Vaping is the popular exhalation of aerosols from electronic smoking products, such as e-cigarettes. E-cigarettes are not smoked like cigarettes. The device heats it up and turns it into a mist (sometimes called "vapor" and incorrectly called "water vapor").
The term "vaping" is also used to refer to cannabis aerosols, which are produced by a variety of nicotine products described on this page.
Vaping devices are battery-powered. They may come with customizable parts. Vaporizers have many names, including:
Vapor pods
E-fuel
Disposable products
Sub-ohm
Vapor pen
E-hookah
Robotics systems
Air pressure/electronic pressure
Electronic nicotine delivery devices (ENDS)
Electronic vaporizer
Nicotine vapor products (NVP)
They have also been called by different brand names.
Vapor devices
A set of electronic smoking devices consists of:
A battery
A mouthpiece
A changing chamber or containing a tank,
There can be something that can be drawn from the fuel (a tank and heating element combined into one unit, just called a pod)
Most electronic smoking devices use electricity to heat the fuel. The heat is transferred to the solution. The user inhales the aerosol through the lip piece.
There are many options for vaping in many shapes and sizes. Some parts are like USB drives or smaller, while others are much larger.
There are two types of e-cigarettes:
Closed
The device is manually flushed by adding vaping oil to a tank or pod, which is located at the top of the device.
Closed
The device has a cartridge or charger that can be removed lightly filled with vaping liquid, to be ejected after exhaustion; or,
A disposable, ready-to-use device, to be ejected after exhaustion of vaping fuel or charge.
E-cigarette liquids
Vaping liquids go by many names, including:
E-juice
Nicotine juice
E-juice
Vape juice
Pod juice
Most e-cigarettes available for sale are:
E-juice
Nicotine-containing
They are liquids (but are often presented as herbs)
In vaping liquids, nicotine and/or flavoring ingredients are dissolved in a liquid fuel. This is usually made up of propylene glycol and/or glycerin (glycerin). Includes the chemical flavouring components used to create different flavours.
The number of synthetic ingredients used in vaping liquids varies. From 2017 to 2024, the innovation discovered an average of 22 chemicals and about nine flavouring chemicals Final Note1 Additional chemicals can also form when vaping liquids are heated (through the atomisation process) or when parts of the vaping device, such as the coil, come into contact.
Vaping liquids contain nicotine, and can vary greatly in nicotine levels. By July 2021, in Canada, the nicotine strength in vaping liquids had increased from 0 to over 60 mg/ml of nicotine. Since July 2021, the nicotine concentration rules in vaping products have set a maximum concentration of 20 mg/ml of vaping products manufactured in Canada or by the manufacturer.
Nicotine
There are two types of nicotine commonly used in vaping liquids:
Free-base nicotine
Nicotine salts
Free-base nicotine
The other free-base nicotine is nicotine that has been dissolved in a fuel pump, and is available in propylene glycol and/or chemical glycerin, a chemical as flavoring ingredients.
Free-base nicotine programs can be used in refilling liquids or in cartridges for building systems.
Nicotine salts
Nicotine salts refer to nicotine that has been dissolved in a gasoline liquid that has been repeatedly chemically modified and weakened DNA. Like nicotine, these liquids contain propylene glycol and/or active glycerin, as well as other chemicals as flavoring ingredients.