In a nutshell: Important is the nicotine concentration, nicotine resorption and
especially the personal circumstances!
Examples using a 10 ml bottle of liquid 18mg nicotine per ml:
Nicotine concentration - 10 ml "18" liquid equals approximately 16 tobacco cigarettes.
nicotine resorbtion - 10 ml "18" equals approximately 30 tobacco cigarettes.
Personal circumstances - 10 ml "18" equals almost two packs of tobacco cigarettes.
Examples using a 10 ml bottle of liquid 9 mg of nicotine per ml:
Nicotine concentration - 10 ml "9" liquid equals about 8 tobacco cigarettes.
nicotine resorbtion - 10 ml "9" equals approximately 15 tobacco cigarettes.
Personal circumstances - 10 ml "9" equals almost two packs of tobacco cigarettes.
Examples using a 10 ml bottle of liquid nicotine 6mg per ml:
Nicotine concentration - 10 ml "6" liquid equals about 6 tobacco cigarettes.
nicotine resorbtion - 10 ml "6" equals approximately 10 tobacco cigarettes.
Personal circumstances - 10 ml "6" equals almost two packs of tobacco cigarettes.
You might wonder whether the "two packs of tobacco cigarettes" in all examples is a typo: No, it's not! Although nicotine concentration and nicotine resorbtion are perfectly suited to be used for calculations in scientific papers... These, however, avoid the fundamental issue: the behavior of consumers in reality!
Concentration
...level indication based on the volume of a mixture. The concentration therefore indicates how much of a substance is present in a volume (eg sugar cubes in coffee).
In the case of e-liquid or tobacco cigarette, the concentration is given as follows:
- E-liquid: 18 mg / ml → 18 mg nicotine per 1ml of liquid.
- Cigarette: 14 mg / g → 14 mg nicotine per 1 g of tobacco.
- Cigarette smoke: 1 mg / 280 ml → 1 mg nicotine in the smoke of a tobacco cigarette.
In fact many do not know that nicotine concentration on cigeratte packages refers to the "the smoke of a cigarette" - measured with an always consistently pulling "smoking machine". But the tobacco from a tobacco cigarette
contains 12-14 mg of nicotine.
Thus a package of 20 cigarettes contains approximately "20 x 14mg" = 280mg nicotine.
A bottle of 10ml liquid "18" contains "10 x 18mg" = 180mg nicotine. Thus this bottle contains less nicotine than a package of cigarettes.
Looking at the contration only a 10 ml bottle of "18mg" Liquid corresponds approximately 16 tobacco cigarettes.
Absorbtion
...is the intake of biological systems, such as the "a cream diminishing into the skin." As explained under concentration a tobacco cigarette contains up to 14 mg nicotine. 10 mg of these are burned during the smoking process. Thus the smoker ultimately absorbs between 2 and 4mg nicotine while smoking a tobacco cigarette: unlike a "smoking machine" people have the habit of varying inhalation depth and puff duration. This creates different rates of absorption compared to "smoke robots".
The nicotine from a tobacco cigarette is faster available in the bloodstream than nicotine from an e-cigarette or a nicotine patch because it is inhaled with various additional substances. With an e-cigarette absorption is in such a way that an e-cigarette consumer (vaper) using "18" Liquid only takes in a portion of the nicotine of a tobacco cigarette: the body
absorbs just one third of the nicotine of a tobacco cigarette within 5 minutes using "18" liquid. Looking at nicotine resorbtion only a 10 ml bottle of "18" liquid corresponds to approximately 30 cigarettes.
Personal Circumstances
In most cases
1ml is approximately 1/3 to 1/4 of a vapers daily consumption.
Or: most vapers consume 3-4 ml e-liquid a day.
If we now assume a cigarette smoker consumes 20 cigarettes and a vaper vapes 4 ml of e-liquid a day a 10ml bottle compares (according to this VERY rough estimate) to just two packages of cigarettes. It does not matter whether you use a "9", "12", "16" or "18" liquid: if you "before" consumed a package of cigarettes and now vape 4 ml of e-liquid a 10 ml bottle equals approximately two packs of cigarettes.
Fairy Tales and Truth
There is still the myth that a 10 ml bottle e-liquid can be compared with a carton or (on the other side of the scale) 1 ml E-Liquid with a tobacco cigarette. With the former reason, some traders try to "cash in" and for the latter reason the
EU Commission for instance wanted to limit the nicotine content of the e-liquids to 1-2 mg per ml in December 2012. Thus adjusting it to the tobacco cigarette respectively basing on nicotine content of nicotine gums.
However this is NOT correct!
As said already: in most cases 1 ml e-liquid equals approximately 1/3 to 1/4 of a vapers daily consumption.
2 mg nicotine
per 0.1 ml e-liquid (or "20 mg per 1 ml" or "2.0%")... With such an e-liquid a vaper would consume arithmetically about the amount of nicotine which a smoker draws out of a tobacco cigarette.
However this refers to the calculated concentration and not to the absorption. Thus not to the amount of nicotine ultimately ending up in the blood stream.
According to Konstantinos Farsalinos only just one third of the amount of nicotine in a tobacco cigarette end up in the vapers blood using a 20 mg / ml liquid.
If the EU Commission prevailed and the EU Parliament would have adopted a reduction of e-liquids to 1-2 mg of nicotine per ml e-liquid...
We would have had serious implications:
- Different nicotine strengths compensate vapers (probably mainly unconscious) by a choice of hardware-liquid combination and thus achieving a similar level of nicotine as before while smoking. Comparable with a tobacco smoker who inhales more or less deeply to achieve a certain nicotine level.
- So would a nicotine limit of 1 to 2 mg cause the vapers to behave the same way as the smokers did when the concentration of nicotine in the smoke of a tobacco cigarette was limited to max. 1 mg Nikotin: they consume more! Assuming a smokers normal daily nicotine dose of about 60mg (20 cigarettes x 3mg nicotine) a smoker using a "2" liquid would have to evaporate and inhale well 30ml a day (which is almost impossible to realize!).
- A tobacco cigarette smoker would probably never have successful quit smoking with such a low concentration and within a ahort time would have returned to smoking tobacco cigarettes.
Note:
A vaper normally uses 3 to 4 ml of e-liquid a day. If the choosing nicotine concentration is too low - such as 4 mg / ml - only one thing will happen: he vapes automatically more!
Conclusion
As already mentioned: Different nicotine strengths compensate vaper with a (probably largely unconscious) choice of hardware-liquid combination and thus achieve a similar level of nicotine as before while smoking. Comparable with tobacco smoker who inhales once more once less deeply in order to achieve a certain level of nicotine.
Simply put
: the brain gets the amount of nicotine it needs. This is done completely unconsciously and automatically.
Ergo
: as a consumer you should simply compare the amount of tobacco cigarettes you have consumed per day to the ml of liquid you consume now per day. So if you "before" have smoked a pack of cigarettes a day and "today" consume nearly 5 ml e-liquid a day half a bottle of e-liquid is simply comparable to a pack.
Hint
: starting to switch from smoking to vaping a smoker should use a rather higher dosed e-liquid such as a "18" (18 mg / ml sometimes it reads "1.8% nicotine" on the bottle). If this seems "too strong" you can mix the "18" e-liquid with a "0" (or glycerol) 50:50 to get a "9" (Mnemonic: double the volume to halve the concentration).
Warning
:
if a heavy smoker (more than 20 cigarettes a day) starts with a low-dosed e-liquid such as a "9" or a "6" this usually leads to one result only: He probably gets back to smoking tobacco.
When after a few weeks or months a vaper notices that the previously consumed e-liquid is "too strong" you should either use the e-cigarette less or reduce the nicotine strength.
This is most likely because the receptors in the brain which were earlier stimulated by the tobacco smoke mixture (eg.
MAOI,
acetaldehyde, nicotine and
other substances) "to demand more and more" are now "only saturated" by "pure" nicotine. Thus these receptors regenerate almost back to normal.
Simply put:
the physical craving for nicotine can slowly "taper off".
Something I have witnessed with myself: three months ago I still smoked two packs of cigarettes a day ingesting 55 to 80 mg nicotine daily - today, the equivalent of 7 to 8 cigarettes.
Torsten
PS: If a vaper wants to reduce his liquid consumption he should for example change from a "6" to a "12" liquid. This way the body gets the required dose with fewer puffs.
Attention: Especially in the beginning of quittin some want to reduce the nicotine concentration as soon as possible. Whilst they first consumed only about 3 ml "18" e-liquid per day they arrived a few weeks later with a "6" liquid - but consume almost 9 ml a day of this "6" e-liquid!
Thus they consume three times the amount of e-liquid, however, take the same amount of nicotine as before -> whether "3 times 18mg = 54" or "9 times 6mg = 54" does not matter to the brain. Disadvantage: they inhale more propylene glycol, glycerin and flavorings.
As already mentioned several times: "The brain takes what it needs ..."
PPS: Excuse my bad English - I am German.
#1FastScorpion,
Oct 13, 2014
https://www.planetofthevapes.co.uk/forums/posts/582969/
