VtVapor

FDA tested a couple of carts - no doubt, of Chinese origin - and found "yucky stuff" (wish they'd tested ours instead...).

Let the media storm commence:

NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/23/he...3fda.html?_r=1

Wash. Post: washingtonpost.com

LA Times: FDA: Electronic cigarettes are a no-no | Booster Shots | Los Angeles Times

CNN: FDA and health experts warn against use of e-cigarettes - CNN.com

USA Today: FDA considers ways to short-circuit electronic cigarettes - USATODAY.com

FDA: Electronic Cigarettes

Rocketman

Adam, (Vt)
Here's an opportunity to ease the paranoia.
As one of our responsible U.S. manufacturers of e-juice, and I assume none of your primary ingredients come from China, what precautions have you employed to protect your customers from counterfeit ingredients being slipped into your "food chain"?
Do you maintain traceability to lot codes, manufacturing dates of primary components like the nicotine and VG, PG?
Could you propagate a recall of a suspect lot of PG or VG to your individual customers? If there was a recall of some other pharmaceutical or food product because of contaminated or counterfeit PG/VG how could I as an end user determine if my stash of juice was involved? Since you don't knowingly use ingredients from China, and no VG or PG counterfeiting has involved a U.S. Chemical manufacturer to my knowledge to date I am going to assume that, at least for your unflavored e-juice (lets keep it to primary ingredients for now), we are better off with ingredients that have been tested (at least at the lot level). You aren't using "Farm Grade" or "Industrial Grade" stuff are you?

I now wonder about the safety of Super Duper Chinese Vaping Juice. Since very few of you sellers out there actually specify which "factory" you buy from, how can I know it didn't come from a small "manufacturer" operating out of a garage? What traceability can you give us? I don't want to vape the same stuff farmers rub on their cattle.

The Rocket
(They are watching us, so let's get our act together)

drdave

Rocket,
I am not sure where to begin with all this but here goes. I agree, there needs to be some type of quality control in place for eliquids in general. This should include traceable ingredients and lot numbers. Also, ingredient lists, child safety caps, and sanitary conditons. All this stuff would go a long way to reduce the potential for source contamination. If these things are found to be difficult or expensive to do, its unlikely that Chinese factories will do them. Unfortunately, the only way I can think of to eliminate this hazard all together is with random batch testing. GCMS analysis is expensive and time consuming. Since FDA oversight is a lightening rod on this forum, I wouldn't dare suggest such.

The more reasonable approach, would be some type of self policing certification program. Company "A" would submit their documentation and their products would be randomly sampled for contaminates. This would be paid for by eliquid mfg. The fee would be based on some type of sliding scale as a percentage of total volume output. Then company "A" would be certified for a specified period of time. This would give consumers better peace of mind buying from the "certified" makers. Participation would be voluntary, of course but customers would be less likey to buy from non certified producers.

Just another thought in that big stack of pennies we seem to have lying around here.

VtVapor

We source everything from other US (and, where possible, Vermont) companies. We keep track of dates and lot numbers. If we had a recall (which would be supremely unlikely given the quality of our ingredients), we would be able to notify customers that purchased our liquid during the time frame we were shipping that batch. Soon, we hope to be date stamping each bottle and using tamper-evident seals for additional customer safety.

As for the "factories" we buy from, we don't. The honest answer is that most companies don't deal with factories, we deal with suppliers/middlemen. Thus, though our ingredients are all certified as food grade by US labs (with the obvious exceptions of tobacco & nicotine, which are not added to food) and bought from US companies, we have no way of knowing where some ingredients originated. I can say that both the glycerol and propylene glycol we use (though we don't use much propylene glycol) are produced in the USA by US corps. And, no, no farm or industrial grade anything. As I said, everything is food grade except the nicotine, which is lab certified and near pure (usually ~99.8% or better).

Rocketman

Thanks Adam,
We will see some change, I'm sure. I believe lot testing for PG and VG raw material is in place for Pharmaceutical Grade already. Isn't GC lot testing for DEG an FDA requirement?
Rocket



 99.5% Technical Grade
 96% USP (Vegetable-based)
 99.5% USP (Tallow-based)
 99.5% USP (Vegetable-based)
 99.5% USP/FCC - Kosher
 99.7% USP/FCC - Kosher

Wonder which of these we should vape?

Rocketman

I think I'll be contacting you though your website about some unflavored, unadulterated juice to contaminate with my own flavors
I have prepared a graphic for the award I previously indicated you had earned (for that Tobacco Flavored Juice, WOW). You may proudly display this in posts, on your website, or in the bathroom. Keep up the good work,
Rocket

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