What's really in vapes?

You’ve probably heard that vaping is bad for you, but do you know just how harmful it can be? Vapes are filled with heaps of toxic chemicals that can really harm your health.

From shortness of breath to permanent scarring of the lungs, learn what vaping is really doing to your health.

Gross ingredients

Spoiler alert, vape juice isn’t made from fruit concentrate or fruit juice. Those fake sweet and fruity flavours are made using a range of harmful toxins.

They might smell nice, but you’re breathing in a lot of the same ingredients found in nail polish remover, weed killer, cleaning products and bug spray.

These are some of the chemicals commonly found in vapes and what they’re doing to you each time you take a puff.

  • Formaldehyde

    Formaldehyde is found in products like floor cleaner and can permanently damage your lungs and cause cancer.

  • Acrolein

    Acrolein is found in insect killer and can damage the lining of your lungs and irritate the inside of your nose.

  • Propylene glycol

    Propylene glycol is a synthetic liquid and may trigger asthma when it’s heated and inhaled

  • Heavy metals

    Heavy metals including arsenic and nickel which can cause cancer and lead that can damage the developing brain.

You’ll also be inhaling anti-freeze which is used to cool car engines and other volatile organic compounds found in paint and heavy-duty cleaning products. That doesn’t include the hundreds of cancer-causing additives that weren’t designed to be heated or inhaled into the lungs.

Vapes may include flavourings that are safe to eat and drink, but aren’t safe to inhale. They’re also often incorrectly labelled so you don’t know what the ingredients are and what chemicals you’re putting into your body.

Nicotine

Did you know that even when a vape is labelled ‘nicotine free’, it still probably has nicotine in it? Sneaky, right?

Nicotine is super addictive, and once you start vaping, it can be really hard to stop. Once you’re hooked on vaping, you’re more likely to start smoking tobacco cigarettes to get that nicotine hit. And you don’t have to vape for long to get addicted.

Nicotine can also affect your heart, increase anxiety and depression, and impact your brain development, especially the part responsible for attention, memory and learning. If you’re under 25, vaping can actually rewire your brain! Scary.

Last updated: August 2024