Vapouround magazine Issue 08 | Page 68

FEATURE
FEATURE
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 STAN- DARD 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 .
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 ?
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
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tobacco , if you call poisoning your end user a benefit .
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 .
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 .
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 STAN- DARD 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 .