Industry Research, Vaping News
Why UK Vape Liquid Is Now Premium
Jun
The regulations, quality ingredients, and desire to produce the very best e-liquid in the world means the United Kingdom produces the most trustworthy premium e-liquid you can buy
for your vaping devices. Pharmaceutical-grade ingredients, exceptionally clean production facilities, traceability – batch by batch is produced to remarkably high quality, offering consumers confidence that they’re purchasing the safest and highest quality premium product.
To begin with, e-liquid was being produced in the United Kingdom by enthusiastic ex-smokers who had made the switch from tobacco use to vaping. Basic electronic cigarettes were being used with a very restricted range of e-cigarette liquids.
The choice for the would-be vaper back then was restricted to simple tobacco flavoured products, a few that tasted of mint, and not much else.
While some e-cig users got busy trying to find ways to make atomisers work more efficiently, others set about experimenting with food flavourings to see what could be possible with e-liquids.
As smokers and ex-smokers represent people from all sections of society, online vape forums contained some who were experts in chemistry and the other sciences. The tight-knit community of vapers rapidly identified that only water-based flavouring should be used.
Propylene Glycol (PG), Vegetable Glycerine (VG), and the flavour agents all must be “water-soluble” – meaning they dissolve in water. This is important as oil-based flavours are bad for the lungs if inhaled.
As some enthusiasts realised the vape liquids they were creating were popular, they started businesses, invested in expensive production equipment, cleanrooms, and took deep pride in producing the safest liquid they could make, with many posting pictures of their facilities online.
The final major development before the government placed regulations on the industry was when Dr Konstantinos Farsalinos examined flavour additives for the presence of the chemical diacetyl. The upshot of the research was the nascent UK industry voluntarily avoiding the e-liquid flavour agents that contained diacetyl.
Diacetyl is a flavouring that lends food products a buttery or creamy texture. It is used in many foods and was typically used in custard type e-liquids. It is now banned as an ingredient in UK e-liquid, the legislation came into force in 2016, but hasn’t been used since Farsalinos’ work in 2013.
Stories about “popcorn lung” are linked to this compound but it should be remembered that the levels found in vapour when it used to be used were far lower than diacetyl levels found in cigarette smoke – and not one smoker or vaper has ever been diagnosed with popcorn lung.
Many countries around the world (including the United States) have not enacted legislation to ban the use of diacetyl-containing flavour agents. In fact, some countries have no regulations for vape liquid makers to conform to.
Now, we have many production facilities in the UK churning out millions of bottles of tightly controlled, highly regulated, quality products every day using pharmaceutical grade ingredients. The UK leads the world in its approach to tobacco harm reduction – and in the premium quality of its e-liquids.
