What nicotine strength for my e-cig?
It is essential to choose the right nicotine concentration for your e-liquid: if it is too low, you may not get enough nicotine, you may experience withdrawal symptoms and you may start smoking again. In addition, you will expose your lungs to excessive amounts of vapour, as you will vape more to achieve a satisfactory level of nicotine in your blood and brain. You will also need to buy more e-liquid to get the amount of nicotine your brain needs.
With too high a nicotine level, you will experience throat irritation that will prevent you from inhaling, but there is no risk of overdose, as you will automatically stop inhaling when you have obtained the necessary dose or when you feel signs of excessive dosing.
The amount of nicotine you get from an e-cigarette:
There is no simple calculation to convert the number of cigarettes you smoked per day into mg/mL (milligrams of nicotine per millilitre of liquid), because the amount of nicotine you get from your e-cigarettes depends on the interaction of 3 factors, the liquid, the hardware and yourself :
The liquid:
- its nicotine concentration,
- the chemical form of nicotine (salt or freebase),
- the flavor (people tend to vape more if they like the flavor),
- the amount of liquid you use per day,
The hardware:
- the battery, its tension measured in Volt (V), its duration,
- the coil, its composition, its resistance R measured in Ohm,
- the power of the device measured in Watt (W)
- the wick
Yourself:
- your level of nicotine dependence, as your brain acts as a thermostat and regulates the amount of nicotine you need,
- your behavior: the number, frequency and volume of puffs, the depth of inhalation, the duration between inhalation and exhalation,
- you social interactions (you tend to vape more if you are around of smokers and vapers than if you are around people who disapprove of your vaping).
The amount of nicotine you get from a cigarette:
The amount of nicotine you absorb when smoking a cigarette depends largely on your own behaviour, not just on the characteristics of the cigarette itself. Each manufactured cigarette contains between 6 and 17 milligrams (mg) of nicotine, but smokers only inhale between 1 and 2 mg of nicotine per cigarette. The number of nicotine mg indicated on cigarette packets is not useful, as it is obtained from machines that do not perfectly replicate smokers’ behaviour. As a result, these figures often underestimate the amount you absorb when smoking a cigarette.
Furthermore, the relationship between the number of cigarettes smoked per day and the concentration of nicotine in the blood is not linear. Therefore, you cannot use your number of cigarettes per day and the nicotine concentration indicated on your cigarette packet to calculate the amount of nicotine you absorb per day.
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