THURSDAY, Sept. 10, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Vaping isn’t just annoying to passersby who have to walk through clouds of vapor, but might be actively harmful to the environment, a new study says.

Discarded nicotine vapes contain extremely high levels of lead and other heavy metals in their remaining cache of e-liquid, researchers reported recently in the journal Environmental Monitoring and Assessment.

The disposable devices also contain batteries, circuitry and plastics in a compact package that’s hard to disassemble and recycle, researchers said.

“Vaping is a twofold problem,” researcher John Scott said in a news release. He’s a pollution prevention scientist at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

“No. 1, it’s a solid-waste problem — a major solid-waste problem. And No. 2, it’s a health issue,” Scott said. “People say it’s a better alternative to cigarettes. It’s just as bad, if not worse.” 

For the study, researchers collected discarded devices at vape shops in the U.K. and United States. Many of these shops stockpile used devices, because there’s not a clear system for proper disposal, researchers noted.

Analysis showed that liquid drawn from some used vapes contained extremely high levels of lead, among the highest ever reported in an e-cigarette.

Lead did not appear in the device’s hardware, like solder joints or heating elements, at levels that could explain the contamination, researchers said. The liquid itself appeared to be the source of the lead.

Following up, the team bought a small number of unused vapes and tested them as well. The results matched those from the discarded vapes, suggesting the heavy metals are present from the start, researchers said.

However, researchers did not directly test whether metals in e-liquid transfer into the vapor that people inhale, or whether any of that metal reaches the lungs during normal use.

The brands Pastel Cartel and Posh Plus in particular contained high levels of lead and other metals, results showed.

“There was one brand in particular that stuck out,” Scott said. “It was almost always a problem — not only containing lead, but also zinc and copper at extremely high levels. As it turns out, that brand is also the cheapest.

“So now there’s an environmental justice angle, because people who can’t afford the more high-end vapes have a higher potential to be exposed to these heavy metals,” Scott said.

Dismantling the devices to aid recycling also proved difficult, he added.

“Getting the battery out of these things was a nightmare, because it was very difficult to crack a lot of them open,” Scott said. 

In the U.K., the discarded vapes are linked to fires in waste systems from crushed batteries igniting.

“Making the battery easily removable could potentially solve that fire problem, and then that battery can be recycled,” Scott said.

The team concluded that disposable vapes not only can contaminate groundwater with heavy metals, but will add to the solid waste load of landfills.

Better design could help, including easy battery removal, using recyclable plastics and making devices refillable rather than disposable, researchers said.

However, manufacturers have little incentive to make products longer-lasting or easy to take apart because disposability drives repeat sales, Scott said.

“With the increasing popularity of e-cigarettes, it is recommended that e-liquids more generally (including those used in refillable devices) are better monitored and regulated for harmful contaminants like metals,” researchers concluded in their paper.

More information

The American Lung Association has more about what’s in an e-cigarette.

SOURCES: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, news release, Sept. 8, 2026; Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, March 24, 2026