Exposure to second hand e-cigarette smoke on the street.

[jake2026]

I'm beginning to think that e-cigarette smoke is worse than tobacco smoke. I know it's an aerosol but I call it e-cigarette smoke.

It's a problem on the street, not just enclosed spaces. It gets everywhere and you can't avoid it. It gets into the lungs and you can't clear your lungs.

It can feel debilitating.

Sometimes it makes the eyes feel heavy and irritated.

Occasionally I have even felt pressure on the chest.

It can take hours for the lungs to clear. Sometimes you can still feel it the next day.

I'm perfectly OK at other times.

Do other people notice problems?

From AI:

“A vape coil heats e-liquid—typically propylene glycol (PG), vegetable glycerin (VG), flavourings and often nicotine—until it forms an aerosol. Temperatures are generally below those required for ordinary burning, so this is fundamentally different from a cigarette, where tobacco undergoes combustion.
However, heating isn’t chemically neutral. At sufficiently high temperatures, PG, VG and some flavouring chemicals can thermally decompose and produce compounds including formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and acrolein. The amount produced varies substantially depending on the device, power, coil temperature, liquid composition and whether the coil becomes too hot or runs relatively dry. Metals from the heating element can also sometimes enter the aerosol.

WHO takes a precautionary position, emphasizing that toxic substances are present and therefore there is a plausible health risk to non-users.”

Most people agree that you wouldn’t vape around babies and children. That’s because we know that harm can’t be ruled out.

My personal view is that vaping has been pushed hard by the NHS as a form of harm reduction and by the tobacco companies now flogging vapes to profit from our addictions. The lack of regulation has been absolutely shocking. The real, long term harms simply aren’t known and I think OP is wise to trust her instincts.

Vapes are revolting (in my personal opinion) but the facts are that they do not produce smoke, and are far less harmful than smoking.
However, just because these are not particularly toxic substances doesn't mean that you as an individual are not having a reaction.

There are plenty of examples of substances affecting some people more than others. Hayfever is a classic. Strong smells can be a migraine trigger. These are both examples where some people will feel really dreadful, but broadly these are short term with no lasting harm.

You sound like you are worrying about the harmful effects of vape exposure. It's possible that you are having a reaction, but it's very unlikely to be doing you long term damage.

Actually, when assessing risk to a drug or chemical mass is used as the mass relates to the amount of the compound as the volume can be different strengths. I can dissolve 5g of sugar in 10 ml or water or 100ml of water. The 100ml solution doesn't contain more sugar than the 10ml.
5 ml of Calpol can be either 120mg of paracetamol or 250mg of paracetamol depending on whether it is the infant or the 6+ variety.

All of the therapeutic dose (TD50) and lethal doses (LD50) are reported on terms of weight usually mg/kg - I work in the pharmaceutical industry and I know people researching the health implications of vapes.

The health risks of vaping are very much in the unknown unknown territory, the risks of lung cancer and smoking related diseases is less but that is not to say that there are no risks to vaping and indeed second hand inhalation of vapours. If you only search for is vaping safe it only compares it to smoking and look solely as the health implications of nicotine. If you dig a little deeper you start to see the studies looking at vaping in it's own right and the research that is ongoing in to the health impacts of vaping including the increased risk of developing dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases. Whilst this poster is bordering into health anxiety the premise that it is better not to vape and not to breathe in the vapour is not invalid. We do not know the long term impacts of breathing in the artificial flavourings of these vapes, we do not know the long term impacts of vaping. I for one as well as the people I know researching the risks of vaping actively avoid breathing in vaping vapours and encourage people we know that vape to stop.

How many decades has it taken to understand the risks of second and third hand smoking?

On the baking point, you need to make sure you are also considering the density. The density of water is 1 so the weight and volume are the same but the density of oil is ~0.9 so of you weigh 100g of oil it is actually 110ml of oil. The density of milk is ~1.05 so 100g of milk is only 95ml