On the Use of Alcohol in E-Liquids

Many vapers worry about the presence of alcohol in the composition of e-liquids and DIY concentrates. This is, indeed, a recurring question on Le Petit Vapoteur's live chat, so it's time we gave a proper, technical answer.

To do this, I got in touch with the LFEL laboratory, a major French e-liquid manufacturer, as well as Dr Catherine Durand, a psychiatrist specialising in addiction medicine at the Centre de Soins, d'Accompagnement et de Prévention en Addictologie in Cherbourg.

Why Is There Alcohol in E-Liquids?

The alcohol used in vaping products is ethyl alcohol, or ethanol. This alcohol has a very simple purpose: it thins out the flavouring molecules needed for e-liquid and DIY concentrate recipes. This "carrier" or "solvent" loosens up the flavourings and also helps preserve them. Ethanol is a natural preservative and also has antibacterial properties. Labelling must mention the presence of alcohol if it makes up more than 1% of the product.

When it comes to inhalation, meaning e-cigarette products specifically, certain carriers simply aren't suitable. Water, for example, can't dissolve certain flavour molecules, and its presence makes vaporising e-liquid more difficult. Sugar, at high temperatures, produces toxic molecules such as hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), acetone and acetaldehyde.

Vegetable oils, while well tolerated by the stomach, aren't recommended for inhalation, as they can lead to lipid pneumonia. Finally, essential oils, the well-known ones extracted from plants via steam distillation, are also widely used in food flavourings. While certain essential oils can be used for inhalation in an aromatherapy context, their use via the respiratory route needs to be carefully controlled and limited. Indeed, they're made up of powerful active compounds (terpenes or terpene-based compounds), some of which can carry a degree of toxicity when inhaled. 

Unlike these various carriers, ethyl alcohol, or ethanol, is able to dissolve the residual vegetable oils and essential oils that are an inherent part of the food flavouring manufacturing process.

Very Strict Regulations

According to Dr Hélène Lalo of LFEL laboratories, ethanol has a low boiling point (78°C) and a low heat of vaporisation (855 J/g), meaning it fully vaporises when used in an e-cig. "While the presence of ethanol in e-liquids is fairly common, it doesn't, however, make up the majority of products today."

To comply with CLP regulations (Classification, Labelling and Packaging of chemical products), e-liquids can't contain more than 6% ethanol. Above this threshold, they would be classed as hazardous, flammable substances. In practice, the percentages found in e-liquids tend to range between 1% and 5%, depending on the flavourings used.

Alcohol in E-Liquids and Its Effects on the Body

Still according to Dr H. Lalo, when it comes to any potential risk of dependency, "there's no proven physiological effect from inhaling alcohol in e-liquids. For example, consuming 4ml of an e-liquid containing 4% ethanol corresponds to the body absorbing just 0.016cl of alcohol, which is 78 times lower than the standard permitted dose for ingestion (1.25cl). This shows that even when vaping large quantities of e-liquid with a high ethanol content, the human body (…) won't experience any physical effect."

For Dr C. Durand, the answer is clear-cut: no, there's no risk of dependency from this type of e-liquid. It's simply impossible to experience the usual psychoactive effects of alcohol, for the simple reason that these only occur if alcohol passes through the digestive tract. Inhaling alcohol never produces this effect.

That said, whether for religious reasons or health reasons, anyone who avoids products containing alcohol should stay informed about the composition of e-liquids. This is a choice that absolutely should be respected.

Standards

AFNOR XP-D90-300-2 standards aren't mandatory. A manufacturer isn't required to list the alcohol content on its labels. Thankfully, this isn't the case for the majority of manufacturers in France, as many choose to follow AFNOR's voluntary standards. If you'd like to know the alcohol content of a particular e-liquid, you can contact the manufacturer or distributor, who should be able to provide you with the product's Safety Data Sheet (SDS).

Here's a non-exhaustive list of e-liquid brands and ranges that don't use ethyl alcohol or ethanol in their e-liquids. For other brands, I'd recommend checking directly on manufacturers' websites, as the presence or absence of alcohol varies from one e-liquid to another. This is the case, for instance, with D'lice, which only has a handful of e-liquids made with ethanol (El Loco, Agrumes, etc.), but which consistently flags this in its product compositions.

All Green / Cloud Vapor / Classic Wanted / Alfa Siempre / Savourea / Crazy Savourea / Red Rock / Feevr / Bounty Hunters / Solana / Olala Vape / 7 Péchés Capitaux / Fuug Life / Addiction / Survival Vaping / Comic Juice / High Creek / The Fabulous / Mécanique des Fluides / Swoke / Saiyen Vapors / Revolute / Tjuice / Twelve Monkeys / Halo / Pulp / Le French Liquide / NKV / Vegetol / Flavor Hit / Furiosa / Vaponaute / Terrible Cloud / Vape Institut / Five Pawns

Many thanks to Aurélie Lefèvre of VDLV, Dr Hélène Lalo and Dr Catherine Durand for their help and their answers.

Pascal