Nicotine delivery and addiction intensity differs with accordance to brands reveals study

A fresh new study straight from the Penn State College of Medicine states that different types of e-cigarettes or the ENDS (Electronic Nicotine Delivery System) come with different nicotine delivery rates for the users.

Most of the popular e-cigarette brands, such as JUUL, have been known to deliver a higher amount of nicotine at a much faster rate as compared to its competitor brands. This study dedicated to studying the popular nicotine delivery method of the electronic format was published in the journal named JAMA Open Network.

Jessica Yingst, the lead author of this study & a researcher working with the institute, mentioned that several studies over the year had revealed the fact that e-cigarettes containing higher concentrations of nicotine were designed to deliver a low amount of nicotine as opposed to the amount delivered via traditional cigarettes.

As described by Yingst, JUUL houses the highest concentration of nicotine within its pods. For this particular study, scientists recruited around 6 JUUL users between the months of November 2018 & May 2019. They were required to take puffs on their existing devices for a duration of 10 minutes, each within an interval of 20 seconds in between. Thus, 30 puffs could be recorded in total. The researchers took blood samples to test the nicotine levels prior to vaping, during vaping, as well as after vaping. In order to detect a total concentration of nicotine present in the participant’s blood, the researchers used mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography.

Apart from the overall nicotine level testing, the team also asked its participants about any possibilities of cravings, anxiety levels, as well as withdrawal symptoms before & after vaping. In order to confirm the addiction levels, the researchers also introduced a questionnaire created by the Penn State Electronic Cigarette Dependence Index. The results obtained from these tests revealed that JUUL users were affected by higher dependency on nicotine-based upon the questionnaire.

Their overall usage & dependence was hence compared with the 3000 other users of different e-cigarette brands. Apart from that, lower anxiety levels had been reported with JUUL users as opposed to the users of other brands. Jonathan Foulds, the study’s co-author, and a Public Health Science Professor explained that the results obtained with this study were very different as compared to the studies conducted earlier. Previous studies stated that e-cigarettes were less addictive as compared to regular cigarettes. However, the latest study confirms that the addiction level depends completely upon the e-cigarettes’ nicotine delivery system.