Professor Receives Funding for Pilot Vaping Study 

A group of researchers from The University of New Mexico (UNM) in the U.S. are leading a project that would allow vapers to reap the benefits of electronic nicotine-delivery system (ENDS) products without the potential health risks.

Nathan Jackson, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, is one of the principal investigators on the project called “Droplet and Metal Particle Analysis of ENDS,” which has been selected for a pilot award through the UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Jackson said that current vaping tools operate by heating liquid to high levels in order to vaporize it, which creates a chemical reaction that generates potentially toxic products such as formaldehyde and acrolein that have well-known long-term health risks for cardiovascular or respiratory diseases.

“Every vaping tool functions by heating the liquid to greater than 200 degrees celsius, which creates toxic byproducts, which then enter the aerosol droplets that are inhaled,” he said. “Our technology uses a different mechanism to create the aerosol that does not require heating, so it could potentially eliminate the harmful byproducts.”

Jackson is the inventor of an atomization technology based on silicon microfabrication called silicon-vibrating mesh atomizer (Si-VMA) that uses significantly lower heat, has the potential to eliminate ultrafine particles by producing low-span and high-efficiency uniform droplet distribution, and can potentially eliminate metal particles in the aerosol since it uses a silicon-based membrane instead of a metallic one, according to a press release.

“Our technology uses a silicon substrate, where no metal is in contact with the liquid and it uses less heat, so potentially we can reduce the health risks associated with vaping,” Jackson said. “Also, our technology can generate micro-scale droplets instead of the nano-scale droplets found in current vaping tools, so that means that droplets are less likely to enter the blood stream and cluster together, which could also result in safer aerosols.”

Co-principal investigators on the project, which is funded through June 2023, involve two researchers from the UNM Health Sciences Center: Pavan Muttil from the School of Pharmacy and Katie Zychowski from the College of Nursing.

Jackson said the market for this type of solution for a safer vaping tool is enormous, for both medical uses and recreational uses, and a safer technology could reduce potential health costs associated with vaping in the future.

Jackson said the short-duration pilot study is designed to assess the feasibility of developing safer vaping technology in the future. After the results of this study are reported, he said the group plans to pursue larger funded projects that would enable them to develop improved technology with the option of later commercialization.