Vape Research – Nicotine delivery

Posted 1st February 2017 by Mawsley
From Planet of the Vapes
Vape Research – Nicotine delivery | Planet of the Vapes


A team, including Peter Hajek, from the Health and Lifestyle Research Unit at the Queen Mary University of London, has produced a paper documenting their examination of the efficiency of vaping devices to deliver nicotine. Despite anti-vape campaigners complaining about nicotine levels in eliquid, the research confirms that vape devices are far less efficient than traditional tobacco cigarettes.

Peter Hajek has fingers in many pies; he is Professor of Clinical Psychology, Head of Psychology and Director of the Health and Lifestyle Research Unit at the Wolfson Institute of Preventative Medicine, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London. He is also well known to many vapers for his supportive comments about vaping and his analytical takedown of irresponsible anti-vape research.

The team considered if devices were “delivering nicotine in the way smokers seek” as it “is likely to be the key factor in e-cigarette success in replacing cigarettes. We examined to what degree different types of EC mimic nicotine intake from cigarettes.”

They took 12 participants, who were dual users (they vaped and still smoked traditional tobacco cigarettes). The participants used their own brand of cigarette and vaped with nine different electronic cigarette products. Blood samples were taken to analyse nicotine content; measurements were taken at baseline and at 2-minute intervals for the next 10 minutes – then once more 30 minutes after smoking or vaping.

The benefit of this study is that data was being obtained from living people (in vivo) instead of the kind of figures obtained from smoking/vaping machines. Also, the research was constructed with the knowledge that different vape devices are more efficient at nicotine delivery so it was able to appraise profiles of different e-liquid strengths and different types of electronic cigarette models.

Models used included:

• Gamucci (Gamucci XL Distributors Inc.)
• Blu (Imperial Tobacco)
• Vype (British American Tobacco)
• E-lites Original Instant Use (Japan Tobacco)
• Puritane (Imperial Tobacco)
• Vuse (RJ Reynolds)
• KangerTech EVOD (Kanger Technology)
• Innokin itaste MVP 2, 4.8v (Innokin Technology)

The team discovered: “The main findings of this study provide a new insight into EC products when used by experienced vapers ad-lib. EC brands we tested deliver less nicotine than cigarettes and do it more slowly despite users taking significantly more puffs than when using cigarettes.”

“Vuse, an electronic cigarette with a very high nicotine content, and the third generation electronic cigarette we tested at a high power setting, are beginning to catch up with cigarettes. With the exception of Vuse, different cig-a-like products produced by different manufacturers may differ in appearance and various other characteristics, but in terms of nicotine delivery, they are practically identical. Refillable EC brands using similar strength of e-liquid delivered nicotine significantly more efficiently.”

They concluded that the products tested “do not deliver nicotine as efficiently as cigarettes, but refillable EC deliver nicotine more efficiently than cig-a-like products.” More surprisingly, they found that “moderate variations in nicotine content of e-liquid have little effect on nicotine delivery.” The team suggests that smokers who don’t find cigalikes rewarding consider advanced systems instead.