In recent weeks, Elf Bars have been all over the headlines again. Usually when you see Elf Bars in the news, it’s due to concern over environmental issues that disposable products in general throw up and Elf Bar bare the brunt as the most popular product. This time however, Elf Bar’s are being ripped from supermarket shelves like Tesco and Asda due to an investigation that found some Elf Bars have more than the legal limit of e-liquid in.
What is the current regulation?
The Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) is an EU law that regulates the sale of tobacco and vaping products in Europe. Despite the UK not being in the EU anymore, the UK has kept this directive along with many others. The TPD stipulates that the maximum e-liquid capacity for a disposable electronic cigarette cannot exceed 2ml. The regulation also states that 20mg (2%) of nicotine is the highest amount that can be sold in pre-mixed bottles or containers like disposables.
After an investigation by the Daily Mail, some Elf Bars were found to contain between 3ml and 3.2ml of e-liquid which is of course above the regulatory limit of 2ml. Therefore the actual nicotine content as a percentage of total e-liquid is unchanged and remains at 20mg, there is just more liquid in the tank. This means Elf Bar’s don’t really have too much nicotine in, they have too much e-liquid in. The media of course have created headlines to mislead vapers and make a lot of vapers fear products, which could in turn drive them back to smoking. Elf Bars were still found with 20mg (2%) of nicotine, meaning they had no more nicotine per puff.
This poses the question then…
Why weren’t Elf Bars checked?
The truth is, they were but the checks are clearly not strict enough or probably more accurately, not reviewed often enough. To get a vaping product to market legally in the UK, you have to go through the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, which considers a range of factors including the TPD regulations. Once a product makes it through the checks though, batches are not routinely checked and this is clearly how Elf Bar managed to sell their product with the higher nicotine.
Are Elf Bars safe?
It’s important to remind ourselves that vaping is definitely not safer than nothing, but is 95% less harmful than cigarettes according to Public Health England.
The way in which Elf Bar have breached regulations do not pose a safety risk to users, it is merely a breach of regulations with regards to the amount of e-liquid in the disposables. The amount of nicotine consumed per puff is exactly the same, even if you were to vape an Elf Bar from the concerned batches.
Are disposable vapes safe?
Disposable vapes are as safe as regular vapes. This means they are not safer than doing nothing, but they are safer than smoking by at least 95% (PHE). The greatest harm of disposable vapes remains their environmental impact as they are not a sustainable way of vaping given their throwaway nature. If you’d like help to choose a refillable vape kit, you can contact our team at helpers@vape.co.uk where we will be able to assist you in choosing both disposable vapes and refillable alternatives that are as close to the disposable flavour as possible.
Check if your Elf Bar is an illegal one
On the box of your Elf Bar will be a batch number. There are batches right now that are known to contain too much e-liquid and these can be found below. You as a consumer will not be penalised for owning or using an Elf Bar that has too much e-liquid in and Elf Bar will be removing these from the shelves over the coming weeks and months.
If you find an Elf Bar under these batch numbers, we recommend contacting the retailer you bought it from to inform them so that they can remove this non-compliant product from their shelves.
Have Elf Bars got too much nicotine in?
In recent weeks, Elf Bars have been all over the headlines again. Usually when you see Elf Bars in the news, it’s due to concern over environmental issues that disposable products in general throw up and Elf Bar bare the brunt as the most popular product. This time however, Elf Bar’s are being ripped from supermarket shelves like Tesco and Asda due to an investigation that found some Elf Bars have more than the legal limit of e-liquid in.
What is the current regulation?
The Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) is an EU law that regulates the sale of tobacco and vaping products in Europe. Despite the UK not being in the EU anymore, the UK has kept this directive along with many others. The TPD stipulates that the maximum e-liquid capacity for a disposable electronic cigarette cannot exceed 2ml. The regulation also states that 20mg (2%) of nicotine is the highest amount that can be sold in pre-mixed bottles or containers like disposables.
After an investigation by the Daily Mail, some Elf Bars were found to contain between 3ml and 3.2ml of e-liquid which is of course above the regulatory limit of 2ml. Therefore the actual nicotine content as a percentage of total e-liquid is unchanged and remains at 20mg, there is just more liquid in the tank. This means Elf Bar’s don’t really have too much nicotine in, they have too much e-liquid in. The media of course have created headlines to mislead vapers and make a lot of vapers fear products, which could in turn drive them back to smoking. Elf Bars were still found with 20mg (2%) of nicotine, meaning they had no more nicotine per puff.
This poses the question then…
Why weren’t Elf Bars checked?
The truth is, they were but the checks are clearly not strict enough or probably more accurately, not reviewed often enough. To get a vaping product to market legally in the UK, you have to go through the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, which considers a range of factors including the TPD regulations. Once a product makes it through the checks though, batches are not routinely checked and this is clearly how Elf Bar managed to sell their product with the higher nicotine.
Are Elf Bars safe?
It’s important to remind ourselves that vaping is definitely not safer than nothing, but is 95% less harmful than cigarettes according to Public Health England.
The way in which Elf Bar have breached regulations do not pose a safety risk to users, it is merely a breach of regulations with regards to the amount of e-liquid in the disposables. The amount of nicotine consumed per puff is exactly the same, even if you were to vape an Elf Bar from the concerned batches.
Are disposable vapes safe?
Disposable vapes are as safe as regular vapes. This means they are not safer than doing nothing, but they are safer than smoking by at least 95% (PHE). The greatest harm of disposable vapes remains their environmental impact as they are not a sustainable way of vaping given their throwaway nature. If you’d like help to choose a refillable vape kit, you can contact our team at helpers@vape.co.uk where we will be able to assist you in choosing both disposable vapes and refillable alternatives that are as close to the disposable flavour as possible.
Check if your Elf Bar is an illegal one
On the box of your Elf Bar will be a batch number. There are batches right now that are known to contain too much e-liquid and these can be found below. You as a consumer will not be penalised for owning or using an Elf Bar that has too much e-liquid in and Elf Bar will be removing these from the shelves over the coming weeks and months.
Batch numbers that have too much e-liquid in:
EPOI7693, EP020398, EP020250, EP019749, EP020257, EP019746, EP020120, EP020394, EP019893, EP019894.
If you find an Elf Bar under these batch numbers, we recommend contacting the retailer you bought it from to inform them so that they can remove this non-compliant product from their shelves.