The vape industry is on a roll, as statistics show that one in 20 Americans vape. Besides, the vape industry’s market report shows that Americans consumed 22million units of vape cartridges between 2020 and 2021.
However, the budding industry also faces a looming public health and safety crisis. While trustworthy vape cartridge manufacturers adhere to the industry’s best practices for consumer safety, illegal vape dealers couldn’t be bothered.
Consequently, reports of illicit vape cartridges causing pulmonary health issues among consumers keep surfacing. Vaping may be fun, but it is not worth your health. So, follow these tips to avoid purchasing counterfeit vape products.
Only Buy Your Vape Cartridges from Trustworthy Vendors
The vape market is crawling with illicit vape products seeking to make quick cash from the profitable vape market. Such illegal vape product producers knowingly cut corners to minimize cost at the consumer’s health expense. Therefore, you should buy authentic and safe vape cartridges from reliable sellers which provides endless Selections in e juice flavours.
You should do your due diligence, like checking the vendor’s license numbers on government regulatory authorities’ licensed vape businesses directories to ensure they operate legally. Additionally, the sellers should provide all helpful information about their products; if some are missing, that’s a red flag as they lack transparency.
Given the insufficient industry regulation, experimenting with little-known vape products from little-known brands might not be a good idea. Unless you can verify their reliability beyond doubt, stick to reputable brands with a reliable online presence and verifiable independent reviews.
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Inspect Your Vape Cartridge’s Packaging Before Use
Besides selling low-quality vape products, unscrupulous illegal vape industry dealers leverage prominent brands’ hard-earned trust. They do so by sticking fake labels bearing the name and logo of a notable vape brand on subpar vape cartridges.
Unfortunately, some consumers fall for this gimmick and purchase substandard vape cartridges that could potentially harm their health. You can avoid such ploys by thoroughly inspecting any vape product you are buying before use.
First, note the state and standard of the packaging material used and avoid using products in low-quality packaging. More so, if the packaging does not match the qualityquality, you are accustomed to from your favorite legal vape cartridge brand. Besides quality, misspellings are also a tell-tale sign that you are dealing with a counterfeit vape product.
Finally, every vape cartridge sold by a licensed, trustworthy manufacturer should bear a batch or lot number, a manufacturing date, and packaging date. Batch or lot numbers serve as unique identifiers for a group of vape products produced from the same crop harvest.
Lot numbers facilitate traceability and give consumers and regulatory authorities insight into every step of the production process. They are also elemental in linking consumers to products’ certificates of analysis; find out more about certificates of analysis in the next segment on vape product ingredients.
Check Ingredients Used
Trustworthy vape cartridge manufacturers use safe-high-quality ingredients in their vape cartridges. Therefore, one of the ways to spot an authentic vape cartridge is establishing its ingredients’ quality.
Most state laws require vape cartridge manufacturers to submit each batch of their cartridges to government-accredited testing facilities for independent lab testing. The tests verify phytochemical content and test for contaminants like heavy metals, pesticides, herbicides, and microbes. They also test the secondary ingredients like flavorings and diluents to establish their quantity and quality. When checking phytochemical quantities, anything below 70% indicates the use of fillers.
The ingredients are usually indicated on a sticker integrated into the packaging. But most authentic vape cartridges bear a scannable QR code that gives you access to its accompanying certificate of analysis via your phone.
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Be Wary of Outrageously Low Prices
Illicit vape cartridge manufacturers and sellers are after quick cash. Therefore, they set their prices way below the market price for a decent vape cartridge, which makes sense because they don’t invest much into their products. They use the low prices to bait unsuspecting consumers who are only happy to cash in on the incredible deal.
So, as you look for unbeatable prices while shopping, avoid unreasonably low-priced products, sourcing high-quality ingredients, paying for labor and independent lab tests, high-quality storage facilities are costly and should reflect on the final prices. Therefore, consider vendors and brands whose prices are reasonable.
Product Consistency and Taste
Expert counterfeiter may alter low-quality vape to bypass all the quality checks above. However, such experts are no match for your senses. Therefore, check the vape cartridge’s vape juice consistency and avoid products that are too light, too dense, or feature uncharacteristic bubbles. An off-taste may signal a contaminant altering the vape’s flavor or a battery malfunction, causing the vape juice to overheat.
When heated above vaporization temperature, vape cartridge contents begin to combust, releasing toxic substances. So, follow your instinct and do not ignore any uncharacteristic behavior.
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Conclusion
The highly unregulated vape industry fuels the success of an illicit vape cartridge industry profiting off consumer safety. However, as long as you use the tips above to distinguish authentic vape cartridges from the duds, you should stay safe.