Diacetyl now officially banned in eliquids in the UK

On Monday this week the MHRA (the UK medicines body that has responsibility for regulating e-cigarettes) issued its draft guidance on eliquids. Amongst other stipulations, it listed the ingredients that manufacturers may not use in eliquid:

So, it's official: companies will not be able to notify e-liquids which contain DA/AP, and these liquids will have to come off the UK market by May 20th next year.

I'm reliably informed that this is unlikely to affect many vape juice currently manufactured in the UK, but US liquids have become something of a phenomenon in the UK over the last year. Many of these contain DA/AP and will be gone.

There's a great deal of disagreement about DA/AP and whether either should be allowed. They are, in a way, the MSG of vape and give a roundedness to many flavours that's hard to recreate with other ingredients. My hope is that if research suggests they're safe in e-liquid that the MHRA can reverse the decision.

Indeed, there are some commonly added ingredients missing from the list that are already known to be problematic, and which some manufacturers currently avoid proactively. The MHRA clearly want to be as light touch with the regulations as possible, but being light touch means being able to adjust in either direction according to what the current science shows.