I Cough When I Use An Electronic Cigarette. Why Is That?

The first time you use an electronic cigarette it would be surprising if you didn’t cough. Everyone seems to. I did. It’s mainly because a vapour is an entirely different sensation to smoke, which you will be used to. Secondly on the first try most people will directly inhale into their lungs like with a cigarette; most e-cig users quickly find themselves taking the vapour into their mouth first before inhaling properly, a direct ‘lung hit’ from an e-cig gives quite a big kick and many people don’t expect it.

If you find yourself coughing every single time you use an e-cig even after you’ve been on it for a little while there are a couple of possibilities:
You might be using a nicotine strength that’s too high for you. We tend to recommend that someone who previously smoked 20 cigarettes a day use an 18mg liquid, but obviously everyone will have different tolerances and preferences so maybe try a lower strength.

It may well be that the flavour you’ve picked has a bit more kick than you were looking for. Certain flavours, like menthol or some citrus flavours, have a bit of throat-hit all their own that has nothing to do with the nicotine content or the base liquid.

Finally, in some very rare cases a person may be slightly allergic to propylene glycol( or ‘PG’), which is the major constituent of most e-liquids. This can cause you to cough when you use an e-cig regardless of nicotine strength or anything else. Luckily here at TABlites we have a few of our most popular flavours available in a mostly vegetable glycerol based liquid (‘VG’ for short), clocking in at 80% VG to 20% PG. The normal mix is 80% PG to 20% VG.

Using a VG heavy base liquid often gets around that problem. You’ll also find a VG heavy liquid will give less throat hit, but a denser vapour is produced. That’s because VG is much thicker than PG.

Give us a call on 0161 723 0064 for information on all of our e-liquids including the VG-base liquids.

We hope that helps.

Team TABlites.