What's in a vape? They come in heaps of different shapes and sizes, but whether they’re disposable
or reusable, they all basically work the same sort of way. There's the mouthpiece to inhale from,
and that usually activates a battery-powered heating element or coil. The liquid or vape juice
is in a cartridge or soaked into something spongy or absorbent. And when it heats,
the liquid turns into tiny, airborne droplets or aerosols which is what's breathed in and out.
So, vaping isn't actually creating vapour. Think less steam from a kettle and more
hairspray. Something with particles that stick around. So, what’s in the liquid?
I talked to Dr Celine Kelso. She's a chemist at the University of Wollongong and she's
focused on the same thing I am right now, finding out exactly what's inside vapes.
Especially disposable ones, which are often imported from overseas.
We are collecting, either buying or people donate vape devices that they have finished using,
then we take them apart. We extract the liquid from this particular cartridge. From that,
we go to the instrumental lab to do measurements from the chemical content. We have done over 300
and we currently doing a study to get analysed another 750. So, in total will be over 1000
devices analysed together. And what have you found?
We have found that they all contain the carrier fluid called propylene glycol and glycerol.
They’re both colourless, odorless, kind of syrupy chemicals, that are good at retaining moisture.
They're used a lot as food additives because they make stuff taste better, look better, and stay
fresher for longer, which is why they're also in a lot of cosmetics, cleaning products and medicines.
In vape juice they also serve another purpose. Those two chemicals are mixed together. One gives
you a harsh throat that replicates a little bit the harsh throat that you get when you smoke. The
other one is what produces the big white clouds. Then there are the chemicals to create
all the different flavours. So, in chemistry, you can have
different chemical compounds that creates the same flavour or similar flavours. There are
hundreds of these available on the market. While propylene glycol, glycerol and the
flavourings in vapes are considered safe to consume; inhaling them could be a different story.
They're known to be safe to eat, but they have not been studied in terms of
what happens to your respiratory tract and your lungs when you inhale them. So, there's really,
really little information about that. Dr Kelso says she also found something
else that isn't usually inhaled - coolants. When you brush your teeth, that cooling feeling
that you get would be what a cooling molecule does. So, you get that
fresher feeling when you inhale. And we suspect that it is present in those devices, especially
to mask a little bit the heat that's generated by the inhalation of high concentrations of nicotine.
Oh yeah, and nicotine. While it's a chemical that can be derived naturally from the tobacco plant.
It can also be made in a lab. Either way, it's the same stuff that makes cigarettes super addictive.
Within seconds of inhaling nicotine, it triggers the release of dopamine in our brains - that's a
chemical which makes us feel good. And over time our brains start to crave more and more and more.
Experts say nicotine can cause serious health problems over time, because it goes into our
bloodstream and increases heart rate and blood pressure, and it can be particularly bad for
brains that are still developing. It is illegal for people under 18 to buy vapes in Australia and
if you’re thinking, isn’t also illegal for anyone to buy nicotine vapes, yeah you’re right. That is,
if you don’t have a prescription. But... Everything, like 100% of what
we have analysed so far that did not have the word nicotine written on it
or did not have a specific indication of 0% of nicotine, did contain nicotine in it.
So wait, if you didn't catch that, every single vape they've studied that doesn't say
nicotine on the label had nicotine in it. So, if you think that your product that
does say no nicotine on the packaging does not contain nicotine and you start vaping,
then you can find yourself becoming addicted to that product because it did contain nicotine.