Electronic cigarettes: incorporating human factors engineering into risk assessments

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Human Factors Engineering
• Consumer Product Safety

Background:

• Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) present emerging hazards.
• Human factors (HF) analysis, examining user, environment, and product complexity, can mitigate risks.
• Understanding HF is crucial for evaluating e-cigarette safety.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review the impact of human factors on e-cigarette risks.
• To identify research gaps in human factors related to e-cigarette use.
• To inform strategies for mitigating e-cigarette hazards.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature search of five databases up to January 2014.
• Analysis of voluntary adverse event (AE) reports to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
• Examination of package labelling for 12 e-cigarette products.

Main Results:

• No studies specifically addressed HF's impact on e-cigarette risks.
• E-cigarette labelling was found to be inadequate or misleading in published studies and FDA analysis.
• AE reports linked to design concerns are increasing, with fatalities from accidental exposure and misuse.

Conclusions:

• Human factors impacting e-cigarette use and hazards are inadequately characterized.
• Further research on user-product-environment interfaces and adverse events is essential.
• Incorporating HF principles can help reduce emerging e-cigarette hazards.