Example

As he felt the hope for a healthier, longer, happier life start to swell up inside him, it happened. When he puffed on his new pen-sized device and took the vapour down into his lungs, an unbearable scratching, burning sensation overcame his throat.He hacked up a cough, spluttering a messy cloud of strawberry-scented vapour out in front of him. He tried again and again.

If the above sounds like your experience with vaping, you’re not alone. There are many reasons you might have a bad reaction to vaping, but one of the most likely culprits is propylene glycol (PG). If you spend a little bit of time browsing vaping forums and talking to smokers and vapers, you’ll quickly learn that not everybody can tolerate it.

Explanation

A common explanation is that some people are just allergic to PG. But it’s not that simple. In fact, while allergies do happen, in situations like the one dramatised above, it’s normally something a lot more common but arguably just as unpleasant: PG sensitivity. But how can you be sure if it’s PG at all? What’s the difference between an allergy and a sensitivity anyway? How many vapers have PG allergies or sensitivities? And what can you do about it? We’ve taken a look at the facts and surveyed over 1,000 vapers to find out.

Propylene glycol is a colourless, odourless and near-tasteless molecule. It’s composed of three carbon atoms, eight hydrogen atoms and two oxygen atoms, and it’s technically an alcohol. The first documented description of it comes from the mid-19th century, and in the mid-20th century it started being used in a variety of medicines and other consumer products. PG isn’t very toxic at all, and is “generally recognised as safe” for ingestion.

As well as being non-toxic, PG also has many useful properties. It’s a solvent, a preservative, a moisture-preserver and an emulsifier – which means it helps oily and watery ingredients mix together. It’s especially useful as a solvent, because it mixes with water, alcohols, drugs such as diazepam that can’t be mixed with water and vegetable glycerine. This wide range of uses, combined with its safety, means that PG is used in many products. It’s used in foods as a preservative and moisture-retainer, and in food colourings and flavourings a solvent. It’s found in deodorants, moisturisers, shampoos and conditioners, suntan lotion, lipsticks and many, many more everyday products.

It’s also used in some specific types of anti-freeze designed to be child and pet-safe. This is because it lowers the freezing point of water much like another chemical commonly used in antifreeze (ethylene glycol) does, but is much less toxic. Finally, it’s also one of the two main ingredients in e-liquid, alongside VG. The quantity of PG in e-liquid varies, so to find out how much is in your e-liquid, look for the PG/VG ratio. This is usually listed on the bottle.

PG Allergies vs. Sensitivities: What’s the Difference?

Before we discuss allergies and sensitivities to PG, it’s important to make sure we’re using the terms correctly. There’s a lot of confusion about the difference between allergies and sensitivities or intolerances, and you’ll often notice people using the terms interchangeably. But they’re really quite different issues.

The key factor that separates them is your immune system. In an allergy, your body identifies a certain component in a food or something else you’re consuming as a “threat.” Like it does in response to an infection, your immune system responds to the perceived threat by creating antibodies specifically designed to fight it off. In contrast, sensitivity or intolerance to a chemical is not as clearly-defined, and doesn’t involve the immune system in the way an allergy does.

The most well-known example is lactose intolerance, where some people don’t have the right enzymes to break down the type of sugar found in milk. This leads to problems like bloating and diarrhoea. However, other sensitivities and intolerances aren’t caused by the lack of an enzyme, and in many cases we don’t really understand the mechanisms involved. The simple fact is that some people react badly to some foods and other substances.

Although it’s entirely possible that new vapers having problems such as sore throats are having a reaction to PG, it’s not the only explanation. In fact, several symptoms often accompany quitting smoking, and these can overlap a little with the symptoms of PG sensitivity or allergy. Two symptoms of quitting smoking in particular could mimic signs of PG sensitivity or allergy. Firstly, the “quitter’s flu” involves many cold and flu-like symptoms, including congestion, coughing, sore throat, headaches and more.

If you’re experiencing symptoms like this, you may attribute the coughing, sore throat and headaches in particular to vaping. However, since many quitters get this issue even without vaping, it’s not always easy to point to PG as the culprit. Similarly, there’s another issue known as “quit zits,” which is basically what it sounds like. Some people develop acne after quitting, although the scientific evidence on this is inconclusive.

It may be that smoking actually reduces your risk of acne, and so quitting appears to make it more likely because the protective effect is removed. Regardless, many quitters report acne breakouts as a symptom, so it’s another thing to bear in mind if you think you may have a PG allergy. Click to see the ways to solve it.

tags:E-juice, ecig forum