E-Cigarette Quality Control: Impurity and Nicotine Level Analysis in Electronic Cigarette Refill Liquids

Abstract

This work targets mainly the quality control of electronic cigarette liquids. It relies on an analytical control of a “32-product” sample made of several types of e-cigarette liquids taken from various supermarkets and tobacconist’s offices in Morocco. All along this study, we made sure to check both the conformity of the nicotine level indicated in the packaging of each product and the existence of any other components inside the product, especially toxic or unknown impurities. The method used for this study is known under the name of high-performance liquid chromatography. For statistical analysis, we used Student’s t-test for a single sample in order to analyze the relative differences between nicotine quantity reported in the product and the one measured during our experiment. Finally, we used linear regression test to determine the relationship between the nicotine level accuracy on the packaging and the level of toxic impurities in the products. The differences between the nicotine concentrations reported in the packages and the measured ones varied from −100% to +3.3%. The study showed that 31% of analyzed products have an accurate indication of the level of nicotine on the packaging. However, 47% of the studied products showed more than 20% difference between measure and packaging indication. In all analyzed samples, the level of impurities altered from 0 to 32.6%. Furthermore, the level of the nicotine breakdown products did not exceed 2% of the nicotine content in pretty much all of the samples. The actual nicotine content of electronic cigarette refill liquids is not always as precise as what is stated on the packaging; in addition to the level of impurities detected in several brands and that exceeds the European Pharmacopoeia standards, some may even present a risk of causing toxicological damage.