Bills to ban vitamin E acetate in vaping products advance in Michigan

An ingredient strongly implicated in the EVALI (e-cigarette or vaping use-associated lung injury) outbreak that spread across the U.S. in 2019 could soon be banned in the state of Michigan.

Last week, Michigan’s House approved three bills that would ban the sale of tobacco and cannabis vaping products containing vitamin E acetate, reports MLive.com.

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has “strongly linked” the ingredient to the EVALI outbreak that resulted in 68 deaths and nearly 3,000 hospitalizations, across all 50 states.

The package of bills was introduced by Rep. Abdullah Hammoud, D-Dearborn, and Rep. Joe Bellino, R-Monroe, and passed with bipartisan support. The bills will now move on to the Senate for further review.

Between April 2019 and February 2020, nearly 3,500 vaping products containing vitamin E acetate were sold in Michigan and an additional 8,000 cartridges containing the ingredient were removed from inventory.

In November 2019, the Marijuana Regulatory Agency implemented testing requirements banning the ingredient from all cannabis vaping products. “This chemical is actually inserted in the vaping process and the manufacturing process, and there it was discovered that it was extremely dangerous to be inhaled,” Hammoud said in 2019.

Other states, including Washington and Oregon, have also banned vitamin E acetate from cannabis vaping products.

In Canada, vitamin E acetate has been banned in cannabis vapes since 2019.

Under the Cannabis Act, vapes are not permitted to contain anything other than carrier substances, flavouring agents and substances that are necessary to maintain the quality or stability of the product. Colouring agents, sugars, sweeteners and mineral nutrients and vitamins are banned.