Electronic Cigarette Information

Cartridge Liquid

So just what's in those electronic cigarettes? If I had a nickel for every time I've heard that question....

To the best of our knowledge, the liquid in electronic cigarette cartridges is made of:

• Propylene Glycol (PG) - Used in many foods as a base for flavorings and as a moisture stabilizer. Used in fog machines at concerts, sporting events, and stage/screen productions.
• Vegetable Glycerin (VG) - Used in cough syrups, mouthwash, and toothpaste. Used by commercial and specialty bakeries. Also mixed with PG in fog machines.
• Nicotine - From tobacco absolute. Similar to essential oils, tobacco absolute is all the active ingredients of a tobacco plant reduced into a concentrated form through complex extraction processes.
• Artificial Flavorings - This is where those 0.1% wierd-sounding chemicals come from. These are the same artificial flavors that we consume in our food on a daily basis.
• Water - Do we need to explain?

Some of the manufacturers have provided data here, here, and here. We don't know how reliable their data is, but it looks about right to us. We'll explain.

Some of the writers on this website have been making their own non-nicotine liquid using propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, artificial flavors and water since late 2008. Their homemade liquid seems to be the same exact thing as the commercial liquid minus the nicotine. One difference is they are able to control the amount of flavoring to taste, and the range of flavors available is much greater.

So now the big question everyone's asking: Is It Safe?

To be honest, we don't really know. There haven't yet been any clinical studies completed. The only preliminary research we can find seems to suggest it is relatively benign, but one study is not enough to reach any conclusions.

In the Health Issues section of this website, we take a more in-depth look at the current state of health-related information.

Now it's time to move on to Functionality, or just how well do these electronic cigarettes really work.