A new study of vapes purchased from New Zealand online retailers examined the label accuracy of products sold before, during, and after vaping product reforms introduced between 2020 and 2023. The analysis showed almost half the e-liquids had nicotine concentrations that differed from the amounts listed on the label. Ethanol (alcohol) was detected in every sample yet was not labeled, with about five per cent of products having three per cent or more alcohol. Regulations that came into force in August 2021 required vaping products containing alcohol to list this in the ingredient, and for products with more than three per cent alcohol to state the words ‘contains alcohol’ explicitly on the label.
The study Analysis of Vaping Substances for Label Accuracy, Nicotine, and Alcohol Content in Parallel with Changes in the Associated Regulatory Framework in New Zealand (2020-2023) was published this week in the Journal of Drugs and Alcohol Dependence. Funded by the Government’s Strategic Science Investment Fund administered by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, and carried out by PHF Science, it provides the first systematic snapshot of New Zealand’s vape market during and immediately following legislative reform.
The Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act was amended in August 2020 to bring vaping under its scope. Beginning in 2021, new regulations were rolled out in stages, establishing requirements for the manufacture, production, and labelling of vape products.
Samples for the study were collected before the vape product requirements came into force (December 2020) and were compared with samples collected after the first changes were introduced (December 2021), and again after further regulatory updates a year later (October 2022).
The results showed a modest gain in nicotine label accuracy after the regulations were introduced, while overall noncompliance remained high. Ethanol compliance did not improve; every sample, regardless of collection date, contained some alcohol, although in about 95 per cent of cases this was less than three per cent.
“Our research indicates that following amendments to the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act 1990, there was limited measurable change in label accuracy for nicotine, and for ethanol and other labelling compliance in the products tested,” said Jared Doncliff, PHF Science Pharmaceutical Programme Team Leader.
Key findings
- Nearly half of the vaping liquids tested had nicotine concentrations over-or-underrepresenting nicotine levels by more than 10 per cent from the label claim.
- In the first sample batch (December 2020), less than half of products had nicotine levels matching the labels. In the second (December 2021) and third (October 2022) sample batches, the number of vapes with nicotine levels matching the label had increased to just over half.
- Every vape tested contained some amount of alcohol (ethanol), although only five per cent of products contain more than three per cent alcohol. In one sample, the alcohol level was 23 per cent volume-by-volume of the liquid. None of the products examined listed ethanol (or any other name for alcohol) on the ingredients list.
- A small number of ‘zero nicotine’ products from the first and second sample batches contained trace amounts of nicotine. In the third sample batch, no ‘zero-nicotine’ products were found to contain nicotine.
“The results represent what was happening during an important time for vaping regulation in New Zealand, over the period when the legal framework is changing. At the time, it showed some improvements in labelling, but that there was more work to be done,” Jared says.
Since the project’s conclusion, PHF Science has continued to provide analytical support to the Ministry of Health as it tests vape products on the New Zealand market.
Vaping regulatory changes 2020-2023
In August 2020, The Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act was amended to bring vaping under its scope. Later that year, in November 2020, the law set an 18-year age limit for purchasing vape products and created a new category of Specialist Vape Retailers that are distinct from ordinary retailers such as dairies and petrol stations; at this stage, products could still contain colours and any flavours.
A further provision in May 2021 banned the use of colours in vaping liquids, and in August 2021 the supporting Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Regulations took effect. These regulations expanded the Act’s safety framework, setting stricter standards for vape product ingredients and outlining comprehensive requirements for retail, import, manufacturing, distribution and labelling.