Vitamin E Oil/Vaping Controversy

[Kyle Bigman]

What do y'all think about this new vaping Vitamin E oil controversy? Some researchers claim that this vitamin E oil that is inhaled via vaping is carcinogenic. I'm not knowledgeable enough about this subject and don't smoke, but I do take tocovit.

 

[Arnold Grape]

Don’t smoke yer tocovit dude.

 

[Aaron]

I bought this product, but never used it for vaping. I can see how some might be confused.

 

[belcanto]

I'm wondering about the type of vitamin E they're using; perhaps it's dl-alpha tocopherol. I don't think oral or topical vitamin E is dangerous. It's probably not a great idea to inhale any kind of oils, seems it could coat the lungs.

 

[mouse]

They vaped alpha tocopherol acetate, the worst form of alpha tocopherol - it is pro-carcinogenic, unlike succinate.

 

[Nemo]

What do y'all think about this new vaping Vitamin E oil controversy?

In addition to the bad form of Vit E they vaped, vaping any oil can give you lipoid pneumonia. A friend got it from vaping coconut oil.

 

[Aaron]

From MrExtractor.com, the one of the leading suppliers for the additives they put in cannabis vape cartridges:

"Hello David, (Leafly) thank you for reaching out to us in regards to our product, the Clear Cut. I would like to take this time to shed some light on how the Industry has come to be where it is in regards to Tocopheryl Acetate,IE Vitamin E, including the Clear Cut product line. I would like to make you aware that we view all of this information as important to the public, so we will be releasing this response in full on our website and social media and hope that you do so in full as well.

In May we released a video which featured our new product called Clear Cut, and yes, it does contain Tocopheryl Acetate. The videos you are referring to are copies, put up by bad actors with misinformation to induce fear and hatred in the industry at a time when level headed research is necessary. It is widely known that Vitamin E/ Tocopheral Acetate is listed as non toxic and G.R.A.S. by the FDA and that a review of the MSDS of Tocopheryl Acetate shows minimal if any side effects.
CFR - Code of Federal Regulations Title 21
MSDS - T3376

Before releasing this product we conducted extensive research into the effects of inhalation of Tocopheryl Acetate, studying many reputable studies on inhalation and the effects thereof. I am including a list of links below. Many studies show Vitamin E to be beneficial to the lungs when inhaled, with studies on beneficial uses for Asthma and the beneficial treatment of burns to lungs from fire and smoke inhalation. If fact, Vitamin E has been studied to help repair the lung damage caused by smoking cigarettes. The preponderance of published documentation shows that inhalation have positive benefits, not negative.
Aerosol-administered alpha-tocopherol attenuates lung inflammation in rats given lipopolysaccharide intratracheally. - PubMed - NCBI
Aerosolized alpha-tocopherol ameliorates acute lung injury following combined burn and smoke inhalation injury in sheep. - PubMed - NCBI
https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/full/10.1164/rccm.201303-0503ED
Cigarette Smoke Alters Human Vitamin E Requirements

As a company, I collected this documentation and along with legal council had a meeting with the OLCC (Oregon Liqueur Control Commission) to discuss how and if Clear Cut could be introduced into products in Oregon. During our meeting at OLCC headquarters in Portland Oregon, we provided the OLCC a list of the ingredients in ClearCut, as well as all of the studies that addressed the inhalation of Tocopheryl Acetate. We wanted to be very transparent about our ingredients, our research as well as the intended usage of this product.

As a business, it is important to maintain a trade secret. For the OLCC, it is important to disclose each ingredient in the substance being sold. After review of the product and the informational studies we provided to the OLCC, the the OLCCs requests were to include usage guideline, not to claim specific health benefits, include a shelf life and use specific labeling language. All requests were agreed to and acceptable, the only issue we had was the labeling disclosure of "Tocopheryl Acetate" vs our proposal of "Vitamin Blend", in the effort to maintain a trade secret.
In the efforts to be completely upfront with regulatory agencies, we fully disclosed our ingredients, studies and intended usage, along with the information that products like this were being sold throughout Oregon, California, and the rest of the country at the time and in 6 months it would be everywhere. The response from the OLCC was that this was news to them, and that they had never heard of it. We replied the reason for this was that Oregon did not require testing for this product and as of now we believed that this product had already entered the system. Our intentions in disclosure were to notify the consumer of the products they were consuming, as well as protect our Intellectual Property. This conversation has been ongoing up to this point in time.

Through our research and testing we have found that almost every terpene and flavor manufacturer in the country is selling their version of Tocopheryl Acetate. HoneyCut started this ball rolling with their product "HoneyCut". This product was quickly Deconstructed by the entire cannabis industry. For $300 you can send a sample to a lab for deconstruction and in 24 hours they will tell you whats in it. Many companies were very open about their methods of obtaining their products.
Floroplex sells "Uber Thick". https://www.buyterpenesonline.com/terpenes-for-sale/terpene-diluent-flavorless-uber-thickener/
The Perfumers Apprentice sells "Thickener Extra". Perfumers Apprentice - Vitamin E (dl-alpha tocopheryl acetate)
Both in stores and online you'll find:
"Vapour Terp" https://vapeurterp.com/product/thickener-flavorless/
"Honey Hack" https://www.buyhoneyhack.com/
"The Candy Cut": https://thecandycut.com/
"Final Cut" https://www.irislabsolutions.com/products
"Clean Cut", "Thick Stretch"," Terp Cut" ...
At last count we had counted over 40 companies selling their own version of Tocopheryl Acetate.

China has stepped in. You can now buy Honey Cut, or whatever it might be on
DLWholesale: DL Wholesale - Hydroponics & Horticulture Gardening Supplies
Ebay: -https://www.ebay.com/i/223641894152...MI5bfi3ZS95AIVJ__jBx1CAApiEAQYAiABEgJkffD_BwE
As well as in every store in downtown LA. It can be purchased on offerup: Honey cut diluting agent 964 ml / 32 ounces for Sale in Arcadia, CA - OfferUp
and just about any platform you can think of. Knock off Honey Cut is sold on the streets of downtown LA for as little as $.10 a gram. We dont know what it is or where it came from. Websites are posting HoneyCut labels for you to print out on stickers for you to bottle. https://static1.squarespace.com/sta...70001e383be/1563768922911/honey_cut_label.jpg

During our initial marketing campaign we reached out to some of the biggest names in the vaping industry. We were surprised to learn that almost every single one had already been contacted by a person selling HoneyCut. Many were giving us pricing to beat. These are names that everyone in the industry would know. Many companies said they do not and will not use cutting agents, many wanted to know if we could beat the price. In speaking to industry insiders, the largest suppliers were selling over 50 barrels of Tocopheryl Acetate per month. Out of the sampling we have observed, we expect Tocopheryl Acetate to be in approx 60%- 70% of the carts on the market today.

As a terpene manufacturer we have seen a new troubling issue of distillate contamination. Good looking distillate turns cloudy when terpenes are added. When heated the distillate can turn into a jelly substance, or severely darken. There are a variety of unknown cutting agents at play that may be dangerous on their own, or when mixed with different substances.

If Tocopheryl Acetate is indeed the culprit, this is an industry wide problem with serious ramifications. Most suppliers, vendors and re sellers did the due diligence of researching this product. It passed all the quality control standards set internally by cannabis vape companies, as well as passing state testing requirements. Regardless of what the contaminant is, this in an industry wide problem, each held by manufacturers, resellers, distributors and on down the chain. Each company Deconstructed this product, analyzed it, researched it, cross referenced it to the FDA, provided COAs and MSDS to the public and did and everything we knew how to do to provide a good product in the climate we operate under. We performed our due diligence to the best of our abilities by meeting with the OLCC, disclosing our ingredients, multiple third party laboratory testing, researching FDA guidelines, researching published inhalation studies and more. At this time the FDA has stated Quote "No one substance, Including Vitamin E Acetate, has been identified in all of the samples tested."

As a precaution, we are stopping the sale of all dilutants until we learn more. We have removed our videos, and halted sales out of a preponderance of caution. We understand you were baited by a bad actor posting up one of our videos along with bad information from a different account. We hope for the best for everyone, and request that you share this important information with the public and not focus on catch phrases and soundbites, we all have a duty to get good information to the people as soon as possible.

Drew Jones
MrExtractor.com"

Scary stuff. That means I've definitely inhaled the substance and many other unknown substances masquerading as "natural flavors/terpenes" more than a few times lol. Cannabis vape pens are everywhere here in Portland and used and shared quite flippantly.