E-Cigarettes & Vaping

• ​E-cigarettes are known by many different names. They are sometimes called e-cigs, e-hookahs, mods, vape pens, vapes, tank systems, and electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS).
• E-cigarettes come in many shapes and sizes. Most have a battery, a heating element, and a place to hold a liquid.
  
• Some e-cigarettes are made to look like regular cigarettes, cigars, or pipes. Some resemble pens, USB sticks, and other everyday items. Larger devices such as tank systems, or mods, do not resemble other tobacco products.
• Using an e-cigarette is sometimes called vaping.
• E-cigarettes produce an aerosol by heating a liquid that usually contains nicotine—the addictive drug in regular cigarettes, cigars, and other tobacco products—flavorings, and other chemicals that help to make the aerosol. Users inhale this aerosol into their lungs. Bystanders can also breathe in this aerosol when the user exhales into the air.
• E-cigarettes can be used to deliver marijuana and other drugs.
  
  

The e-cigarette aerosol that users breathe from the device and exhale can contain harmful and potentially harmful substances, including:

• Nicotine
• Ultrafine particles that can be inhaled deep into the lungs and cause damage
  
• Flavoring such as diacetyl, a chemical linked to a serious lung disease
• Volatile organic compounds, such as benzene and formaldehyde
  
• Cancer-causing chemicals
  
• Heavy metals such as nickel, tin, and lead
  

It is difficult for consumers to know what e-cigarette products contain. For example, some e-cigarettes marketed as containing zero percent nicotine have been found to contain nicotine.​

Most e-cigarettes contain nicotine, which is addictive and toxic to developing fetuses. Nicotine exposure can also harm adolescent and young adult brain development, which continues into the early to mid-20s. E-cigarette aerosol can contain chemicals that are harmful to the lungs. And youth e-cigarette use is associated with the use of other tobacco products, including cigarettes.

Yes—but that doesn't mean e-cigarettes are safe. E-cigarette aerosol generally contains fewer toxic chemicals than the deadly mix of 7,000 chemicals in smoke from regular cigarettes. However, e-cigarette aerosol is not harmless. It can contain harmful and potentially harmful substances, including nicotine, heavy metals like lead, volatile organic compounds, and cancer-causing agents.

E-cigarettes are not currently approved by the FDA as a quit-smoking aid. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a group of health experts that makes recommendations about preventive health care, has concluded that evidence is insufficient to recommend e-cigarettes for smoking cessation in adults, including pregnant women. 

However, e-cigarettes may help non-pregnant adult smokers if used as a complete substitute for all cigarettes and other smoked tobacco products.

E-cigarettes are the most commonly used tobacco product among youth.

• In the United States, youth are more likely than adults to use e-cigarettes.
• In 2022, over 2.5 million U.S. middle and high school students used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days, including 3.3% of middle school students and 14.1% of high school students.
  

• In 2021, 4.5% of U.S. adults were current e-cigarette users.

• In 2021, among adult e-cigarette users overall​, 29.4% also were current regular cigarette smokers, 40.3% were former regular cigarette smokers, and 30.3% had never been regular cigarette smokers.
  
• Among current e-cigarette users aged 45 years and older in 2021, most were either current or former regular cigarette smokers, and 7.2% had never been cigarette smokers. In contrast, among current e-cigarette users aged 18–24 years, 61.4% had never been regular cigarette smokers.
  

• Sometimes marketed as “heat-not-burn" products, heated tobacco products come in many forms.
• Heated tobacco products are not an FDA-approved method for quitting smoking.

• Some heated tobacco products use electronic heating elements.
• Some heat specially-designed sticks, plugs, or capsules containing tobacco. This is how the heated tobacco products authorized for sale in the United States work.
• Some work by heating liquids that create an aerosol that then passes through a tobacco plug to absorb flavor and nicotine from the tobacco.
• Some have a sealed part of the device that heats loose tobacco, either alone or together with flowers from the marijuana (cannabis) plant.
• Some heated tobacco products have a similar size and shape as regular cigarettes and have a carbon tip wrapped in glass fibers that the user heats with a lighter or match.
• Heated tobacco products are not the same as electronic cigarettes because it heats the actual tobacco leaf. E-cigarettes heat liquids that typically contain nicotine derived from tobacco, as well as flavorings and other ingredients. Learn more about heated tobacco products.