Nicotine in e-cigarettes

When ever-users of e-cigarettes were asked whether the last one they used contained nicotine, nearly half (47.8%^a) said it did, despite nicotine-containing e-cigarettes not being approved for sale in Canada.^xviii This represented a significant increase from 2013,¹⁵⁷ when 26.4%^b of users reported that their last e-cigarette contained nicotine. One-third (34.5%^c) said the last e-cigarette they used did not contain nicotine. Nearly one in five users (17.7%^d) did not know whether their last e-cigarette contained nicotine, highlighting the importance of clear product labelling. Use of nicotine-containing e-cigarettes varied by significantly by smoking status¹⁵⁸ (Figure 12.20); more than half of current smokers used e-cigarettes containing nicotine, as well as half of former smokers, compared to one-quarter of never smokers.

As shown in Figure 12.21, it appears that more male smokers used e-cigarettes containing nicotine, while slightly more female non-smokers used e-cigarettes with nicotine; however, neither difference was statistically significant.^159,160

Figure 12.20 Data table with 95% confidence intervals

Figure 12.20: Responses to “the last time you used an e-cigarette, did it contain nicotine?” among ever users of e-cigarettes, by smoking status, 2015
Smoking status	Yes	Uncertain	No
Daily smoker	60.0 [53.5-66.6]	14.4 [10.0-18.8]	25.6 [19.4-31.7]
Non-daily smoker	53.5 [44.0-63.1]	16.2 [8.7-23.8]	30.2 [20.6-39.8]
Former smoker	49.7 [41.3-58.2]	15.8 [9.6-22.1]	34.5 [26.2-42.8]
Never smoker	24.9 [19.4-30.5]	25.1 [18.8-31.4]	49.9 [42.6-57.2]

Daily smoker: responded "every day" to "at the present time do you smoke cigarettes every day, occasionally or not at all?"
Non-daily smoker: responded "occasionally" to "at the present time do you smoke cigarettes every day, occasionally or not at all?"
Former smoker: smoked “not at all” at the time of the survey, but had smoked 100+ cigarettes in lifetime
Data source: Canadian Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs Survey, 2015

Figure 12.21 Data table with 95% confidence intervals

Figure 12.21: Responses to “the last time you used an e-cigarette, did it contain nicotine?” among ever users of e-cigarettes, 2015
Smoking status	Sex	Yes	Uncertain	No
Current smoker	Male	61.9 [54.6-69.1]	13.6 [8.6-18.6]	24.6 [17.8-31.3]
Current smoker	Female	53.3 [44.9-61.8]	16.8 [10.6-22.9]	29.9 [21.5-38.3]
Non-smoker	Male	36.1 [29.3-42.8]	18.8 [13.1-24.4]	45.2 [37.6-52.7]
Non-smoker	Female	39.2 [31.7-46.6]	23.1 [15.7-30.5]	37.7 [30.5-45.0]