Now that tens of millions of people across the world vape, vaping has become a topic of considerable note among the international media – and whenever a topic receives that level of attention, misinformation is bound to proliferate. In particular, one common bit of misinformation is that vapes are the same as tobacco products or that they actually contain tobacco. That’s what we’re going to address in this article.
Vapes do not contain tobacco. However, they often contain nicotine, which can be extracted from tobacco but typically isn’t for products sold in the United States.
Let’s dig a bit deeper into the question of whether vapes contain tobacco. We’ll start with the basics: What exactly is in the e-liquid that you’re inhaling?
What’s In Vape Juice?
Vape juice typically contains four ingredients plus an optional fifth ingredient in the case of nicotine salt e-liquid. Those ingredients are:
- Propylene glycol, which is generally created synthetically and is a common ingredient in foods, cosmetics, bath items and medications.
- Vegetable glycerin, which is created in the process of making soap and is also found in many everyday products.
- Food-grade flavors. These are the same flavoring ingredients used by food, beverage and snack makers.
- Food-grade acids such as benzoic acid are added to nicotine salt e-liquids to adjust the pH.
- Nicotine, which can be extracted from tobacco leaves or synthesized in laboratories without tobacco.
You can learn more about the ingredients of vape juice elsewhere on this site. With that out of the way, let’s examine the components of a vaping device. Do any of those components include tobacco?
What’s In a Vape?
Although different types of vapes have different designs, a vape typically consists of the following components.
- A battery, which supplies the power necessary to heat and vaporize the e-liquid.
- A logic board and chipset, which manage power delivery and safety while also providing a means for you to control the device.
- A storage area, which is responsible for holding the e-liquid and preventing it from leaking.
- An atomizer coil, which uses heat to vaporize the e-liquid.
None of these components contain tobacco or are derived from tobacco. For more detail, read our article about how vapes work.
Do All Vapes Have Nicotine?
Not all vapes contain nicotine. Virtually all of the most popular vape juice flavors are available without nicotine, and there are many nicotine-free disposable vapes available as well. A vape that contains no nicotine obviously has no tobacco or tobacco derivatives. Although nicotine-free vapes don’t contain tobacco’s primary addictive chemical, they do mimic the flavors, motions and sensations of smoking in ways that many former smokers find enjoyable and satisfying.
How Is Nicotine Extracted from Tobacco?
Nicotine is usually extracted from tobacco with the aid of a solvent such as ammonia. The solvent helps to increase the yield of the extraction, and the collected nicotine is then put through a refining process to rid it of tobacco-derived impurities or contaminants. When tobacco-derived nicotine is used in vaping products, it is the same nicotine used by the pharmaceutical industry. Nicotine meeting the standard of the United States Pharmacopeia is over 99 percent pure.
What Is Synthetic Nicotine?
Until the relatively recent past, all of the nicotine used by the vaping industry was pharmaceutical-grade nicotine derived from tobacco. More recently, though, synthetic nicotine has come to the forefront and is now used in the majority of the vaping products sold in the United States. Synthetic nicotine isn’t extracted from tobacco, and it contains no tobacco derivatives. It’s typically made from the vitamin niacin, which is also known as nicotinic acid and is chemically similar to nicotine. It is possible to convert niacin to nicotine through a chemical process, and the reverse is possible as well. Nicotine was first converted to niacin in a laboratory in 1867.
How Can You Tell if an E-Liquid or Vape Has Synthetic Nicotine?
Synthetic nicotine has become so popular that, in the United States, it’s usually safe to assume that a vaping device or bottle of e-liquid has it even if the packaging doesn’t specify that. In many cases, though, the packaging for a vaping product containing synthetic nicotine will say so by using a term such as “synthetic nicotine,” “tobacco-free nicotine” or “TFN.”
What About Nicotine Salt?
So, if standard vape juice doesn’t contain tobacco, what’s the story with nicotine salt e-liquid? The answer here is also “no” – nicotine salt vape juice doesn’t contain tobacco. It’s possible for nicotine salt vape juice to contain tobacco-derived nicotine, of course, but that’s increasingly rare due to the popularity of synthetic nicotine. Nicotine salt e-liquid is exactly the same as standard vape juice except that it contains a mild acid to adjust the pH of the e-liquid. In addition to giving the e-liquid a more neutral pH compared to vape juice with freebase nicotine, the acid triggers a chemical conversion that changes the nicotine to a salt. Learn more in our guide explaining what nicotine salts are.
What About Tobacco-Flavored Vapes?
Tobacco-flavored vapes do not contain tobacco. Instead, they use different combinations of food-grade flavors to mimic the taste of tobacco. The best tobacco vapes actually have some of the most creative flavors that the vaping industry has produced, featuring savory, nutty and grassy notes that hit the palate in much the same way as tobacco and provide the same type of satisfaction even though they contain no real tobacco at all. The flavor of tobacco has also been used by e-liquid makers to provide a savory counterpoint to some great dessert-flavored e-liquids.
What About Naturally Extracted Tobacco or NET?
Naturally extracted tobacco or “NET” is an interesting footnote from the history of vape juice. In this type of e-liquid, a real tobacco extract is used as a flavoring agent, either by itself or in combination with standard vape juice flavors. Vape juice flavored with real tobacco is now very rare, and any e-liquid containing a tobacco extract will be denoted so on the bottle. We don’t sell any e-liquids at VapeJuice.com containing tobacco extracts.