What is TPD Vaping?
By Jemma Wolfe
Published On: 05-06-23
What Does TPD Compliant Mean? A Vaping Guide
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- What is TPD in Vaping?
- TPD in the UK
- TPD Compliant Vaping
- The Main TPD Vaping Rules
- Non TPD Compliant Vaping
- Current TPD Issues in the UK
- Our Verdict
- Vaping Guides at myCigara
- E-cigarette Knowledge at myCigara
If you're a regular customer and reader here at myCigara, you may have noticed that we often make reference to the acronym TPD. More specifically, you’ll likely have seen the claim that our products are TPD-compliant. This of course sounds very professional and reassuring — but what does it actually mean?
This explainer blog aims to demystify TPD vaping for you. We’ll look at all the core questions regarding TPD as it pertains to your vaping experience, such as:
● What is TPD vaping?
● What’s the standing of TPD in the UK?
● What is TPD compliant vaping, and how does it affect you?
And lastly, what do you need to be aware of regarding non TPD compliant vaping? Our handy TPD vaping explainer will help you to get a quick handle on the core concepts of TPD vaping, to ensure that your own personal smoke-free journey is as safe, secure, and straightforward as can be.
What is TPD in vaping?
There are a couple of different meanings for the acronym TPD, but the question we’re asking here is specifically what is TPD in vaping? Or rather, what does TPD stand for in vaping?
The acronym TPD stands for Tobacco Products Directive. TPD is a directive of the European Union which places limits on the sale and merchandising. The general aim of the TPD is to ensure smooth market operations for tobacco and related products, while also ensuring a higher level of health protection for European citizens.
Although e-cigarettes are technically not tobacco products, TPD legislation includes electronic cigarettes alongside traditional tobacco in order to maintain the same secure level of market regulation and consumer protection.
So, to recap: TPD — Tobacco Products Directive — is an EU directive designed to protect consumers and ensure smoother market regulation.
TPD in the UK
Now that the UK is no longer a member of the European Union, you may be wondering whether TPD is still in effect after Brexit. The answer is yes. For now, TPD regulations will remain in place to allow tobacco and e-cigarette regulation to continue post-Brexit.
By retaining TPD, we can ensure a safe, efficient, and well-regulated e-cigarette industry for consumers, manufacturers, and retailers alike. In addition, this vision also aligns with the UK government’s smokefree 2030 pledge.
In light of this, we currently have no reason to believe that TPD will be redacted in the UK any time soon. Now that we have a handle on the broad strokes of TPD, let’s look specifically at the rules as they apply to vape users in the UK; the concept of TPD compliant vaping.
TPD Compliant Vaping
As we mentioned at the start of this blog, our regular readers and customers may have noticed that we often highlight that our stock is TPD-compliant. Having read this far, you now have a general understanding of what TPD is and — more specifically — what broader purpose it serves.
However, we’ve yet to explain exactly what the main rules are of TPD compliant vaping. You can find a more detailed set of regulations on the government’s webpages, including the full legislative amendment following Britain’s exit from the EU.
The Main TPD Vaping Rules
At a glance, though, these are the main TPD vaping rules you should be aware of:
● E-cigarette tanks are restricted to a capacity of no more than 2ml.
● Eliquid containing nicotine is restricted to a maximum container size of 10ml.
● Eliquids are restricted to a maximum nicotine strength of 20mg/ml.
● Nicotine-containing products, and their packaging, is to be child-proof and tamper-evident.
● Certain ingredients are banned, including colourings, caffeine, and taurine
● All e cigarette products are subject to labelling requirements and warnings (e.g. “This product contains nicotine which is a highly addictive substance.”)
● All e-cigarette products and eliquids are to be approved by the MHRA before they can be sold.
As we’ve noted, there is of course greater legislative depth to TPD, but this is really the core, need-to-know info that will affect your day-to-day experience as an ecigarette and vaping consumer.
Non TPD Compliant Vaping
So that’s the gist of TPD-compliant vaping, but what about non TPD-compliant vaping? Well, basically, this would cover any ecigarette products that don’t meet the main TPD vaping rules as outlined above.
So, for example, some non-TPD-compliant vaping products you might see could include:
● bottles of nicotine-containing eliquid sold in quantities greater than 10ml
● ecigarette devices with a tank capacity greater than 2ml
● ecigarette devices or eliquids with a greater nicotine strength than 20mg/ml.
It’s difficult to say what the risks may be of using non TPD-compliant vaping products. Because such products are unregulated and unapproved, we don’t necessarily know what they contain and as such they could carry any number of unknown risks.
Current TPD Issues in the UK
Although we don’t necessarily know what the risks are of non TPD-compliant vaping, we do know some of the current issues that the UK vaping industry is facing on this front. Being aware of these issues gives you a good overview of the industry in general, and — crucially — can help you spot potential warning signs for some product ranges.
With the recent growth in popularity of disposable vapes, we’ve seen a huge proliferation of disposable vape brands. Whilst the majority of these are legit, regulated, and safe to use, it’s become easier for counterfeit or fake disposable vapes to sneak into the mix. Non-TPD disposable vapes tend to fall into two categories:
● Non-TPD e-cigarette products from legitimate brands: You may have come across disposable vapes that offer huge puff ranges, often in the 800+ range. A prominent example would be the Elux 3500 disposable.
While this device is legal for sale on e.g. the U.S. market, it is not approved for sale in the UK and EU; TPD regulations for eliquid capacity would reasonably prevent disposable vapes from providing puff counts much higher than 800.
● Counterfeit or fake disposable vapes: Products like this are simply fakes, replicas, or counterfeit versions of prominent, genuine disposable vape products. To help combat this, big brands like Elf Bar and Geek Bar allow you to verify their products online using a unique product identifier. For more information, check out our blogs How to Spot Fake Disposables and Are Geek Bars Safe?
● Counterfeit or fake vape pods: Like disposable vapes, prefilled vape pod systems are also ripe for counterfeits and replicas. The leading brands in the sector, Vuse and Juul, both offer information to help you stay safe, stay in the know, and report suspected fake products.
If you’re uncertain about any vaping products you’ve got your hands on, you can check their MHRA approval status using their ecig dynamic search tool. Disposable vapes, for example, should have an ECID somewhere on their packaging, to let you quickly verify their legitimacy.
If you can’t find the products in the MHRA database, or if you’re still unsure of the legitimacy of any vaping products, our simple advice is: don’t use them! Where possible, return them to where they were purchased, or dispose of them responsibly. It’s never worth the risk.
Our Verdict on TPD Vaping
We hope that this guide has helped you gain some understanding of the meaning and significance of TPD vaping.
While it may at first seem like a lot of dense legalese, the core concept at work is keeping all parties involved in the vaping market safe — manufacturers, retailers, and consumers — and ensuring that the market functions smoothly to the benefit of all those parties.
TPD vaping rules are there to ensure that you, the consumer, can shop safely with us, the retailer, with both of us knowing full well we’ve acquired safe, approved stock from manufacturers. At the end of the day, the customer is the most important part of this chain, and TPD is designed to help keep you safe and satisfied.
Vaping Guides at myCigara
At myCigara, we exist to make the UK smoke-free. We believe that vaping is one of the most viable alternatives for people seeking to quit smoking for good. We also know that vaping can seem confusing, and it can be difficult to know who — or what — to trust.
That’s why we strive to provide one of the most comprehensive libraries of vaping blogs on the web, all written with the common goal of providing our readers with in-depth vaping education and answers to key questions — allowing our readers to make an informed decision about whether vaping is right for them.
If you need to take a step back and start from the beginning, head over to our new to vaping page, or have a browse of our range of vaping tips & guides, or simply get in touch with any questions. Alternatively, find your nearest myCigara vape shop and pop in for a friendly chat with our expert staff, who are ready and waiting to assist you with your vaping journey today.
