HSE issues urgent warning to Irish vapers about three types of e-cigarette
The HSE has issued a warning to the public over three types of electronic cigarettes that are labelled wrongly as containing 'no nicotine' when they do, in fact, contain nicotine.
The HSE National Environmental Health Service (NEHS) is alerting the public to stop using the products, which have also been the subject of European product safety (RAPEX) alerts.
The three products for which the warning has been issued, which contain nicotine at concentrations of 18.0 mg/ml to 19.0 mg/ml following analysis by the State Laboratory, are:
The Crystal Bling 6000+ puffs - Sub-brand (flavour): 5G HRTP Blue Razz Lemonade, Batch No. THE240801
McKesse MK Bar 7000 - Sub-brand (flavour): Passionfruit & Lime
JNR Crystal Pro Max 5000+ puff - 0% nicotine Sub-brands (flavours): Kiwi Watermelon Ice Batch No. C24H8399-CP5000
The public has been advised that they can return the affected products to the shop where they were bought, while retailers have been asked to stop selling them.
The NEHS is appealing to people selling e-cigarettes and vapes to ask their supplier where the products they are selling are coming from and if they are legal. It is also calling for much greater vigilance by retailers and importers of e-cigarettes with regard to the safety, quality packaging and labelling of such products in order to protect consumers from potential harm.
Dr Maurice Mulcahy, Regional Chief Environmental Health Officer, HSE said: 'The National Environmental Health Service is regularly finding non-compliant products on the Irish market. These three most recent alerts are for products labelled as containing 'no nicotine' but following laboratory analysis by the State Laboratory, we found that they have concentrations as high as 19.0 mg/ml.
"While this may be below the legal permitted limit of 20 mg/ml, it is not what the consumer has been told they contain. In addition, these products were found to have 7.7ml to 9.4ml of nicotine-containing liquid, almost 4 to 5 times the permitted volume (2ml).
'The HSE National Environmental Health Service, in response to finding non-compliant and unsafe products on the Irish market, will continue to use its legal powers to protect the public up to and including product seizure, product destruction and prosecutions.
'However, retailers play an important role in protecting the consumers of such products from potential harm and should be checking both the products themselves and their suppliers' details before selling them on to consumers. Otherwise, they may not only be putting the consumer at risk, they may be breaking the law and making it more difficult to trace and seek the recall and withdrawal of dangerous batches of such products.'
In light of the warnings, consumers have been advised to check the electronic cigarettes they may have against the products involved in these alerts. If they have any of these products, they should stop using them and return them to the shop where they were purchased.
If they have used these products and experienced any ill effects, they should contact their General Practitioner for advice and notify the HSE at info.tpd@hse.ie.
Retailers, meanwhile, have been issued with the following advice:
More information on the products can be found here using the words 'electronic cigarette'.
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