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Electronic Cigarette Company
Helps to Develop First Nationally Recognised Standards for the Sector
THIS week was the launch of the 1st
nationally recognised voluntary standard that e-cigarette and e-liquid
manufacturers, importers and distributors can adopt to provide assurance to
their end customers that they are doing the right things to ensure quality and
safety in the end product; British Standards Institution Publicly Available
Specification for vaping products (BSI PAS 54115).
Over the last year, Blackburn based Totally Wicked, the UK's leading independent
electronic cigarette company has been at the heart of the process helping to
create PAS 54115.
As a member of the PAS 54115 Steering Group Totally Wicked provided expert
opinion and ensured that the voice of the SME independent electronic cigarette
industry was heard.
PAS 54115 gives guidance for those wishing to manufacture, import, label, and
market e-liquid and vaping devices (including those without nicotine) in a
responsible way. Those who manage to comply with it will have thought through
their manufacturing processes, their test procedures and their product
development strategy very carefully.
In its detail, PAS 54115 gives outcome driven standards (i.e. the result is more
important than the process that achieves that result) for the production of
e-liquid and of e-cigarette hardware and some suggested methods for managing
production and testing to meet those standards. The standards are not going to
be easy to meet, and for some of their demands, test methods have yet to be
developed.
The recommendations in PAS 54115 are expected to assist the industry and
government enforcement officers to ensure that vaping products are produced with
the proper safety and quality controls so that consumers can have the confidence
to make the switch away from smoking tobacco.
Speaking at the launch in Central London, Fraser Cropper, Managing Director of
Totally Wicked said:- "Today is a very important milestone in the maturity
of the UK vaping sector. PAS 54115 is a voluntary standard that e-cigarette and
e-liquid manufacturers, importers and distributors can adopt to provide
assurance to their customers that they are doing the right things to ensure
quality and safety in the end product. Because it was written and developed not
by politicians, but by people who understand consumer safety and vaping it looks
nothing like some of the poorly thought out legislation that is currently being
implemented under article 20 of the Tobacco Products Directive. The standards
are not going to be easy to meet, nor should they be. The most gratifying thing
about the PAS is that every demand of this standard is aimed at improving the
quality and safety of the customer experience, and to do so in a specific and
directed way. I am proud that Totally Wicked was involved in the development of
PAS 54115. We work in a market that is occasionally exposed for the actions of a
few rather irresponsible businesses and individuals, and one of the best ways to
counter this is to demonstrate that there is a quorum of businesses that are
willing to standardize responsible good practice." |
