Wednesday, 29 March 2017

How does nicotine delivery from different types of e-cigarettes compare to conventional cigarettes?


Why did we do this study?
Replacing smoking with vaping is highly desirable because it is much less risky. The potential of e-cigarettes to replace conventional cigarettes depends to a large extent on how good they are in delivering nicotine in the way smokers want. We wanted to find out how well different types of e-cigarette delivered nicotine compared to regular cigarettes.

What did we do?
Twelve participants who both smoke and vape (use e-cigarettes) came to our lab on 10 occasions, at least one week apart, and used their own brand of cigarette or one of nine different e-cigarette brands. We took blood samples from the participants before they started using the product, and then 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 30 mins later.

What did we find?
None of the e-cigarettes delivered as much nicotine as regular cigarettes, and they did not deliver it as quickly as regular cigarettes either, but for some products, nicotine delivery is not far behind cigarettes. Moderate differences in e-liquid strength had little effect on how much nicotine was actually delivered to the user; device characteristics were more important. Using similar strength e-liquid, refillable (‘tank’) e-cigarettes provided better nicotine delivery than ‘cig-a-likes’, e-cigarettes that look like conventional cigarettes and do not need filling up.

What does this mean?
Refillable e-cigarettes deliver nicotine more efficiently than cig-a-like brands. Smokers who are finding cig-a-like style e-cigarettes unsatisfactory should be advised to try more advanced, tank systems.
This study was published in Psychopharmacology. You can read the full article by clicking here (opens in a new window).

We would like to thank the participants who took part in this study. 

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