The WHO Tobacco Laboratory Network working group meeting was a closed meeting for members of TobLabNet, a few representatives of the WHO Study Group on Tobacco Product Regulation, other invited experts and WHO staff. The meeting discussed relevant requests made by the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) regarding the development of methods for heated tobacco products (HTPs) and the evaluation of available methods for Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) and Electronic Non-Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENNDS). Specifically, it addressed the request 3 of Decision FCTC/COP7/9 WHO to report on the development of methods by regional and international standards-development organizations for the testing and measuring of contents and emissions of these products, at either the eighth or the ninth session of the COP, as applicable.
The meeting also addressed challenges associated with measuring the contents and emissions of HTPs and troubleshooting, especially in relation to the different holders used on existing smoking machines; evaluated the questionnaire on HTP content and emission measurements; determined priority contents to measure in HTPs in line with global priorities for testing; conducted and evaluated practical work on HTP testing; and analysed data presented at the meeting.