Sales data from Eaze and Jane Technologies Inc. confirm that cannabis e-cigarettes (\u201cvape pens\u201d) account for nearly 25 percent of sales in California and other research by BDS Analytics and Arcview found that \u201cvapes already made up more than half of total U.S. concentrate sales.\u201d Considering that these devices did not exist until 2010 in their earliest incarnations, and did not see mass adoption on the consumer market until 2012\/2014 (depending on location), these devices have taken the cannabis industry by storm. As with any new technology, while there are benefits there are also potential harms.<\/p>\n
This month, California\u2019s cartridge market was\u00a0shaken to its core<\/a>\u00a0by a\u00a0memo<\/a>\u00a0released by K Street Consulting, drawing attention to the fact that potentially 90 percent of cartridges dry test for actionable levels of lead under the state\u2019s\u00a0phase 3 heavy metals testing<\/a>\u00a0as required by Proposition 64. While\u00a0many\u00a0outlets\u00a0have<\/a>\u00a0been hyper-focused on lead, there are other heavy metals to be concerned about in these devices.<\/p>\n Sasha Robinson, a founder of\u00a0Firefly Vapor<\/a>\u00a0and their former CTO, did extensive research on material components to create the Firefly 1. Robinson said they \u201cwere testing standard heating coil wires of different types,\u201d including nichrome wire, a blend of nickel and chromium. After a month of testing, Robinson said he and his colleague noticed they had \u201cskin rashes and itching issues, symptoms that were consistent with those of nickel poisoning,\u201d but they were never checked out by a doctor.\u00a0Nickel poisoning<\/a>\u00a0is a\u00a0rare disease<\/a>\u00a0which can be hard to diagnose and, in extreme cases, can result in\u00a0coma and epileptic seizures<\/a>. While both nickel and chromium are heavy metals, neither one is being tested for under California\u2019s phase 3 heavy metals testing (just cadmium, lead, arsenic, and mercury).<\/p>\n Since the developers at Firefly were not using filled cartridges, they could \u201csee that there was dust in the heating chamber when we disassembled the device\u201d and Robinson said he noticed that \u201cafter repeated heating and cooling cycles the nichrome wire begins to flake off as white powder,\u201d which was then inhaled into their lungs.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to be an alarmist in this space, we are doing a lot of human experimentation with no studies,\u201d Robinson said.<\/p>\n With that realization, Robinson and colleagues conducted a lot of research \u201con different materials that didn\u2019t flake under heat cycling.\u201d Ultimately, they put the whole company on hold for about three months to make sure they had a safe product.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the end, we did find one, but it was very difficult to find a supplier and we had to have our wire custom made,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cAll of our coils are now made in the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n When it comes to prioritizing human health over company profits, Robinson said he feels that \u201cChina doesn\u2019t think that way, they can\u2019t afford to.\u201d<\/p>\n Robinson described manufacturing in China as the \u201cwild west\u201d when it comes to the issues U.S. companies face in dealing with Chinese manufacturers,<\/p>\n \u201cThe challenge is that most [U.S. brands] don\u2019t know and don\u2019t want to know what they are made of, because then they become liable for it,\u201d he said. \u201cTheir supplier can tell them a lie, like the coil is made of titanium, and then they can repeat the lie to consumers without ever verifying it. That happens a lot.\u201d While much of the market has shifted from nichrome wire to safer components, some companies have not, and others may be repeating incorrect information about product safety given to them by their manufacturer.<\/p>\n To learn more about China as the wild west of vape manufacturing, Cannabis Now spoke to a long-term \u201ccowboy\u201d of the quality assurance\/quality control (QA\/QC) testing scene in Shenzhen China, Andy Church. After 12 years doing QA\/QC in China, Church founded\u00a0Insight Quality Services<\/a>, a company that ensures that what U.S. brands order is what they receive. When I brought up Robinson\u2019s comment about material component deception, Church said it was a common occurrence.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that it happens all the time, in manufacturing and sales, but that is not limited to China,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Church put the onus on the importer.<\/p>\n \u201cIf someone is telling you that a device is made of specific components it is up to the buyer to make sure that what they receive is what they ordered,\u201d he said noting that, for cartridges and any other products, the way to verify is to \u201csend samples in from the inspected lot to make sure the components are what they are meant to be.\u201d<\/p>\n You may have noticed that this article refers to cartridge-style and all-in-one disposable pens not as \u201cvape pens,\u201d as most people do, but as \u201ccannabis e-cigarettes\u201d or simply as \u201cdevices.\u201d This is because they all use appropriated e-cigarette technology, which was not designed for cannabis oils. As\u00a0previously reported <\/a>by Cannabis Now, the result is a product that doesn\u2019t always vaporize and generally smolders or combusts the oil around the heating element, which can produce carcinogens and potentially other contaminants. Some higher quality disposable devices, such as the\u00a0dosist pen<\/a>, include a microprocessor to control the temperature, but in a market racing to the bottom to provide the lowest prices to overtaxed consumers, most brands do not have a way to control the temperature in their device. Robinson stated it about as bluntly as one can, \u201cThose pens have no temperature control and very few electronic parts, most of the electronics are spent on charging the battery and making sure the battery doesn\u2019t\u00a0blow up in your face<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n While many people think there is a clear line between what is vaping and what is not, it is more of a gray area than black and white.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no clear line between burning and vaping, it is a scientific measurement of particulates,\u201d Robinson said alluding to the fact that there is no one accepted temperature. In fact, perhaps temperature isn\u2019t even the best metric to use.<\/p>\n While much of the focus in cannabis vape pen testing is currently on California, it is not the only state to require heavy metals testing and soon\u00a0Colorado<\/a>\u00a0will also be implementing the heavy metals testing requirements contained in that state\u2019s regulations. Despite Colorado testing for the same four heavy metals, the allowable limits are much less restrictive. For example, while California only allows 0.5 parts per million (ppm) for lead, Colorado will allow 10 ppm.<\/p>\n To learn more about heavy metals testing limits in other states, Cannabis Now spoke to Sarah Krings-Lien, a senior consultant for\u00a0Pistil + Stigma<\/a>\u00a0and the head researcher on their multi-year study on cannabis testing limits around the United States.<\/p>\n \u201cThe lack of scientific evidence on safe levels of heavy metals in cannabis has resulted in a patchwork of state testing requirements,\u201d Krings-Lien said. \u201cThe majority of states require testing for just four heavy metals (inorganic arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury), but a few states require testing for up to 10, including chromium, barium, silver, selenium, iron, manganese, nickel and zinc.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to the dramatic variance in the number of metals tested for, Krings-Lien said that the limits for each heavy metal vary significantly.<\/p>\n \u201cFor example, in five states the limit for lead in cannabis flower is 1 ppm or less, while two states allow up to eight times that amount,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n For cannabis users looking for safer devices, the dosist pen and Firefly are vaporizers that have been around for a few years and have a proven track record for safety and compliance. About four years ago Cannabis Now spoke to Seibo Shen, CEO of VapeXhale and Hanu Labs, who was one of the first C-level executives blowing the whistle on the materials safety issue.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll be the first to say that pens seem to be safer than smoking, but they may not be as safe as they are being marketed to be,\u201d Shen said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say they are unsafe, but they can choose much safer and better materials to use in the cartridges.\u201d Since the interview, Shen has created the Hanu Stone, a portable vaporizer about to hit the market, which he said was \u201cdesigned to be\u00a0ROHS and ROHS2 compliant<\/a>, which are safety standards for hazardous materials.\u201d<\/p>\n While California and Colorado brands may be fine using nickel and chromium in their devices for now, there is no guarantee that will last forever. For brands with a national footprint, or those that aspire to have one, it is important to meet the standards of the most restrictive state the company plans to operate in and meet the standards, rather than trying to save money by buying sub-par electronics and fail testing, or worse, suffering a recall, as just happened to\u00a0one Michigan company<\/a>\u00a0whose products tested hot for arsenic and cadmium (among other chemicals).<\/p>\n TELL US<\/b>, are you concerned about the safety of vape pens?<\/p>\n The post Cannabis Cartridges Have a Heavy Metal Problem & It Is Worse Than Reported<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Sales data from Eaze and Jane Technologies Inc. confirm that cannabis e-cigarettes (\u201cvape pens\u201d) account for nearly 25 percent of sales in California and other research by BDS Analytics and Arcview found that \u201cvapes already made up more than half of total U.S. concentrate sales.\u201d Considering that these devices didContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[148,50,7701,1763,21,240,7702,7703,1754,2084],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33011"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33011"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33012,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33011\/revisions\/33012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Big Trouble, Little Care in China<\/h4>\n
A Cowboy of Quality Control<\/h4>\n
Are they Actually \u201cVape\u201d Pens?<\/h4>\n
Heavy Metals Testing Outside of California<\/h4>\n
Safer Alternatives<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: Cannabis Cartridges Have a Heavy Metal Problem & It Is Worse Than Reported<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"