What is TPD?
You might have heard the acronym TPD when reading up on the latest vape news. It has been more popular recently since Brexit, the UK have begun adopting similar regulations as the EU.
TPD stands for Tobacco Products Directive and even though you don’t really need to know much about it as a customer of vape products, it is good to know the laws that are in place to protect you and ensure that the products you buy are safe and regulated. The TPD requires information to be readily accessible by customers so that they can make an informed decision when buying vaping products. It also gives customers a safety standard to compare their vaping products to. When you buy an e-liquid or e-cigarette product in the UK, every retailer related to vaping should provide you with this information.
When Was TPD Introduced?
TPD compliance was brought into law in 2001. Initially, this was for cigarettes and tobacco-based products. The law was reviewed in 2014 to include e-cigarettes due to their rise in popularity.
TPD basically looks at tobacco product control across the European Union. The EU decided that any e-cigarette product is to be classified as a tobacco product.
Why Do We Use TPD?
TPD was introduced to improve the tobacco market and was designed to regulate products and protect customers. The primary objectives of the Tobacco Products Directive are:
- Protect children from all nicotine products. E-cigarettes and products related to e-cigarettes should not be sold to anyone under the age of 18.
- Protect consumers of tobacco and its related products by creating a minimum level of standards for the quality and safety of all vaping devices and e-liquids.
- Protect consumers by providing clear packaging which outlines valuable information thus allowing the consumer to make an informed decision. It ensures consumers are aware that the products contain nicotine.
The Restrictions:
The laws have been put in place to ensure that there are minimum standards across a all e-cigarette products and e-liquids. They also ensure that information is provided to consumers so that they can make an informed decision and make sure that the vaping industry operates in a way that protects children from starting to use these products.
- Restrict e-cigarette tanks to a capacity of no more than 2ml.
- Restrict the maximum volume of nicotine-containing e-liquid for sale in one refill container to 10ml.
- Restrict e-liquids to a nicotine strength of no more than 20mg/ml.
- Require nicotine-containing products or their packaging to be child-resistant and tamper-evident.
- Ban certain ingredients including colourings, caffeine, and taurine.
- All e-liquids must include new labelling requirements and warnings.
- All e-cigarettes ad e-liquids must be notified to MHRA (Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) before they can be sold.
Registering with MHRA:
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) must be notified before any e-liquid or e-cigarette products can be sold in the UK.
Product Restrictions:
To ensure the safety of consumers, purchasers and those around them, there are several restrictions in place across all e-cigarette products.
E-liquid Restrictions:
1. E-liquids containing nicotine must go through emissions testing. This testing must be carried out in a lab.
2. The nicotine content in an e-liquid product must not exceed 20mg/ml.
3. E-liquids must not contain any caffeine or taurine. They must also not contain any colourings.
4. E-liquids cannot contain vitamins or additives which gives the impression that the product provides health benefits or reduce3s health risks.
5. All e-liquid containers which contain nicotine are restricted to a maximum 10ml capacity.
6. All e-liquid boxes must contain information and warning labels to allow the consumer to make an informed decision before purchasing any products. “This product contains nicotine which is a highly addictive substance” is a packaging requirement by the TPD. This label must take up 20% of the package surface both on the front and back.
7. E-liquid bottles must have nozzles at least 9mm long.
8. All packaging must be completely childproof with caps that emit no more than 20 drops per minute.
Device Restrictions:
1. Vape tanks must have nicotine warning stickers.
2. Vape tanks must have an ECID (European Community Identification Number) and must be registered to the MHRA.
3. The maximum capacity for a single-use cartridge, disposable puff bars and tanks is restricted to a maximum of 2ml.
Benefits of TPD:
TPD restrictions allow customers of e-cigarette products to benefit from improved quality and safety regulations on products. This allows consumers to make informed decisions on all of their purchases. Children are also better protected against potential harm thanks to increased quality control on childproof and tamper-proof technology.
