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Research paper
Labelling of electronic cigarettes: regulations and current practice
  1. Federico Buonocore,
  2. Ana C N Marques Gomes,
  3. Shereen Nabhani-Gebara,
  4. Stephen J Barton,
  5. Gianpiero Calabrese
  1. Department of Drug Discovery, Delivery and Patient Care, School of Pharmacy and Chemistry, Kingston University, Kingston-upon Thames, London, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Gianpiero Calabrese, Department of Drug Discovery, Delivery and Patient Care, School of Pharmacy and Chemistry, Kingston University, Kingston-upon Thames, London KT1 2EE, UK; G.Calabrese{at}kingston.ac.uk

Abstract

Background Over the past decade e-cigarettes have established themselves in the global market. E-cigarettes triggered much interest in relation to their content and efficacy as smoking cessation tools, but less attention has been paid to users and environmental safety warnings and guidance. Several regulations have been introduced to promote their safe handling and disposal. From May 2016, liquids and cartridges will be regulated by European Community Directives (ECDs) 2001/83/EC and 93/42/EEC, or 2014/40/EU if marketed as tobacco-related products. Currently, manufacturers and distributors must abide by the Chemical (Hazard Information and Packaging for Supply) Regulations 2009 (CHIP) or Classification, Labelling and Packaging Regulations (CLP), the latter replacing CHIP in June 2015.

Objective In this work, the compliance of marketed e-liquids and e-cigarettes with current European Union and UK legislations is assessed.

Results E-liquids and e-cigarettes (21 and 9 brands, respectively) were evaluated. Evidence of non-compliance was found in relation to the CHIP/CLP toxic (13%) and environmental (37%) pictograms, tactile warning (23%), nominal amount of solution (30%), supplier contact telephone number and address (40%). None of the evaluated e-cigarettes displayed information on the correct disposal/recycling of batteries in line with the ECD 2006/66/EC.

Conclusions More stringent enforcement of regulations is needed to ensure not only the user's safety and awareness, but also the safeguarding of the environment.

  • Electronic nicotine delivery devices
  • Nicotine
  • Environment

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2015-052683

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors FB has performed the audit and drafted the article. ACNMG has contributed to the article offering expertise in regulatory affairs. SN-G and SJB have co-designed the study and contributed to the article (content). GC has co-designed the work, analysed the data, contributed to the article and submitted work.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.