Vapeboss – Shoim Hidayat, a Toxicologist from the Faculty of Public Health at Airlangga University, states that vaping will not cause acute kidney failure. This is because the contamination of ethylene glycol (EG) and diethylene glycol (DEG) in solvents like propylene glycol and glycerin is very small.

Both of these ingredients can be used in making e-liquid for vapes. However, the level of contamination tends to be very low, so it has almost no impact on the body.

"The level of contamination is certainly very small, for example, only 1 percent. If propylene glycol is used for vapes, the level of EG and DEG contamination is usually very small. Thus, the side effects are not significant. The toxicity of propylene glycol is very low, and its use is not only for medicine. It is also used for food, cosmetics, and other industrial purposes," said Shoim.

"The toxic effects of EG and DEG contamination will occur if the dose consumed is in large amounts. If only a very small amount is consumed, symptoms usually will not appear," he added.

Shoim explained that, theoretically, there are three stages of EG and DEG toxicity in the body. In the first 12 hours, a person will experience intoxicating effects similar to consuming ethanol or alcoholic beverages. In the next 12 hours, problems with the respiratory and cardiac systems will appear. If there is no treatment after 24 hours, the effects will damage the kidneys.

"If it's just from vape where the amount of contamination is not significant, I am confident that the risk is very low. Even if there is contamination, at most 1 percent, and it enters the body, it will not have an effect," he said.

Until now, there have been no findings indicating that acute kidney failure is caused by the consumption of vape or e-cigarettes. On average, cases of acute kidney failure occur in children, suspected to be due to EG and DEG contamination in syrup medicine, not from vaping.

"If we want to link acute kidney failure and vape, are there any current cases? We must start from there first, whether cases of acute kidney failure in vape users have ever been found or not? So, the observation must start from there," he concluded.

Source: Antaranews