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Electronic cigarettes (EC) may have a potential for public health benefit as a safer alternative to smoking, but questions have been raised about whether EC should be licensed as a medicine, with accurate labelling of nicotine content. This study determined the nicotine content of the cartridges of the most popular EC brands in the United Kingdom and the nicotine levels they deliver in the vapour, and estimated the safety and consistency of nicotine delivery across batches of the same product as a proxy for quality control for individual brands and within the industry.

We studied five UK brands (six products) with high internet popularity.

Two samples of each brand were purchased 4 weeks apart, and analysed for nicotine content in the cartridges and nicotine delivery in vapour.

The nicotine content of cartridges within the same batch varied by up to 12 …