Ingredients lurking inside marijuana and nicotine black-market vapes can transform into dangerous, toxic chemicals when heated and inhaled, with the worst impacts of vaping still unknown, according to experts.
“We see in black market products, horrible pesticide contamination,” said Dr. Chris Hudalla, founder and chief science officer at Proverde Labs in Milford, which tests marijuana and hemp-based vapes along with some nicotine vapes for the legal, regulated market.
Black market marijuana vapes are being eyed as a likely culprit in the vape health crisis that has seen more than 2,600 hospitalizations nationwide and at least 60 deaths, including, locally, at least 73 suspected vape injury cases and four deaths in Massachusetts.
While it’s unclear how large the black market in vapes is, unregulated, untested products have been found across the country, apparently often taking advantage of the legalization of marijuana in states like Massachusetts and California to make sales and handling less risky. Black market vapes can be cheaper than the regulated products and easier to acquire — not requiring a trip to one of the handful of legal pot shops currently in operation, or the wait in long lines. But the risk of potentially harmful contaminants is high.
The pesticides in the black market vapes originate from the illegal weed crops used to produce them, Hudalla said.
“Some of these have hundreds of thousands of parts per billion, it’s just disgusting,” said Hudalla. He said that in black market marijuana vapes, he has found the pesticide myclobutanil, which can change to hydrogen cyanide when heated.
“Hydrogen cyanide is what they used in the gas chambers in Germany, it’s a serious, serious toxin,” said Hudalla.
In his lab, Hudalla has also found other toxins in black market vaping products such as heavy metals, which come from a device’s coils. He said flavoring, especially cinnamon, can turn toxic too.
The compound that gives cinnamon its flavor has the potential to degrade when heated and can turn into benzine, a known carcinogen found in gasoline, said Hudalla.
Cutting agents like vegetable glycerin and propylene glycol are found in nearly every nicotine vape and are used in marijuana vapes to add viscosity or to stretch the product further.
Those agents, while considered safe for consumption or cosmetic use by the FDA, have unknown impacts when inhaled and could lead to asthma or lipoid pneumonia, he said.
“You have to be concerned about inhaling the ingredients and then you have to be concerned about inhaling an ingredient that’s been degraded and now you don’t even know what it is,” said Hudalla, adding that the only ingredient in a marijuana vape should be pure cannabis extract, and possibly turpines to reduce thickness.
Dr. Hasmeena Kathuria, director of the Tobacco Treatment Center at Boston Medical Center said most nicotine vapes have six ingredients: solvent, flavor, sweetener, nicotine, metal and the scariest ingredient — the unknown.
“It is frightening,” said Kathuria. “The heating is very concerning and the chemicals that are released when heating.”
Kathuria said she’s particularly concerned about the flavoring used in vapes, “Several of the different flavorings have been reported to be toxic, especially when they’re heated.”
Kathuria said studies show vanilla bean flavor can release chemicals that damage the lungs and chocolate flavoring has a chemical that has been shown to have toxic effects.
“Sweeteners, when heated, can break down and cause cancer-causing compounds, specifically the sucralose,” Kathuria added.
All vape manufacturers have to send a list of their ingredients to the Food and Drug Administration, and the lists are kept from the public due to proprietary concerns, according to an FDA spokeswoman.
Vapes are regulated by the FDA Center for Tobacco, but not approved or authorized by the administration. The average cost of a nicotine vape with a pack of cartridges is about $50. The average cost of a pack of cigarettes in Massachusetts is $10.
Michael Kahn, president of MCR labs in Framingham, which tests marijuana vape ingredients, said the tests are conducted by performing an extraction of the oils which are injected into a high performance liquid chromatography instrument.
The material is later matched to that of harmful ingredients like vitamin E acetate, which is used to reduce thickness in vape oil and was identified by the Centers for Disease Control to be associated with vape-related lung injury and death.
“I want to caution everybody to not add what they feel will reduce the viscosity because that’s already killed people,” said Kahn.
According to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, testing labs have not found detectable levels of harmful ingredients such as vitamin E acetate in products made by licensed marijuana establishments.
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January 20, 2020 at 04:56AM
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Pesticides, toxic chemicals, harmful flavorings found in black market vapes - Boston Herald
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