synthetic coolants and pulegone in
mint-flavoured/menthol-flavoured e-cigarettes from JUUL and Puff, evaluate the
cytotoxicity of the coolants and perform a cancer risk assessment for pulegone,
which is present in both JUUL pods and disposable Puff products.
Methods.
Identification and quantification of chemicals were performed using gas
chromatography/mass spectrometry. Cytotoxicity of the coolants was evaluated
with BEAS-2B cells using the MTT
3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)−2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay. The cancer
risk of pulegone was calculated using the margin of exposure (MOE).
Results.
Menthol was the dominant flavour chemical (>1 mg/mL) in all products from
both manufacturers. Minor flavour chemicals (<1 mg/mL) differed in the JUUL
and Puff fluids and may produce flavour accents. The concentrations of WS-3 and
WS-23 were higher in Puff than in JUUL. WS-23 was cytotoxic in the MTT assay at
concentrations 90 times lower than concentrations in Puff fluids. The risk of
cancer (MOE<10 000) was greater for mint than for menthol products and
greater for Puff than for JUUL.
Conclusions.
Switching from flavoured JUUL to Puff e-cigarettes may expose users to
increased harm due to the higher levels of WS-23 and pulegone in Puff products.
Cancer risk may be reduced in e-cigarettes by using pure menthol rather than
mint oils to produce minty-flavoured e-cigarette products.
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