Inhaling Notes
E-Cigarette vapor is not drawn directly into the lungs, as many smokers do with a tobacco cigarette. The lungs do not 'suck' on the ecig; a direct inhale is not used. Instead, the vapor is first drawn into the mouth, using the cheeks to create a vacuum, then inhaled if desired.
The vapor doesn't have to be inhaled though, and an ecig can be used like a cigar, with the vapor only taken into the mouth. Nicotine will still be delivered as the water-based vapor is absorbed in the mouth (and nose).
First the vapor is drawn into the mouth (not the lungs), then held there for a second or two. Then, it can be inhaled if desired. The vapor is then expelled through the mouth or nose.
The vapor is drawn very slowly and gently into the mouth. A hard pull, as is normal with a cigarette, cannot be used since:
- The heater coil doesn't work properly unless air is drawn across it gently for several seconds. There will be little or no nicotine in the vapor if a short hard pull is used.
- A hard draw may pull liquid into the mouth.
E-Cigarette vapor is a water-based mist and not smoke. This has two main consequences:
- The droplet size in vapor is much larger than the particles in smoke, and therefore it does not penetrate as deeply into the lungs. Vapor aerosol is ten times the particulate size in smoke (10 microns vs 1 micron). Vapor cannot go anywhere near as deep, and this means that nicotine is not available so easily from the lungs, and is obtained more slowly.
- It is likely that just as much nicotine is absorbed by the mucous membranes in the mouth and nose as within the lungs. In fact for maximum nicotine delivery, all three need to be employed: mouth, lungs, nose - otherwise all the nicotine in the vapor will not be extracted.
Indeed it is not necessary to inhale, when using an e-cigarette, to obtain nicotine: holding the vapor in the mouth will suffice for some people (especially with high-strength liquid), and expelling some through the nose as well, after a very shallow inhale, will add to the nic delivery. Persons with serious lung diseases caused by smoking, such as emphysema, can take advantage of this - since inhaling anything further, even mist, is absolutely not advised.
Nicotine delivery via cigarette smoke is unusually rapid - it reaches the brain in around 8 seconds, which is at least three times faster than injecting nicotine, which takes up to 30 seconds to reach the brain. This is part of the grip cigarettes have, since this ultra-fast delivery becomes associated with the act of smoking.
Nevertheless, a properly set up e-cigarette, with a sufficiently strong liquid for the equipment and user, used correctly after advice from an expert, will deliver nicotine within 30 seconds. After a period of adapting to the new delivery method, this has proven acceptable to smokers switching to the ecig. Experienced vapers learn how to optimize this extraction process and that includes the speed of delivery.
6. Lastly, an 'inhale' on an ecig (which as we have seen above is nothing of the sort, it's more of a 'suck') is much, much longer than with a cigarette. On average, there is only somewhere between 10% and 50% of the nicotine in ecig vapor compared to cigarette smoke, so more vapor needs to be taken in, and for a longer time session - probably about 12 minutes as against the 5 minutes a cigarette lasts. Also, the atomizer simply doesn't work if a 2-second inhale is used, since for at least the first second it is warming up and does absolutely nothing.
With a small ecig we draw into the mouth for between 4 seconds and 8 seconds (yes, 8 seconds), depending on how efficient the device is, how strong the liquid refill is, and how expert the user is; the average draw length is 4 or 5 seconds. This would be used with a mini ecig, for example. As you can see, a slow and gentle 'suck' of 5 seconds bears no relation at all to the sharp, hard lung inhale of 1 or 2 seconds often used with a cigarette.
With a larger and more efficient ecig we might use a 3 or 4 second draw. We don't use a direct lung inhale or a 2-second draw with small ecigs, except by personal preference, for occasional variation. Neither works: a lung inhale doesn't get enough nicotine and causes soreness and coughing, and a 2-second cigarette-style draw is basically a placebo operation as the atomizer won't be doing much.
Please note that expert users, using larger and more powerful hardware, use a variety of inhalation methods.
