GC–MS Verifies Nicotine Strength in Vape Products

In a joint study, researchers from the Medical University of Gdansk in Poland and the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York wanted to find out how accurately people who vape can report the nicotine strength of their products, and whether younger and older adults differ in the nicotine strengths and flavors they prefer. Knowing how much nicotine people are getting is key to understanding vaping habits and guiding public health research, but it’s still unclear how much we can trust what people say about the strength of their products.

The team recruited 61 young adults aged 18 to 26 and 65 adults aged 27 to 54. Participants were asked which flavor they preferred and whether nicotine strength or flavor mattered more to them when buying a vaping product. They also said whether their product was high or low in nicotine and handed over samples for testing. The researchers measured the actual amount of nicotine in each sample using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). The team published their findings in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.¹

How Much Do People Who Vape Know About the Nicotine in Their Products, and Why?

Studies have found that anywhere from about 5% to 34% of teens and young adults in the United States don’t know how much nicotine is in the vaping products they use.^2,3Some young people aren’t just unsure about how much nicotine their products contain, but whether they contain any at all. In one study of teenagers in Europe, 20% didn’t know whether their vaping liquid had nicotine in it,and among young people in the United States who recognized the popular vaping brand JUUL, most didn’t realize that its products always contain nicotine.^4,5

How people get their vaping products likely affects how accurately they can report what’s in them. Teens often use products shared by friends or bought from unofficial sellers, where the nicotine strength may not be clearly labeled.⁶ When researchers compared what people said about their products with photos of those products, the answers matched for most details but were less reliable when it came to nicotine strength.⁷ Large surveys across several countries have also found that a significant minority of adults who vape say they do not know how much nicotine their product contains.⁸

What Did the Study Find About How Accurately People Report the Nicotine Strength of Their Vaping Products? What Matters More to Them, Nicotine or Flavor?

What the test subjects said about the nicotine strength of their vaping products generally matched the laboratory results well, and this was true for both young adults and older adults. Young adults were more likely than older adults to use high-nicotine products (24 mg per mL or more), at about 51% compared with 31%. Most people in both age groups preferred fruity or sweet flavors over tobacco or menthol. Even so, more people said nicotine strength, rather than flavor, was the main thing that guided which product they chose.¹

“Among young adults who vaped regularly in this sample,” wrote the authors of the paper,¹ “self-reported nicotine strength showed substantial agreement with laboratory-derived low/high nicotine-strength categories, supporting its use for broad classification in research settings. Nicotine strength appeared to be more important for young adults than flavor. This study provides novel evidence that nicotine concentration plays a central role in vaping behavior and highlights the importance of regulating nicotine strength alongside flavors to reduce vaping rates among young people.”

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References

1. Nowicka-Janik, J.; Martin, C. D.; Page, M. K. et al. Accuracy of Self-reported E-cigarette Nicotine Strength in Young Adults (18-26) and Adults (27-54) who Vape and Differences in their Preferences for Nicotine Strength and Flavor. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2026, 288, 113389. DOI: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2026.113389
2. Morean, M. E.; Kong, G.; Cavallo, D.A. et al. Nicotine Concentration of E-cigarettes Used by Adolescents. Drug. Alcohol. Depend. 2016,167, 224-227. DOI: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2016.06.031
3. Pepper, J. K.; Farrelly, M. C.; Watson, K. A. Adolescents’ Understanding and Use of Nicotine in E-cigarettes. Addict. Behav.2018, 82, 109-113. DOI: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2018.02.015
4. Kinnunen, J. M.; Rimpelä, A. H.; Lindfors, P. L. et al. Electronic Cigarette Use Among 14- to 17-year-olds in Europe. Eur. J. Public. Health2021, 31, 402-408. DOI: 10.1093/eurpub/ckaa145
5. Willett, J. G.; Bennett, M.; Hair, E. C. et al. Recognition, Use and Perceptions of JUUL Among Youth and Young Adults. Tob. Control.2019, 28, 115116. DOI: 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2018-054273
6. Morean, M. E.; Wackowski, O. A.; Eissenberg, T. et al. Adults Who Use e-cigarettes Have Difficulty Understanding Nicotine Concentrations Presented as mg/mL and Percent Nicotine. Addict. Behav.2021, 120, 106965. DOI: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2021.106965
7. Crespi, E.; Hardesty, J. J.; Nian, Q. et al. Agreement Between Self-reports and Photos to Assess e-Cigarette Device and Liquid Characteristics in Wave 1 of the Vaping and Patterns of e-Cigarette Use Research Study: Web-Based Longitudinal Cohort Study. J. Med. Internet Res.2022, 24, e33656. DOI: 10.2196/33656
8. Felicione, N. J.; Cummings, K. M.; Gravely, S. et al. “Don’t Know” Responses for Nicotine Vaping Product Features among Adult Vapers: Findings from the 2018 and 2020 ITC Four Country Smoking and Vaping Surveys. IJERPH2021, 18, 7928. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph18157928