Nicotine hits harder than you think
Get the facts about what’s in a vape, how it affects the body, and why the industry wants to keep you hooked.
QUICK FACTS
Nicotine and Vapes
What’s Really Going On
Most vapes contain nicotine, a chemical that changes how your brain works and makes it hard to stop. Even fruity or minty flavours can have high nicotine levels and other ingredients that impact your lungs and health.
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Ingredients
What’s in a Vape?
Vape liquids can include nicotine, flavouring agents, solvents, and metals that come from the device itself. When heated, these ingredients can form harmful compounds that affect your lungs and heart.
Even products labelled “nicotine-free” may still contain trace amounts of nicotine or other chemicals not listed on the package.
Nicotine
- Nicotine is a chemical from the tobacco plant.
- It’s the ingredient that makes people want to keep vaping or smoking, because it’s addictive.
- When nicotine hits the brain, it can give a quick buzz and then the brain starts craving more.
What Changed with Vapes?
- Old-school nicotine (like in cigarettes) is harsh to breathe in.
- Scientists made a smoother version for vapes called nicotine salts.
- Nicotine salts don’t burn your throat, so companies can pack in way more nicotine.
Why Does This Matter?
- One vape pod can deliver as much nicotine as a pack of cigarettes.
- Because it feels smooth, it’s easier to take in more than you realize.
- That means it’s easier to get hooked—fast.
What’s in e-liquid besides nicotine?
Propylene Glycol (PG)
- A clear liquid that’s often used in food, medicine, and fog machines.
- In vapes, PG helps carry the flavour and gives a “throat hit”, kind of like the scratchy feeling from a cigarette.
Vegetable Glycerin (VG)
- A thicker, sweet liquid made from plant oils.
- In vapes, VG makes the big clouds that mimic smoking.
Chemical Flavourings
Chemicals commonly found in vape flavours include various aldehydes, alcohols (such as menthol), esters (such as ethyl butyrate), and more. The flavours are added to make vaping more attractive.
The Catch
- Companies adjust the PG and VG mix and add flavours to make vapes smoother, tastier and more appealing – especially to people trying them for the first time.
- Just because PG and VG are used in food or medicine doesn’t mean they’re safe to breathe deep into your lungs.
- Our lungs aren’t built to handle heated chemicals.
- When heated, additional chemicals are created. For example PG + VG combine to create formaldehyde a cancer-causing substance.
Health Effects
How Nicotine Affects You
Nicotine can affect your mood, concentration, and stress levels, while changing how your brain develops and learns. It’s highly addictive, and vaping can make it easier to take in large doses quickly.
Using vapes regularly can lead to dependence, increased anxiety, and withdrawal symptoms when you try to stop.
Nicotine Addiction
The developing teenage brain gets addicted to nicotine quickly with less exposure compared to adults. ⁸
Nicotine addiction is powerful and happens quickly, making it extremely hard to quit. ⁹
Getting addicted to nicotine at a young age may increase the likelihood of developing addictions to other drugs and make those who vape 3-4 times more likely to start smoking cigarettes. ⁹
Vaping delivers nicotine to the brain. Nicotine is a drug, and once the brain gets addicted, a person will experience uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms whenever nicotine isn’t present. ⁸
Withdrawal symptoms are stressful, anxiety-provoking and cause people to feel down.
Vaping nicotine can get rid of these feelings almost immediately, so it becomes associated with providing relief from uncomfortable mental health symptoms. However, all it really does is stop nicotine withdrawal and provide temporary relief. Withdrawal symptoms will return if nicotine continues to be used. ⁸
Brain Development
Nicotine changes how the teenage brain develops, affecting memory and concentration, reducing impulse control, and sometimes causing behavioural issues. ¹
Lungs & Airways
Heart Health
The Industry
Designed to Keep You Hooked
Cigarette smoking rates in Canada are at their lowest point in 20 years, great news for everyone except the tobacco industry.
The industry needed to reinvent itself and vapes were their solution.
The industry spends billions of dollars each year marketing it’s products.
The tobacco industry has a well-documented history of lying about the addictiveness and health effects of its products.
The industry needed to reinvent itself and vapes were their solution.
They are using the same marketing tactics
flavours
Influencer endorsements
lifestyle advertising
packaging
They are using the same marketing tactics—like flavours, influencer endorsements, lifestyle advertising, and packaging—that were successful in addicting generations of people to commercial tobacco products. These tactics are designed to addict a whole new generation to nicotine.
The Law
In Ontario, it’s illegal to sell or share nicotine vaping products with anyone under the age of 19. Vapes can only be sold by licensed retailers.
The Smoke-Free Ontario Act, 2017, prohibits vaping anywhere where smoking is banned.
Example: In school or within 20 metres of school property.
References
- Sayed, I. M., Masso-Silva, J. A., Mittal, A., Patel, A., Lin, E., Moshensky, A., Shin, J., & Bojanowski, C. M. (2021). Pulmonary and systemic effects of nicotine and e-cigarette exposure. American Journal of Physiology – Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology.
- McNeill, A., Simonavičius, E., Brose, L., et al. (2022). Nicotine Vaping in England: An Evidence Update Including Health Risks and Perceptions. Office for Health Improvement and Disparities.
- Wills, T. A., Choi, K., Pokhrel, P., & Pagano, I. (2022). Tests for confounding with cigarette smoking in the association of e-cigarette use with respiratory disorder: 2020 national-sample data. Preventive Medicine, 161, 107137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2022.107137
- Hamberger, E. S., & Halpern-Felsher, B. (2020). Vaping in adolescents: Epidemiology and respiratory harm. Current Opinion in Pediatrics, 32(3), 378–383.
- Ghosh, A., Coakley, R. D., Ghio, A. J., Muhlebach, M. S., Esther, C. R., Alexis, N. E., & Tarran, R. (2019). Chronic e-cigarette use increases neutrophil elastase and matrix metalloprotease levels in the lung. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 200(11), 1392–1401.
- Health Canada. (2023). Canadian Substance Use Survey (CSUS). Government of Canada.
- Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. (2023). Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey (OSDUHS). CAMH.
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2012). Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults: A Report of the Surgeon General.
- Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada. (2022). Science has marched on: It is time to update the advice to Canadians.