Electronic cigarettes vary enormously in how big a nicotine hit they give to users, which is thought to be a factor behind the low rate of quitting tobacco smoking in an Auckland University trial.
The kind of Elusion e-cigarette used in the trial delivers 19 micrograms of nicotine per puff. This is less than 40 per cent of the nicotine from the Green Smoke brand, and less than 20 per cent of the hit of a tobacco cigarette, according to the results of mechanical tests by Christchurch researcher Dr Murray Laugesen and his colleagues on e-cigarettes available from New Zealand shops or the internet.
They also found only low levels of toxins were produced by the e-cigarettes, many times less than in the smoke from real cigarettes.
E-cigarettes have developed rapidly since their emergence a decade ago and are fast growing in popularity. The battery-powered devices look not unlike real cigarettes, but produce a nicotine vapour rather than smoke.
