E-cigarettes deliver almost no nicotine.
Written by alan Thursday, 17 June 2010 13:56
E-cigarette articles - E-cigarette and vaping articles
Editor's note...
This article, if anything, would put me off buying an e-cigarette... I want to know I'm getting my nicotine hit! All I can say is, from personal experience, the first time I bought juice I bought one which was too low in nicotine (and almost gave up using the e-cig) - the second time, I over-compensated and bought one that was so high, it was almost unsmokable. Once I got the right level to compensate for your smoking habit, I could swap and change between e-cig and normal cigarette. I guess it's a matter of taste.
Article reprinted in：www.onlyecig.com
Nicotine is an alkaloid, which is found in certain types of plants, tobacco, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant and green peppers. When it is absorbed in small amounts into your system, the nicotine can cause stimulation, which can be a feeling of relaxation, calmness and/or alertness. There is current literature available, which states that nicotine by itself has not been proven to promote the development of cancer in healthy tissue. Nicotine also has no mutagenic properties, but that nicotine is addictive.
E-cigarettes continue to create a lot of media buzz and chatter among smokers and smoking cessation experts alike. Today, Professor Thomas Eissenberg of Virginia Commonwealth University published an important study demonstrating that E-cigarettes, despite claims on the packaging and advertising, deliver almost no nicotine to the user.
The study is published in the latest edition of the journal, Tobacco Control. Professor Eissenberg had 16 smokers abstain overnight, then come to the lab. on different days and (a) smoke two of their usual cigarettes (b)puff on two unlit cigarettes or (c) “smoke” 2 leading brands of E-cigarette using their “high nicotine” cartridge (16mg), each brand on a separate occasion. On each occasion he measured the blood nicotine levels before, during and up to 45 minutes after using the products.
As expected, the smokers started off with very low nicotine blood levels (around 2 ng/ml) and went up to around 17 and 20 ng/ml after smoking the usual cigarettes. However, when the smokers used 2 E-cigarettes their blood nicotine levels hardly budged, peaking at 3.5 ng/ml (i.e. not significantly different from before they used the E-cigarette or puffing on an unlit cigarette). Similarly, unlike smoking real cigarettes, the E-cigarettes did not affect heart rate and had a relatively small (but observable) effect of reducing craving for a smoke.
What this suggests is that regardless of how much nicotine is supposed to be contained in the E-cigarette cartridge, almost none of it is transferred via the vapor and absorbed in the human body. As I have previously suggested, the E-cigarettes appear to be a good idea, with intuitive appeal, but ultimately have the status of a neat theatre prop which mimics rather well the appearance of smoking.
Given that it delivers almost no nicotine, it follows that the E-cigarette is unlikely to be effective in reducing nicotine withdrawal symptoms and helping addicted smokers to quit in the long run. Although on initial use, the smoker will likely get some conditioned effects (like Pavlov’s dog salivating on hearing the bell), after repeated use it is likely the smoker will learn that that ‘something is missing”, and notice that it doesn’t really help with their withdrawal symptoms and cravings (like Pavlov’s dogs salivate less and less as the bell is rung and no food appears).
I’ve no doubt that some people will continue to feel that they are ‘getting something” from the E-cigarette and that it helps them nonetheless. And of course many would prefer a product that doesn’t give them any nicotine. However, the lack of nicotine delivery casts doubt on this product’s usefulness for smoking cessation, and also poses questions as to the accuracy of the claims of those who market the product.