
Alibaba to Stop Sales of E-Cigarettes to U.S. Buyers - JumpCrisscross
https://www.wsj.com/articles/alibaba-to-stop-sales-of-e-cigarettes-to-u-s-buyers-11570632981?mod=rsswn
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guanzo
I'm bothered by the fact that most if not all news websites don't
differentiate between nicotine and THC vapes. They're completely different.
Illicit THC vapes are what's killing people.

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grawprog
Yeah as far as I read the problems were linked to illicit THC cartridges
purchased on the streets tainted with hydrogen cyanide. A recent hacker news
discussion about it.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21092770](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21092770)

Street drugs have always had problems with contaminants, whatever kinds of
drugs they are. Unfortunately prohibition and black markets tend to lead to
this sort of problem.

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bitcoinmoney
Why would you add cyanide to a product you’re selling?

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dx87
According to Wikipedia, some countries use hydrogen cyanide as an ingredient
in pesticide.

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cwkoss
To be a bit more precise: myclobutanil degrades into HCN when heated to
vaporization temperature

The process of extracting and concentrating THC can also extract and
concentrate this pesticide.

Imidacloprid is another pesticide with harmful effects that has been found on
cannabis, but seems to be toxic itself (rather than it's byproducts)

Source: [https://www.planetnatural.com/marijuana-
pesticides/](https://www.planetnatural.com/marijuana-pesticides/)

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Nas808
I smoked for 15 years but quit last August when I started vaping. I certainly
feel a lot better, my senses of taste and smell are much stronger and I don’t
get short of breath running up the stairs anymore. It seems almost too good to
be true, I’m waiting for the report saying it’s like liquid asbestos.

~~~
nyolfen
the good news is that it's easier to quit vaping than smoking

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seamyb88
I quit smoking for the vape. I had a cigarette the other day and there was a
deeper buzz to it than the usual nicotine from the vape. So, I am inclined to
agree.

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robotstate
Cheap Chinese products have been causing issues in the vape industry for
years. It used to be knockoff batteries exploding, now we're seeing the
harmful health effects of whatever cheap materials they're using to
manufacture the coils.

The industry needs to be regulated, not outright banned.

~~~
mc32
The bans are temporary to allow investigation into cause —I think that’s
prudent. If you go buy anyway despite the ban, that’s on you, it’s not
happening with government imprimatur.

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TylerE
Whens the last time the US government _un_ banned something?

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mc32
Sure the federal assault weapons ban that expired on 2004.

Oh, forgot the other big one, restriction on embryonic stem cell research in
2009.

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npo9
Alright 15 years

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wlesieutre
Oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge?

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thrower123
I'm blown away at how quickly this e-cig prohibition movement is taking root.
As far as I can tell, all the horror stories have been from bootleg THC
cartridges, rather than legitimate Juul pods. So banning sales of the
legitimate product seems... counter-productive.

I suppose high school kids will just go back to smoking Swisher Sweets and
chewing flavored Skoal pouches...

I don't really see how any of this is a positive direction.

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mc32
Thing is I haven’t read where someone can say whether it’s contamination or
whether it’s the high heat vaporization or the combo or something else which
is causing this. So given they don’t have strong evidence, it would be
negligent not to pull a product.

~~~
CodeWriter23
> Thing is I haven’t read where someone can say whether it’s contamination or
> whether it’s the high heat vaporization or the combo or something else which
> is causing this.

You can start here, this WaPo article talks about the contaminant, Vitamin E
Acetate aka alpha-Tocopherol acetate, an ester of Vitamin E and acetic acid.

[https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/09/05/contaminant...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/09/05/contaminant-
found-vaping-products-linked-deadly-lung-illnesses-state-federal-labs-show/)

The PubChem article on this compound, first aid section recommends inhalation
should be ceased ASAP. Also scroll down to the firefighting section, which
recommends a respirator with an organic vapor/acid gas cartridge. This is
because of the caustic nature of the compound when vaporized.

[https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/alpha-
Tocopherol-a...](https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/alpha-Tocopherol-
acetate#section=First-Aid)

This article details finding from The Mayo Clinic that the lung tissue studies
revealed chemical burns.

[https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/lung-damage-from-vaping-
re...](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/lung-damage-from-vaping-resembles-
chemical-burns-report-says/ar-AAIez83)

Obviously not conclusive, but also not a completely bizarre supposition that
inhaling a substance that breaks down into a mild acid when vaporized might
cause chemical burns.

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waste_monk
Even the things they supposedly police e.g. name brand sunglasses, disney /
lego stuff, etc. are very easy to find on Alibaba/Aliexpress.

They might bust a couple of stores as an example, but give it a few days at
most and you'll be able to get the under the description "personal steam
heater" or something similar (e.g. the "interlocking block toy" lego
knockoffs) - there are indices mapping keywords to brands to help facilitate
this [0].

[0] [https://www.alimaniac.com/aliexpress-articles/brand-codes-
co...](https://www.alimaniac.com/aliexpress-articles/brand-codes-coupons-
aliexpress-tricks-find-replica/)

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crb002
Curious how much of this is a trade war, screw the U.S. If vape supply dries
up there could be a spike in tobacco use.

