Nicotine intake up 58%!?

[MarcE]

Ok so I have a question I’m sure has been raised a couple of times;

I’ve been vapping for at least 5/6 months now and absolutely love it, but I was thinking back to my days of smoking and the quantity I smoked. Now, I wasn’t a heavy smoker by any means and would get through about 3 x 12.5g packs of golden Virginia a week using filters. I’m curious as to how much nicotine I would have been in taking when smoking this quantity of tobacco in comparison to the amount I vape in a week.

So now to my very rusty maths comparison

If one tobacco cig is around 1.0mg of nicotine and I got around 25 cigs to a pouch of tobacco I was smoking around 75 cigs a week, so that’s 75mg of nicotine.

As far as I can tell I vape around 10ml of 18mg e-juice a week. So if there’s 18mg per ml of liquid I’m now in taking around 180mg of nicotine (10ml x 18mg)

This is an alarming increase in nicotine intake of 58%!! Can this really be correct?

[vape4life]

Yes. It most certainly is correct. That is the amount in the smoke and vapor. But the degree to which it is absorbed (through the lungs and mucosa) is an unknown. Maybe the juice is BETTER absorbed than smoke, which would mean more than 58% increase, or maybe it is less absorbed, which would mean less.

The nicotine in the vapor is aerosolized in PG (or VG) droplets. Whether this increases or decreases the amount to which it gets into system (not exhaled) can't really be known.

But, the nicotine intake shouldn't concern you too much. The important thing is that you are not inhaling carcinogens.

[jamie]

Originally Posted by MarcE

If one tobacco cig is around 1.0mg of nicotine and I got around 25 cigs to a pouch of tobacco I was smoking around 75 cigs a week, so that’s 75mg of nicotine.

I'm not aware of measurements here on the forum that apply to RYO pouch tobacco - might have missed them. Is that from your actual tobacco package? If you are using an average filter cigarette number you could be way off with your beginning assumption. Just checking.

As a for instance: "Less than one in ten cigarette brands in the UK has a declared nicotine yield above 1.5mg per cigarette in laboratory tests. Over three quarters of the RYO cigarettes in the study produced a nicotine yield above this level."

Originally Posted by vape4life

the nicotine intake shouldn't concern you too much.

I disagree pretty strongly with this.

[Denni]

Apparently, vaping delivers less nic per drag than inhaling the analog equivalent (but I haven't got a link to the data. On the other hand, people tend to vape more. I would not feel repelled when taking a drag on my hubby's analog if I wasn't taking in too much nicotine from vaping my penstyles at home.

Saying that, even with 36mg juice, I still feel a craving for an analog when going out with only the minis, so it's also a matter of performance and smoking style. I tend to puff more on the minis to get the atomisers going and draw more deeply on the penstyles.

Puffing is better if you're concerned about taking in too much nicotine. Just treat the things as if they were pipes or cigars

[Denni]

This reminds me: the data for nic inhalation came from a link or a pdf somebody posted in one of the threads. There are other files available, such as lab test results, spread sheets and news articles but they are hard to sniff out.

Maybe there is a way to have a file repository or a list of links? I think the wiki will provide that function as it grows, so it would be easy to point people to the place

[DuneBuggy]

I was a pack a day ULTRA LIGHT analog smoker and even with 18 mg fluid, felt a little "nicotine malnurished" the first week or so untill I adjusted.
A few drags on a reg cigarette confirmed this for me after my first couple days of vaping.

And I dont supliment analogs. I only vape.

[Nuck]

The numbers are flawed. The rating for cigarettes is the amount that is absorbed into your bloodstream with an absorption efficiency of about 10%. The actual cigarette contains 10 times more nicotine than you take in.

We don't know what percentage of nicotine gets absorbed from vaping so there is no way to do a comparison. Until someone finds some published data the calculations are a best guess.

I think it IS safe to say you are not getting anywhere near 100% absorption.

[MonkeyMonk]

A possible suggestion would be to try vaping using 2 different atomizers. 1 with 0 nic and 1 with nic juice for when the discomfort arises. Just put a marker checkmark on one so you can tell them apart.

This will assist you in assertaining your level of nic addiction, reducing cost of ejuice and prolonging your supply of ejuice.

I haven't totally switch over, but plan to do so as soon as my analogs run out. And, this is the plan that I will be using. Right now, I refill my cart with 0 and when discomfort arises I add 1-2 drops of nic. Currently, I find that I can go pretty long before needing to add a drop or two of nic juice.

[ChainSmkr]

Originally Posted by Denni

Apparently, vaping delivers less nic per drag than inhaling the analog equivalent (but I haven't got a link to the data. On the other hand, people tend to vape more

This is what I have read too. So using 18mg juice doesn't necessarily translate into a vaper getting the full 18mg of nic per drag. However, like Denni also pointed out, we tend to vape more because there is no visible means of knowing when to stop vaping (like an analog).

Bottom line, I think it is very likely that you have actually inceased your nic intake and its good that you have noticed it. Try to keep decreasing the nic strength you use from month to month to beat the addiction.

[Nuck]

Originally Posted by ChainSmkr

This is what I have read too. So using 18mg juice doesn't necessarily translate into a vaper getting the full 18mg of nic per drag. However, like Denni also pointed out, we tend to vape more because there is no visible means of knowing when to stop vaping (like an analog).

Bottom line, I think it is very likely that you have actually inceased your nic intake and its good that you have noticed it. Try to keep decreasing the nic strength you use from month to month to beat the addiction.

In MarcE's case though she knows exactly how much liquid she was vaping a week, so it's easy to know the theoretical max. Now if we only had an average absorption ratio we'd be set.

One thing I didn't even notice was the 58%. Not trying to alarm you but if you go from 75mg to 180mg you have increased by 140%. 2.4 times higher.