Published In
Tobacco Control
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-2022
Subjects
E-cigarette -- Testing and Research
Abstract
Background The increased popularity of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) has been linked to the abundance of flavoured products that are attractive to adolescents and young adults. In the last decade, e-cigarette designs have evolved through four generations that include modifications in battery power, e-cigarette liquid (e-liquid) reservoirs and atomiser units. E-liquids have likewise evolved in terms of solvent use/ratios, concentration and number of flavour chemicals, use of nicotine salts and acids, the recent increased use of synthetic cooling agents and the introduction of synthetic nicotine. Our current objective was to evaluate and compare the evolving composition of tobacco-flavoured e-liquids over the last 10 years.
Methods Our extensive database of flavour chemicals in e-liquids was used to identify trends and changes in flavour chemical composition and concentrations.
Results Tobacco-flavoured products purchased in 2010 and 2011 generally had very few flavour chemicals, and their concentrations were generally very low. In tobacco-flavoured refill fluids purchased in 2019 and Puff Bar Tobacco e-cigarettes, the total number and concentration of flavour chemicals were higher than expected. Products with total flavour chemicals >10 mg/mL contained one to five dominant flavour chemicals (>1 mg/mL). The most frequently used flavour chemicals in tobacco e-liquids were fruity and caramellic.
Conclusions There is a need for continuous surveillance of e-liquids, which are evolving in often subtle and harmful ways. Chemical constituents of tobacco flavours should be monitored as they clearly can be doctored by manufacturers to have a taste that would appeal to young users.
Rights
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, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
Locate the Document
DOI
10.1136/tc-2022-057484
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/38773
Citation Details
Omaiye, E. E., Luo, W., McWhirter, K. J., Pankow, J. F., & Talbot, P. (2022). Ethyl maltol, vanillin, corylone and other conventional confectionery-related flavour chemicals dominate in some e-cigarette liquids labelled ‘tobacco’flavoured. Tobacco control, 31(Suppl 3), s238-s244.