Metal nano-particles found in cannabis vape liquids!

New study led by researchers at the National Research Council of Canada found concerning information about cannabis vape pens.

The study assessed a total of 41 cannabis vape pens, where 21 of the devices studied were illegal and were kindly provided by the Ontario Provincial Police. The study found that some metals like arsenic, mercury and cadmium were found within the limits for cannabis products like vape liquids, While other metals like lead, copper, nickel and chromium were found above their concentration limits.

Some of these metals might sound familiar to people who enjoy vapes since many hardware pieces are made from these materials, like nickel-chromium heating coils.

What’s also concerning is the amount by which some of these were exceeding their limit by. In the illegal pens, the limits were found to be from 100 to 900 above their boundary! It is important to remember that metals in vape aerosols are dangerous since the metal can accumulate in lungs and cause respiratory damage. 

Unfortunately, the results aren’t 100% conclusive. Despite the same test being performed on the same cannabis liquid, the result varied drastically each time.

The researchers admit that they suspected that the method of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) which they used, wasn’t reliable enough due to sedimentation of the metal particles at the bottom of the capsules used in for the analysis which meant they were no longer homogenous.

Despite that, it’s still concerning that these metals were detected in high concentrations at all and further studies using different, and more suitable methods for testing should be done to ensure the quality of THC and HHC liquids.

To stay safe always buy your cannabis products from legal and trusted sources.

If you care about safety and quality control then we’re welcoming you to work with us and our accredited laboratory (ISO/IEC 17025:2017) where we work on many things, among which we work on:

• Oils, extracts, jelly products,… , flos., and vapes with regard of cannaboids (CBD, CBDA, THC, THCA, CBG, …  and even HHC isomers ! )
• Analysis for trace heavy metals with the use of the ICP-OES technique
• Testing e-liquids and e-cigarettes to check if they are in line with current directives (DIRECTIVE 2014/40/EU TPD-II), determining nicotine, glycols, aldehydes, nitrosamines, heavy metals and volatile organic compound content.