Is this glycerine safe to vape?

The most asked question here on Juice Junkies refers to the suitability of shop
bought glycerine for use in DIY eliquid. As I and everyone else is sick of answe
ring this, I've produced this overview of the issues:
1/ "I've used the stuff from Walmart, and it tastes funny"
That's what we call a placebo effect. The truth is that most of the glycerine so
ld in stores, chemical supply companies, DIY juice specialists, and actually use
d in ready made juices sold in the US, is made by one of two huge companies. If
you see a different label, then what's inside the bottle is most likely to be Hu
mco brand glycerine, so any perceived difference in taste is largely illusory.
2/ "You should only use pharma grade, not food grade, because the FDA say it's s
afe to vape"
Nope - firstly, no glycerine is expressly designed to be inhaled, and no suffici
ent data exists for the long term effects. Secondly, the pharma/food designation
is not what's important. What you're looking for is the designation USP (United
States pharmacopoeia) in the US, BP in Britain, and EP in the rest of Europe. B
eing thus marked means that the product has attained an acknowledged and well po
liced standard for purity, making it safe for use in both medical and food appli
cations. Companies mark their products based on how they're going to be used, bu
t there is no difference between food and pharma grade. For example, just becaus
e a product says that it's sold for use in soap, doesn't mean that it can't be u
sed for baking AS LONG AS IT STATES USP ON THE LABEL.
3/ "This stuff says 'food grade' but doesn't say USP"
Whilst it is generally safe to say that a product marked as being designed for h
uman consumption, should by definition also be USP, there are other consideratio
ns. Firstly, any product which is USP is required to display that fact on the la
bel. Do some smaller companies (like the DIY companies that everyone seems to th
ink is the safest place to buy their glycerine from) observe this? Sadly no.
There are also other designations like FCC (federal chemical code) which are lin
ked to USP, but not the same standard of purity. These are regarded as GRAS (gen
erally recognised as safe), and have different requirements for labeling. Anothe
r wrinkle is that many products sold as health supplements are not currently sub
ject to the same controls, so anyone who assumes that glycerine sold by their he
alth food store is in someway inherently better COULD be vaping a product that d
oesn't meet any of the strict requirements to be regarded as USP. In conclusion,
the best rule to adhere to is that IF IT DOESN'T SAY USP ON THE LABEL - REGARDL
ESS OF WHERE YOU BUY IT FROM - THEN DON'T USE IT.
4/ "Store bought glycerine is made from animal carcasses"
Whilst it's true that certain grades of glycerine are indeed made with waste org
anic matter (nommy), we are looking at two specific products that we vapers use
- VEGETABLE glycerine, and propolyne glycol. Please note the emphasis placed on
VEGETABLE - because no, VG doesn't include cow hooves, pig balls, and sheep's ey
es in it's manufacture. What's more, any glycerine marked as suitable for vegeta
rians (and usually kosher) is going to be similarly free of dead animal viscera.
If you want the ultimate purity, then buy PG which has been 100% lab synthesise
d to reagent grade, such as Optima - though it's expensive and only available fr
om specialist lab supply companies in wholesale quantities. PG itself is made fr
om propolyne oxide, which in turn is made from propolyne, which itself is made f
rom fossil fuels, and how fuggin' cool is vaping on a dead Velociraptor?
5/ "The bottle says '99.5% pure', so I only use special magic glycerine which is
99.7% pure"
The number after the decimal is what's technically called 'covering their asses'
. It's pretty arbitrary, and merely indemnifies the manufacturer against falling
 foul of labeling laws. In fact, if you see a bottle of glycerine marked 100% pu
re, then they're lying to you, as unless you're building a substance molecule by
molecule in a lab, nothing is 100% pure - hence why bullion is always stamped .
999, as not even gold or silver can be guaranteed to be free of all contaminatio
n.
6/ "The 0.5% is actually made of cooties, Ebola, West Nile virus, and asbestos"
Actually, it's mostly just water, plus a few parts per million of environmental
contamination. If you're so worried about contamination, then why haven't you cl
eaned your drip tip in weeks? Oh, and we've all seen your hand checks, so clean
your damned nails whilst you're at it, you filthy Herbert.
7/ "Store bought glycerine has jatropha toxins in it"
Theoretically, it could. Jatropha is one of the organic materials used in the ma
nufacture of industrial glycerine - mostly for biodiesel - and it's very nasty s
tuff that's by no means safe to vape. However, naturally it's not used to make U
SP glycerine; but could there be a tiny tiny fraction of it as part of that few
PPM of contaminants? Sure - hence why the USP rating allows for miniscule trace
amounts that have been absorbed from the environment to be present, purely by me
rit of being produced in the same general vicinity. The chances of there actuall
y being any in your glycerine is tiny, and even then it would be present in such
miniscule quantities that you'd need a mass spectrometer to detect it - certain
ly not enough to harm you even with long term exposure.
8/ "Store bought glycerine contains formaldehyde"
No glycerine contains formaldehyde, though ironically cigarettes are fortified l
iberally with it by the manufacturer. It should be noted that we all exhale form
aldehyde every time we breathe, because it's produced naturally within the body,
andaccording to the NIH Report on Carcinogens, 12th Edition, it is in the "air, s
oil, food, treated and bottled drinking water, surface water, and groundwater" -
not to mention car exhausts, carpets, plywood, toilet paper, cosmetics, fruit,
milk, and fabrics used in clothing.
However some studies have suggested that both formaldehyde and acrolein are crea
ted when glycerine is heated to a certain temperature. This is largely bullshit.
First of all, there is no solid peer reviewed studies that support this, and ev
en on paper you would need to have your device so hot that it melted your drip t
ip before either was produced. One of the big arguments for this hypothesis is t
hat you need around 280c to produce tiny quantities of anything considered potenti
ally toxic from glycerine, and a coil can reach those levels. A bare coil can, b
ut that's without it being exposed to a coolant - by which I mean your juice. Gl
ycerine is atomised at temperatures way below that as part of the heat exchange
process, so however hot your coil gets, it will have fled the scene way before i
t turns into anything nasty. If you're breathing in vape that's at 280c, then your
lungs being cooked will be your primary concern, not the vague possibility that
exposure to small amounts of acrolein will have long term effects.
9/ "My body is a temple - I boil my cotton and everything"
Good for you. Well think about this as you're doing transcendental meditation on
Mount Shasta whilst eating tofu - unless you're using zero nic juice, then you'
re worried about nebulous doom porn surrounding the safety of something used TO
DILUTE FUCKING NICOTINE. If you're worried about anything, then how come we can
safely vape quite high concentrations of a deadly poison? We know that 100% pure
nicotine is insanely dangerous, hence why we can only buy it in dilutions under
10% - WHICH IS SAFE - yet people lose their minds because some tobacco company
shill says there might be something nasty produced by juice, or because 'some gu
y on the internet' says that store bought glycerine contains asbestos. Seriously
people; let's have some perspective here.
Kind regards
Some 'other' guy on the internet ;-)

Nymza Vril 2014

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