FDA Borrows Our Vape Safety Tips!

I am honored to say that in 2020 the FDA borrowed my written literature on vape safety....or so I believe. You be the judge.

Late in 2018 I began selling 510 batteries online. At that time there had been some well-known vape safety incidents and even a few deaths, but by and large most vape sellers were not devising their own lists of vape safety procedures to offer to their clients.

I thought to myself that a great way to add value to this industry would be to come up with a short easy to understand list of the most common vape safety issues and a checklist of ways to avoid painful or even fatal accidents involving vaporizer use with just a few simple rules that anyone could remember and follow. Here is what I wrote in December 2018:

“Always Use Responsibly:

-Never carry an unloaded battery in your pocket or purse.

-Always turn off your battery if you are carrying it in your pocket or purse.

-If your battery gets damaged or partially submerged in water, THROW IT OUT. Buy a new one.

-Always test the battery operation before each use and with each new tank.

-Never leave charging unattended. They do not take very long to charge. This is a great rule for most electronics and these are no exception.

-Do not use while charging. It does work but it is better to wait or remove the charger first.”

Then in October 2019 I posted an elaborated version of these tips in a Blog Article Entitled Vape Safety Tips which is my own personally researched and written original literature as follows:

-Don’t carry an operational unloaded vape battery in your purse or pocket. As a best practice, you should never carry them in a purse, pocket or bag if avoidable, but if you do make sure it’s off completely and if possible, keep it loaded. These units could short circuit if they operate and metal gets into the tank fitting area at the same time or simply overheat if the operate button gets stuck or repeatedly pressed. There are safety mechanisms such as keystroke sequences that keep most vapes from operating when in the off position so be sure it is off.

-If a vape pen gets submerged in liquid or substantially wet, throw it out. It’s safer to buy a new one than to have a vape accident. This could cause short circuits or corrosion that could lead to an issue.

-If the vaporizer pen or atomizer battery is significantly damaged, throw it out. Short circuits can be a hazard and broken tanks or cartridges can be unsafe to handle, unsafe to operate or become contaminated and unsafe to consume.

-Do not operate a vape while it is charging. Some of them work and others do not when they are hooked up to a charger but you should avoid using them while charging.

-Don’t leave the unit completely unattended while charging and try to charge in a safe area. This is the same for most consumer electronics and vapes are no different.

-Use the charger intended for your vape power supply. This is especially important with the screw on chargers for the pen shaped batteries. These should only be charged with the manufacturer’s charger or one of exact like specifications. It is less critical for vape batteries with a Micro USB charging port or other types of industry standard charging ports like C-type etc.

-If a vape begins to malfunction in any way turn it off if possible and then put vaporizer power supply in a fire safe location. Do not use it again.

-Don’t modify your vape batteries, atomizers, vape tanks, wax coils or other adapters. These have specific functions and are built with operational norms and or technical specifications in mind such as amperage, ohms, watts and other things that I cannot fully explain but that must be carefully considered when putting these units together.

Compare this to the strikingly similar language in the following vape safety infographic from the FDA. Keep in mind that the device pictured in the infographic is almost exactly the same shape and design as my top selling product.

I want to conclude by saying that it does not offend me in any way if the FDA used this material. It was created to help people and given freely by my company with no purchase necessary. And of course, it would be vain to think that it is not possible that the FDA came up with this list on their own; they very well could have.

But the striking similarities between my work and what the FDA released stood out to me right away because I had put a great deal of time and effort into compiling this list of information and advice. Furthermore, the use of a diagram that is almost identical to my top selling product grabbed my interest almost immediately. 

The list was created with the intention of helping people and spreading knowledge. It is an honor and a compliment that they used this information because it confirms the original intent of its creation, to prevent unnecessary vape safety incidents, was accomplished. So much so that a Federal Agency would emulate it in their own safety advice.