• Become a member
  • About us
  • Blog
  • Donate
  • Shop
EN
Deutsch Français Italiano
  • Latest Stories
    • News
    • Newsletter
    • Events
  • Knowledge
    • Health
    • Products
    • Data & Figures
    • Sustainability
  • Advocacy
    • Laws & Legislations
    • Prices & Taxes
    • Advertising and Marketing
    • Tobacco industry
  • Offers
    • Stopsmoking
    • Stop Smoking Line
    • EXNR / Stop2Drop
    • Tabakwerbung NEIN
  • Latest Stories
    • News
    • Newsletter
    • Events
  • Knowledge
    • Health
    • Products
    • Data & Figures
    • Sustainability
  • Advocacy
    • Laws & Legislations
    • Prices & Taxes
    • Advertising and Marketing
    • Tobacco industry
  • Offers
    • Stopsmoking
    • Stop Smoking Line
    • EXNR / Stop2Drop
    • Tabakwerbung NEIN
  • Become a member
  • About us
  • Blog
  • Donate
  • Shop

Swiss Women's Run 2023

AT Switzerland offers free starts for members!

Read more

Tobacco Control Scale 2021

Switzerland again second to last in European ranking

Learn more

European Citizens' Initiative

For a tobacco-free environment and Europe's first tobacco-free generation

Learn more

Stop smoking from today

Stopsmoking.ch is the Swiss platform for quitting smoking.

Go to site

Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index

Switzerland ranks a miserable second to last in the world

Read more

Sustainable Development Goals and Tobacco

How Tobacco Undermines the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Discover our series of articles

On the way to a tobacco- and nicotine-free Switzerland

The Swiss Association for Tobacco Control is the center of competence for tobacco prevention in Switzerland. As an umbrella organization for the promotion of non-smoking, it today comprises over 50 organizational members. AT Switzerland offers its members a broad network of experts and provides expertise on tobacco control and prevention. With evidence-based offers and the networking of the central actors, it is committed to a sustainably healthy and smoke-free Switzerland and at the same time offers the population a hand in quitting smoking and nicotine withdrawal.

An important field of action is the denormalization of the consumption of tobacco and nicotine products. This is because a large part of the population still regards the consumption of lethal tobacco and nicotine products as "normal". Furthermore, the protection of young people is at the center of its work and AT Switzerland would like to encourage smokers on their way to quitting smoking. Finally, AT Switzerland is very concerned to strengthen the protection of the population from passive smoke.

 

< Back

01.03.2022 |News

Switzerland: Disposable e-cigarettes with illegal nicotine content

Puff bars: they are new, very strong in dosage, allow hidden consumption and are becoming increasingly popular among young people precisely for these reasons. AT Switzerland has now identified new products of these disposable electronic cigarettes whose nicotine content violates legal regulations and which can also be easily ordered via the Internet without age checks. This is a worrying trend. AT Switzerland is therefore sounding an alert to the federal authorities.

The three puff bars with illegal excessive nicotine content ordered online (Photo: AT Switzerland)

So-called puff bars are becoming increasingly popular among young people, even in schools, and pose a serious public health problem, as they have a very high addictive potential due to the high nicotine content. The fact that they are disposable and throwaway products also raises significant environmental concerns that should be taken into account.

Nicotine concentration too high

According to both current EU standards and the new Swiss law, e-cigarettes should generally not exceed a concentration of 20 mg nicotine per millilitre, which is often indicated as 2% on the packaging. AT Switzerland has identified products marketed in Switzerland with concentrations of 50 mg per millilitre and even 60 mg/ml: this is a problematic violation of the law. A dosage of 20 mg/ml is already considered strong, and over 21 mg/ml is considered very strong. Meanwhile, percentages indicated on the packaging are often inaccurate and ambiguous for consumers.

No age check, no credit card payment, and neutral delivery

On a website based in Geneva that has been running since the beginning of this year, AT Switzerland has acquired three products that violate the law:

Brand Nicotine concentration Price per unit
(in CHF)

Puff Plus

50 mg/ml 9.90
Puff XXL 50 mg/ml 15.00
Puff Bang XXL 60 mg/ml 20.00

 

AT Switzerland placed an order for samples of each of the brands available on the website. There was neither an age nor an identity check. Payment was not to be made by credit card (an element that could be used to verify the age of the buyer) but by a simple bank transfer. We received the products on Monday, 21 February 2022. The products of the three brands clearly show the nicotine content of 5% or 6% on their packaging, as stated on the website, which proves that the pictures on the website correspond to the products offered for sale.

Worrying trend

The emergence of more and more of such highly addictive types of products as disposable puff bars and their increasing distribution among children and adolescents is noted with concern by AT Switzerland. We have therefore drawn attention to this problem of the above-mentioned illegal products in a letter to the responsible federal authorities.

Copy URL to clipboard

Related news

Learn more

AT -Blog Don’t trust the ELF!

In Norse mythology, an Elf is a rather friendly supernatural creature, also present in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series. But a much more real and dangerous ELF is circulating among us! Of all the disposable electronic cigarettes that invade our schools and whose marketing specifically targets adolescents, one brand is particularly worrisome: the ELFBAR brand. The market for disposables is changing very quickly and new brands and models are constantly coming onto the market. ELFBAR dominates the Swiss market today, and seems to have dethroned the initial Puff Bar brand. But is an ELFBAR better than other disposables? This by far doesn’t seem to be the case and we will try to gather the most recent information on these products here.

Learn more

Belgium: Superior Health Council recommends ban on cigarette filters

Report: The impact of cigarette filters on public health and the Belgian environment

Learn more

Smokeless tobacco and cigarettes confer similar adverse vascular health risks

A new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine investigated the incidence of peripheral artery disease (PAD) among users of smokeless tobacco products. The findings show that the use of chewing tobacco and snuff is associated with a two-fold increase in the risk for PAD.

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals and Tobacco