what chemicals are in vapes
Great question @Blaze. Here is a breakdown of what’s actually inside vape aerosol:
The Main Ingredients
- Propylene Glycol (PG) — Food-grade additive, carries flavor, creates throat hit. Also used in asthma inhalers and food products.
- Vegetable Glycerin (VG) — Plant-derived, produces vapor clouds. Found in food and cosmetics.
- Nicotine — Optional. The addictive stimulant also found in tobacco. Can range from 0mg to 50mg (5%) in commercial products.
- Flavorings — Food-grade concentrates (same ones used in candy, ice cream, baked goods).
What About “Harmful Chemicals”?
Compared to cigarette smoke (which contains ~7,000 chemicals, 70+ known carcinogens from combustion), vape aerosol is significantly simpler:
- Cigarettes: tar, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde (from burning), arsenic, ammonia, benzene — the list goes on
- Vapes: no combustion = no tar, no carbon monoxide. Some studies find trace levels of aldehydes but at 90-95% lower levels than cigarettes
The Honest Take
“Chemical-free” is a marketing term. Everything is chemicals — water is H₂O, oxygen is O₂. What matters is which chemicals and at what levels. Public Health England’s landmark study found vaping is 95% less harmful than smoking.
The key distinction: vaping is about harm reduction, not zero risk. If you don’t smoke or vape, don’t start either.
Hope this clears things up! 
I used to smoke, but now I’ve switched to vapes.
PG/VG stands for propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin. Both are relatively harmless, but like anything that isn’t air, inhaling them is not ideal for the body. The lungs are meant for air—anything else is inherently worse.
Next are the added flavorings. Some types of flavorings can be risky, and in reality they consist of hundreds of different chemical compounds. These flavorings are generally considered safe for food, but vapes are inhaled, which introduces potential safety concerns. While they are indeed food additives, some of them are not suitable for inhalation (think of cases where inhaling cannabis oils has caused lung damage).
Last but not least: vapes may contain nicotine. Nicotine is harmful, but it’s also the reason many smokers are able to switch from traditional cigarettes to vaping.
vapes are less harmful than smoking, but they are not harmless. The long-term effects are still unclear, though they are likely much less harmful than cigarettes. Why? Because vaping and smoking are fundamentally different. Smoking involves combustion, which produces many byproducts—like benzene and other highly harmful substances, as noted on cigarette packaging. Vaping, on the other hand, is essentially heating. The substance itself remains the same, just converted into a vapor or aerosol form.