NEWS
Universal vaping standards are
vital to protect consumers and
promote international trade
The lack of universal
standards in the global vaping
industry are having a serious
effect on innovation and
impacting on harm reduction
measures according to an
industry expert.
Marina Trani, Head of R&D at
British American Tobacco subsidiary
Nicoventures, said it was vital that
globally agreed standards were
established for the good of the industry
and for the protection of consumers.
She is highly critical of the current
piecemeal approach to regulation
which sees vastly different regulatory
standards in different parts of the world
and says we are still along way off from
global harmonisation.
Ms Trani said regulation should be tough
enough to ensure that the public could
be confident about the vaping products
on the market but not so harsh as to
stifle innovation, global trade and the
development of the industry.
She was highly critical that there were
vastly different regulatory standards in
two of the world’s huge global vaping
markets, the USA and Europe, and said
it was smaller companies which were hit
hardest by this approach.
14 ISSUE 07 VAPOUROUND MAGAZINE
“Different rules in different jurisdictions
make it overly burdensome and
expensive, especially for smaller
companies,” she said, adding: “It stifles
growth and innovation, which in turn
could stifle the potential these products
have for reducing the harm of smoking.”
The expert said the EU and the US were
“worlds apart” in terms of e-cigarette
regulation which made it overly
burdensome for companies
trying to conduct business both
the US and Europe.
For example the draft US regulations will
require pre-approval before any change
is made to a vaping product while the EU
Tobacco Products Directive requires a
less restrictive six month prior notification
(rather than approval) for ‘substantial
modification’ to the same product.
Ms Trani added: “Regulation is both
necessary in the industry and should be
welcomed but it makes no sense for the
rules to be so widely different in
different jurisdictions.
We need rules which are not overly
burdensome, which set standards
to protect consumers, increase
understanding of next generation
products, and which are clear and
harmonized globally while not
inhibiting innovation.
“Sadly we are a very long way from
this ideal right now but we need to push
towards the same global standards
throughout the industry so that it does
eventually happen.
“We need standards for consumer
protection and consumer satisfaction
but the regulatory framework needs
to be as simple as possible to
promote innovation.
“However in my experience, standards
are never as simple as they could be
and we currently have a huge patchwork
of different standards around the world
which does not help matters at all.
“Right now we are at the start of the
regulatory journey and I think we are
headed for a really messy time before
things begin to get better and sadly,
global regulation is a process which
tends to happen at glacial speed.”
Ms Trani said when it came to
e-cigarattes and vaping products,
consumer safety was the top priority
but that did not mean that regulations
had to be so complicated, fragmented
and burdensome that it prevented
businesses from operating efficiently.
British American Tobacco was the
first tobacco company to launch an
e-cigarette in 2013 and has been
proactive in both developing the first
voluntary product standard with the
British Standards Institute (BSI),
advocating for more harmonised
standards and is currently actively
contributing to the European.