RLX Technology (RELX) has published a latest peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Applied Toxicology showing the cooling agent WS-23 widely used in e-cigarette has limited impact on the experiment animals at the tested dose.

The study showed that there were “no deaths in any of WS-23 treated groups in the acute and subacute inhalation studies, with no remarkable changes occurred in body weight, organ weight, hematology, and serum biochemistry, and no toxic effects in the histopathologic analysis”.
According to RELX, it was the first study published on the Science Citation Index (SCI) indexed journal conducted by Chinese e-cigarette industry.
WS-23 is a well-known artificial synthesis cooling agent widely used in foods, medicines and tobaccos. As a commonly cooling agent in e-cigarette liquids, WS-23 has led to concerns about the inhalation toxicity with the prosperous of e-cigarettes in recent years. The study shows that at the tested dose level, inhalation of WS-23 will not bring toxic side effect to test animals, RELX said in a press release.
“Product safety has always been RLX’s top concern, and it is also the direction and commitment in our research and development,” said Xingtao Jiang, Head of RELX Lab. Before the study was published, RELX Lab has conducted vitro tests to prove the aerosol containing WS-23 is safe to use in the products. The latest assessment has further discovered the inhalation toxicity of WS-23 used in the product. Jiang said RLX will continue to conduct more studies to improve RELX products’ quality.