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CORESTA Meeting, Smoke Science/Product Technology, 2013, Seville, ST 03

The effect of puff profile and volume on the yields of e-cigarettes

TAYLOR M.J.
Filtrona Technology Centre, Jarrow, Tyne and Wear, U.K.

The increase in use of e-cigarettes has led to interest in testing these products to study the yields of various compounds. E-cigarettes normally operate by heating an element to vaporise a solution of flavours and nicotine so that some of these chemicals are released into the air steam and delivered to the user. The operation of an e-cigarette relies on the device sensing the start of a puff to begin the heating process to deliver nicotine and/or flavour to the user. It might be expected therefore that the puff profile could affect the performance of an e-cigarette in a different manner to a standard product as different puff profiles will produce different rates of flow increase that may be easier for the device to sense. At the moment no standard smoking regime or series of regimes exist for the machine smoking of e-cigarettes. The effect of puff profile and volume on the yields of particulate matter, nicotine and tobacco specific nitrosamines will be presented. The efficiency of a Cambridge filter pad for trapping nicotine in the vapour generated by e-cigarettes has also been studied. Data for a CM7 monitor cigarette will be given for comparison. Standard puff duration of 2 seconds was used for all the testing. Puff volumes in the range 35 to 55 ml and three puff profiles - a standard ISO profile, a square profile and a triangular profile - have been studied.