What Is Vaping?
The typical components of a vaping device include the mouthpiece, a battery, a cartridge holding the e-juice or e-liquid, and a heating component powered by the battery. E-cigarettes combine these components into a single device. This provides greater convenience for the end user. Charging the battery and replacing the e-liquid cartridge are the extent of required maintenance.
Though often mistakenly thought to produce water vapor, vaping devices create an aerosol then inhaled by the user.
What Is A Cleanroom?
In manufacturing and research activities, environmental control forms a key aspect of quality assurance. The main purpose of a cleanroom is minimization of airborne particles according to a set of standards. This sets controlled, acceptable levels of contamination, measured in the number of particles in each cubic meter of air.
Cleanroom control may also involve rigid maintenance of humidity, pressure, temperature or other variables. Personnel requirements may be as lax as hairnets and lab coats or as extensive as full environmental (bunny) suits with self-contained breathing devices. A middle ground may be achieved through a combination of cleanroom garments. Such garments can include aprons, coveralls, gowns, gloves, finger cots, shoe covers, booties, and more.
Best practices for e-liquid production include regular decontamination and sanitization, coupled with proper installation and maintenance of a professionally designed cleanroom.
What’s the Connection?
When the battery in a vaping device powers the heating component, the liquid forms an aerosol inhaled by the user. Therefore, contaminants in the manufacturing line mean contaminants in the liquid, and in consumers.
The FDA has published reports indicating that vaping may not be as safe an alternative to traditional smoking as previously believed. Moreover, medical professionals agree that addition of unexpected contaminants to e-liquid presents an extra level of risk.
Best Practices in E-Liquid Production
For optimal user experience and continued enjoyment of products, serious producers of e-liquid (or e-juice) use safe manufacturing protocols.
The best way to ensure a safe production environment is to begin with a professionally designed and installed cleanroom. The use of HEPA or ULPA filters, coupled with intelligent air flow design, proper garb, and a pressurized antechamber, minimize the risk of particulates entering the production line.
However, for maximum safety precautions, another step is required: removal of potential biological contaminants. Otherwise, such hazards might find their way into e-liquid and consumers’ respiratory systems.
There are multiple means to accomplish this. Simple cleaning with bleach or other corrosive substances, or ultraviolet light, provide basic protection. But only the TOMI™ SteraMist™ system employed by ADSS ensures complete sterilization and decontamination with six-log (99.9999%) reduction.
Our patented BIT™ process provides decontamination that goes above, behind, around, and beneath a cleanroom’s standard equipment. This minimizes the need for time-consuming preparations before decontamination. Likewise, it reduces equally time-consuming efforts prior to returning to production. In most cases, production resumes the same day as treatment.
Responsible e-liquid producers like the Maja-Flava Vape Den provide the cleanest, most sterile, production lines. ADSS provides the best decontamination and sanitization services in the industry to customers like these. Our partnership with Energy Plus Scientific allows us to work with businesses like Maja-Flava to provide entirely clean production lines, from the design and installation of a clean room to regular maintenance and biological decontamination.
- United States, Congress, Compliance and Enforcement, and David Keith. “The ‘Deeming Rule’: Vape Shops.” The “Deeming Rule”: Vape Shops, 2016. www.fda.gov/media/97760/download.
- Richter, Linda. “Recreational Vaping 101: What Is Vaping?” Center on Addiction, Oct. 2018, www.centeronaddiction.org/e-cigarettes/recreational-vaping/what-vaping.
- Wikipedia contributors. “Cleanroom.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 22 Sep. 2019. Web. 30 Sep. 2019.
