There are regulatory requirements in quantifying and comparing the emission levels of major and minor aerosol constituents from e-cigarettes. Up until the recent publication in 2015 of CORESTA Recommended Method (CRM) No. 81 - "Routine Analytical Machine for e-Cigarette Aerosol Generation and Collection - Definitions and Standard Conditions", no internationally recognised standard was in place to describe how these products should be tested and a variety of different puffing regimes have been reported in the literature.

In May 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration published guidance for Industry entitled ‘Premarket Tobacco Product Applications for Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems’ which requires new tobacco products, including vaping products, to be tested under non-intense and intense conditions. Therefore, it was important to understand the impact of different vaping regimes on e-cigarette emissions.

Our study investigated two closed and two open system devices using two different e-liquid compositions (50/50 and 70/30 PG/VG) containing 1.2 % Nicotine (w/w). All combinations were tested under four vaping regimes with puff duration ranging from 2 to 6 s and puff volume from 27.5 to 82.5 mL. Weight loss, nicotine, PG and VG were analysed.

The data obtained in this study showed that there is a strong linear correlation between weight loss and puff duration as well as weight loss and main component emissions. The observed correlations between puff duration and aerosol yield showed that changes can be explained mainly by puff duration, independent of device types and e-liquid used. Puff volume and air flow showed minor influence on aerosol yields. Based on these findings, a model is described allowing weight loss and the main compound yields to be estimated according to the puff duration regardless of the puff volume.