What’s in your e-cigarette liquid? Florida lab has test to find out

BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says fewer people are being hospitalized with vaping-related lung injuries after the agency identified vitamin E acetate as the additive that could be to blame for making people sick.

We wanted to know whether the ingredient was still being found in e-cigarette liquids, so 9 Investigates traveled to a South Florida lab, where scientists say they’re still discovering the ingredient in about 1 in 3 vaping products being tested.

With a primary focus on testing the potency and purity of medical marijuana and CBD products, Kaycha Labs in Broward County added a new test in recent months to determine whether e-cigarette liquids contain an ingredient linked to lung injuries and deaths.

READ: Tobacco use in Florida schools doubles again, hitting record high; officials blame vaping

“Once it became an issue where everyone started seeing it was a concern, we immediately worked on and developed a method to test for vitamin E acetate,” Kaycha Labs President Chris Martinez said.

After comparing cases of vaping-related emergency room visits, which peaked in August and September of 2019, the CDC identified vitamin E acetate as the possible cause. It’s an additive found in vegetable oils, cereals, meats and even some produce. Research says it’s fine to ingest but not to inhale, according to the CDC.

“It makes it hard for the oxygen to get exchanged between the lung and your bloodstream, and it can lead to inflammation that can look like pneumonia, the flu, coughing up blood, low oxygen saturations and trouble breathing,” Orlando Health medical toxicologist Dr. Josef Thundiyil said.

READ: FDA crackdown on vaping flavors has blind spot: disposables

According to the CDC, doctors like Thundiyil are seeing fewer vaping-related lung injuries, possibly because vitamin E acetate is being removed from some products after the link was discovered.

But lab officials say not all e-liquids are free of the additive.

“For 100 samples that come in, about 30-40 have some indication of vitamin E acetate,” Martinez said of the samples his lab is seeing.

We purchased five flavored vaping liquids from a store in Orlando. When put through testing at Kaycha Labs, none showed vitamin E acetate as an ingredient. However, the CDC says evidence collected so far isn’t enough to rule out other chemicals as potential causes to injuries and deaths.

READ: 9 facts about vaping, linked disease and death

And because vaping is relatively new, Thundiyil says more problems could be discovered in the future.

“We still don’t have a lot of data on the long-term effects of electronic cigarette use,” Thundiyil said.

Despite the steady decline in hospitalizations and deaths, the CDC is continually getting new reports of injuries and continues to investigate.

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