Safety of vaping: what you need to know
Knowing what goes into things we are putting into our bodies is important. You wouldn’t purchase a meal at a restaurant if you had a nut allergy without looking at the ingredients, would you?
But what exactly is inside Harmony’s e-liquids?
Making Harmony CBD e-liquid
All Harmony E-Liquids share the same ingredients: Propylene Glycol (PG), Vegetable Glycerin (VG), Cannabidiol Isolate (CBD) and flavourings (either PG-based or terpene-based).
The vast majority (85%-98%) of a Harmony E-Liquid is usually made up of a mixture of PG and VG in a ratio of 80 to 20 weight%. The CBD content ranges from around 0.3% to 10%. PG-based flavourings are added at 5%-10% and terpene-based flavourings at 1%-3%, depending on the exact composition and safety calculations (further information see below).
Both PG and VG have a long history of use in pharmaceutical applications and have a well-studied safety profile. Further to this, we only purchase these two carrier ingredients at a pharmaceutical quality, respecting the recommendations of storage conditions and shelf life. This means both compounds are at the very least 99% pure and contain no detectable residues that might cause harm to human health as per European pharmacopeia.
CBD isolate is generally regarded as safe and non-addictive by the World Health Organisation. Harmony has a strict quality control system in place to ensure the quality and integrity of every batch of CBD isolate that is used for production.
The main reason for concerns about safety in E-liquids usually arises from the use of flavourings. Conventional E-liquid flavourings are commonly PG-based and Harmony is only ever purchasing such flavourings from reputable suppliers within the EU. The European Tobacco Products Directive prohibits the use of certain flavouring compounds known to cause harm upon inhalation and we guarantee that our providers respect these regulations. Additionally, Harmony always carefully reviews the safety documentation provided for the flavouring materials to ensure to only use them in quantities that won’t pose a risk to the users health as of current knowledge.
Our terpene-based flavours are carefully crafted in-house from certified, isolated, food grade aroma raw materials listed in the EU list of flavouring substances as defined by Regulation EU 872/2012. The raw materials used by Harmony are purchased only from reputable aroma material suppliers within the EU. Every finished flavour formulation is sent to an independent consultancy that creates a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for the mixture, outlining any hazards and precautions to take and containing detailed information on all hazardous ingredients present in the mixture. On the basis of this MSDS, a final concentration in the E-liquid can be calculated where any potentially hazardous components are diluted to the point where they don’t cause harm to human health as of present knowledge.
Finally, for every finished e-liquid formulation a safety data sheet is created by an independent third-party entity the same way as for the terpene-based flavourings. All mandatory and recommended labelling elements (like for example allergen warnings) are included in Harmony’s packaging design, which is regularly reviewed and updated to ensure consumers can make a fully informed purchasing decision.
Testing Harmony products
Harmony and its producers carry out testing with trusted third-party laboratories to ensure ingredients are up to the highest quality standards.
Every batch of CBD isolate is tested by Harmony and its suppliers independently for its potency by means of HPLC or UPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography or Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography), a technique that allows the separation, detection and quantification of Cannabinoids and other compounds in a mixture. CBD isolate is only released for the production of E-Liquids if the CBD content of the material is 99% or higher and there are no detectable traces of THC present.
To clear up any other doubts, Public Health England in the UK released a study showing that vaping is 95% safer than smoking. However, we do not recommend that anyone who hasn’t smoked or vaped before starts using Harmony CBD e-liquids.
We hope that this article has been of help to you, but if you want to find out more about the contents of our e-liquids, or have any other questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch. And if you have a nut allergy and are going to a restaurant, always make sure you check the ingredients in your meal.
