What is the liquid for vaping?

Liquid that is used in electronic cigarettes, gets transformed into vapor when heated and gives the feeling of smoking. You saw those beautiful clouds of vapor and felt the most incredible aromas, but have you ever wondered what's in that liquid? Let's sort out!

Vape liquid is a fluid, that consists of different chemical components along with food flavourings that makes it possible to offer the largest assortment of liquid flavours. Vape juice is used in vaporizers and creates vapor when heated to 200-400 Fahrenheit degrees.

There are a lot of questions when it comes to the components of e-liquid. Are they safe? Are there any dangerous chemicals? The e-liquid ingredient list is pretty simple:

• Vegetable glycerin or Propylene Glycol (usually combination of them in different proportions)
• Nicotine (zero of it in juices without nicotine)
• Food flavourings (the ones that are used in production of cakes, ketchup, ice cream etc.)

The first two components, Vegetable glycerin and Propylene Glycol sound scarier than others, but in reality they are both considered safe. Vegetable Glycerin is a thick and sweet liquid, which is vegetable based. Propylene Glycol is a chemical that is non toxic and used in food coloring, vanilla extract and medicine.

Hesitations appear when it comes to food flavourings. First of all there are no studies of how food flavorings affect our health when being inhaled and not consumed. It is also not known how the flavouring agents can influence the nicotine's addictive qualities. There are a lot of chemicals in flavourings that cause doubts and suspicions.

For example, one group of flavourings, the Diketones, has recently been linked to a dangerous and irreversible disease - Popcorn lung. This disease got its name after a popular case, when a number of workers of a popcorn factory got bronchiolitis obliterans after inhaling for a long time one of the chemicals that is called Diacetyl. Diacetyl is a chemical from Diketones group, an unsafe substance that is used to enhance buttery and cream flavours in foods and liquids. There are two more chemicals included in Diketones group: Acetyl Propionyl and Acetoin. Danger of these two is questionable at the moment, but many vapers still try to avoid them when buying their e-liquids. They are alternatives to Diacetyl and may increase the chemical reaction rate of any traces of Diacetyl. These chemicals make us think - is vape juice safe enough?

Nicotine also causes questions, as it is always associated with smoking, which is harmful without any doubts. Though pure nicotine, without other chemicals used in cigarettes, does not cause cancer, seems that it does not cause any other health problems, so it is probably safe for most of the people. Nicotine works like caffeine - it causes a higher blood pressure and increases heart rate, as when absorbed it constricts the blood vessels. This is a reason why choosing an e-liquid with nicotine can be a bad choice for people who have serious problems with heart. Still, it is a healthier choice than smoking cigarettes.

We don't know yet long-term side effects of vaping as it is a pretty new direction.
What is with short-term vaping effects on health - among other effects of vaping on lungs we can name the possibility of flavourings to irritate the upper airways and lungs, that causes a minor inflammation. Such flavourings as Benzaldehyde, that is used in almond and cherry flavors, were found to cause upper airway irritation. And again, since vaping has been on market for a decade only, we don't know yet whether these irritations will cause any more serious long-term diseases.

So, we can not say for sure that e-juices are completely safe or name a safest one, but now you can be certainly sure you know what is in your e-liquid and what ingredients of it to search for or to avoid when reading the components.