Vapouround magazine Special Issue 03 | Page 39

F E AT U R E This non-scientific view of the Vaping Industry does not allow for any real movement forward. Do not get excited if you were an E-Liquid Manufacturer who got your juice tested. Because with no real defined STANDARD METHOD OF TESTING, again… results cannot even readily be compared to each other, or replicated to reach an ultimate standard of practice. It is a wash. As are those results. tobacco, if you call poisoning your end user a benefit. Let alone the fact that if we are now a tobacco product, the bar is pretty low on what END USER SAFETY EXPECTATIONS are. Or is it a double standard? You’re tobacco but you have to have zero carbonyls, plain packaging, no marketing, heavy taxation, answer to a regulatory body that is threatened by you but has the power to crush you, but not your competitors? These are lives we are affecting. The science should reflect that. Handing down regulations with no scientific method of determination was reckless abandonment of logic. Tobacco has swung a big axe for a big long time… and these commissions; even countries have been sued into monetary oblivion at times. Even if they win, mostly they lose, financially. Defending yourself against billion and trillion dollar giants is no cheap feat. And it appears we are being punched with the full wrath of years of being impudent with our competitors. In their overzealous approach to regulations within our industry, they have given Tobacco another arena to champion. It will be interesting to see how they fair in round two against the giants. Let the shit show begin. What is really being regulated at this point, what we put in our product? We’ve been deemed tobacco now… essentially we can put all this in there: Ammonia, Arsenic, Benzene, Butane, Carbon monoxide, Cadmium, Cyanide, DDT, Ethyl Furoate, Lead, Formaldehyde, Methoprene, Maltitol, Napthalene, Methyl isocyanate, Polonium. No wait we cannot yet we are deemed tobacco, punished as tobacco, heavily regulated as tobacco, with none of the benefits of We do not want the privilege of killing our end user, which these commissions have so blatantly given to the Tobacco industry. But we would prefer not to be punished as though we are. And we would prefer to have the science speak for itself and the integrity of that science to mean something. Unfitting of a regulatory board making decisions and recommendations for a massive populous of people WAS disappointing. With TPD winding down, and Phase two rolling in, the industry needs to take off the blinders, work together and demand a fair regulation system. One that allows the science to thrive, not just any old method decided by whoever is doing testing on your product. It’s comparative to ordering steak well done, but having to live with the fact that the chef believes that means red inside because no real standard exists… WE HAVE A STANDARD FOR COOKING STEAK… I think we should have one for testing products that go in our lungs. End of……. So where will we be next year? We are going to be in PMTA hell, still cleaning up the mess from TPD nightmares and fighting for some semblance of scientific integrity in the industry. That is the future that is tomorrow today, and yesterday now. Improvement in this process, from upload to practice needs to be brought to task. There were serious flaws in this Regulation and they have more than become known. Stand up for yourself and start asking about next year, today. VAPOUROUND MAGAZINE USA 39