Does E-Cigarette Liquid Contain Nicotine?

Some electronic cigarettes contain nicotine. E-cigarettes do not use tobacco. Instead, they use electrically generated heat to vaporize liquid. Nicotine is the only major thing smokes and e-cigarettes have in common — yet not every e-cigarette has the addictive substance mixed into its flavored liquid, a liquid which finally gets ingested as vapor. Though e-cigarettes are typically lumped together with nicotine patches and nicotine gum as means for weaning oneself away cigarettes, that is hardly the sole reason they exist.

Some e-cigarette users come for the change and remain for a seemingly unlimited number of flavors, the assemble-your-own-e-cig subculture, even the tech-related thrill of utilizing electronic e-cigs as minicomputers that transfer usage data to your desktop computer. Sina War of Minneapolis, who had smoked traditional cigarettes for approximately a decade, credits e-cigarettes with eventually weaning her off tobacco — if not nicotine. Just as she could not drink decaf, she says, she’ll constantly need a nicotine hit (usually in the morning). But she will often “vape” — the verb used to spell out the application of an e-cigarette — with zero nicotine.

What Electronic Cigarette Nicotine Level is Equivalent to My Current Conventional Cigarette?

Good question. Typically, electronic cigarettes aren’t as strong as traditional cigarettes, so choose a stronger e-cigarette than you would normally. Since many people don’t even know how much nicotine is in the tobacco cigarettes they smoke, here’s a little table to give you an idea of what to look for re:e-cigarette nicotine levels. Keep in mind that some e-cigarette brands list the % (percentage) of nicotine while others list the mg (milligrams).

Electronic Cigarette Nicotine Levels

Per 24mg or 2.4% cartomizer: each cartomizer is equal to 10 cigarettes that contain 2.4mg of nicotine. *Note: if a cartomizer lasts for 300 puffs, it delivers 2.4mg (or whatever its listed level) of nicotine over the entire cartomizer contents, and not in each individual puff.

From reading about others’ experiences making the switch to e-cigs, 16mg (1.6%) to 18mg (1.8%) seems to be the sweet spot. 18mg especially seems to deliver enough nicotine to make switching from traditional tobacco cigarettes to e-cigarettes, a smooth transition.

Chemicals in tobacco cigarettes are designed to intensify the nicotine effect and speed the delivery of nicotine to the brain. E-cigarettes, however, do not contain these chemicals so you may need a higher nicotine level temporarily in order to make the transition easily to superior e-cigarettes.