Most e-cigarettes sold in Switzerland flout nicotine rules
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The vast majority of disposable electronic cigarettes sold in Switzerland do not comply with the law, the Swiss Association for Smoking Prevention said on Saturday. The quantity of liquid and nicotine levels exceed the authorised thresholds.
The standards in force in Switzerland are based on a 2014 European directive. This stipulates that each “electronic cigarette with a so-called closed system”, also known as “puff bars”, may not contain more than 2ml volume of liquid. This corresponds to around 600 puffs.
However, according to the association’s study, more than half the products sold on the Swiss market exceed this value. Puffs offering 1500 or 2500 puffs are “commonly available” on online sales sites or in stores. But it’s even possible to order puffs online with a 30 ml tank, i.e. 16,000 puffs. That’s 15 times more than the legal limit.
The survey also denounced excessive nicotine percentages, even though the law stipulates that a disposable electronic cigarette may not contain more than 20 mg/ml nicotine. Some cantons had reacted and forced certain stores to withdraw these products from sale following a study published in March 2022.
The association does, however, mention a site where puffs containing a concentration of 50 mg/ml can be purchased. It is also “easy” to order puffs directly from Chinese sites, with no restrictions on volume or nicotine concentration, and have them delivered to Switzerland.
According to AT Suisse, almost all the sites examined (over 100 in all) offer products that go beyond legal standards.
“We might have expected small, marginal businesses, but this is far from being the case”, laments the prevention association.
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