High lead and nickel found in illegal vapes
3 Min Read
Recent tests reveal the amount of toxins found in illegal vapes, and officials are warning against them.
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In this April 11, 2018, file photo, a high school student uses a vaping device near a school campus in Cambridge, Mass. Schools have been wrestling with how to balance discipline with treatment in their response to the soaring numbers of vaping students. (AP)
Used vapes gathered at Baxter College in Kidderminster, UK, were tested in a laboratory. The results showed that children using them could be inhaling more than twice the daily safe amount of lead and nine times the safe amount of nickel.
BBC News found that some vapes also contained harmful chemicals like those in cigarette smoke.
Reports revealed that high levels of lead exposure in children can affect the central nervous system and brain development, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Moreover, the Inter Scientific laboratory in Liverpool, which works with vape manufacturers to ensure regulatory standards are met, analyzed 18 vapes. It is worth noting that most of them were illegal and did not go through any kind of testing before being sold in the UK.
David Lawson, the lab's co-founder said that "in 15 years of testing, I have never seen lead in a device." "None of these should be on the market - they break all the rules on permitted levels of metal, they are the worst set of results I've ever seen."
What do highlighter vapes include?
In "highlighter vapes" - designed with bright colors to look like highlighter pens - the amounts of the metals found were 12 micrograms of lead per gram, which is 2.4 times the stipulated safe exposure level, as well as 9.6 times the safe level of nickels and 6.6 times the safe level of chromium.
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At first, the metals were thought to come from the heating element, but tests later showed that they were in the e-liquid itself.
Additionally, the lab tests found compounds called carbonyls, which break down when the e-liquid heats up into chemicals such as formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, also found in cigarette smoke, at 10 times the level in legal vapes.
Is anyone doing anything about it?
In protocol, manufacturers have to follow regulations on ingredients, packaging, and marketing - and all e-cigarettes and e-liquids must be registered with the Medicine and Health Care Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). However, the agency is not required to check the claims made in paperwork and has no power to investigate unregistered products.
MHRA head of e-cigarettes Craig Copland said the results would be reviewed to assess whether the vapes posed a health risk.
Craig Copland, the MHRA's head of e-cigarettes, said that the results would be reviewed to assess whether the vapes posed a health risk or not. That said, the government has allocated £3m to tackle the sale of illegal vapes in England. It hopes to fund more test purchases and have the products removed from shops and is calling for evidence to cut the number of children accessing vapes.
