Category: Also in VV

Gima TT will present its technical solutions for the vapor industry at the IECIE show (booth #7G58)  in Shenzhen, China, April 14-16.

Gima TT is part of IMA Group, a designer and manufacturer of processing and packaging machinery for pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, food, tea and coffee, with 5,500 employees and 41 production sites worldwide, and a €1.5 billion turnover in 2018.

Gima TT was established in 2009 to offer the tobacco industry a fully electronic machine concept that is easy to maintain, user friendly and, above all, flexible. Gima TT launched its first cigarette packaging line in 2012.

In a market characterized by increasingly complex products, tobacco companies require unprecedented levels of customization. Gima TT’s Flex-Line meets the requirements of the modern market, offering quick installation, ease of operation, convenient maintenance and an opportunity for users to reduce their spare parts inventory.  

Drawing on the expertise of its parent company, Gima TT also offers packaging solutions for next-generation products (NGP).

The company is able to design and supply complete lines for all types NGPs, both with tobacco (such as heat-not-burn products) and without (such as e-cigarettes).

Its solutions for the vapor industry include assembly of components, filling (powders, e-liquid, nicotine salt, oil, etc.), primary packaging (blistering, flow wrapping, etc.) and a number of secondary packaging options.

with a speed ranging from 25 to 100 products per minute, Gima TT’s entry-level EC-Pilot is ideal for customers seeking efficiency and cost-effective filling operations for powders and liquids. The EC-Pilot can handle multiple pod/cartridge formats with minor adjustments, features precise filling to avoid product wastage and is equipped with online capping for both press-down and twist caps with quality check of the final product. The machine can be optionally equipped with a filling tank preheating system.

For more information, visit www.gimatt.it.

Big Tobacco is moving in on the vaping industry–but in a different way from before.

By Tom Buckland

It is unsurprising that Big Tobacco has traditionally been no fan of vaping products since their commercial introduction nearly 15 years ago. E-cigarettes represent, after all, a direct competition to Big Tobacco’s product. What’s more than that, they hold the potential to destroy the tobacco industry as a smoking-cessation aid.

It seems likely that the tobacco lobby is behind some of the misinformation that has been spread about vaping for many years, including misleading reports that suggest vaping is dangerous. It is certainly true that the rise in the popularity of vaping has already damaged cigarette sales. In the final quarter of 2017, U.S. cigarette sales decreased by 6 percent at the same time as the sales of the Pax Juul e-cigarette rapidly increased.

However, it seems like the Big Tobacco companies are now taking a different approach and rather than attacking or undermining the vaping industry, they are looking to strengthen it and at the same time gain a stake in the industry for themselves.

In December 2018 it was announced that major Big Tobacco player Altria has invested $12.8 billion in e-cigarette company Juul. This move means the tobacco company now has 35 percent ownership of the e-cigarette and vape pen manufacturer and supplier, which has seen staggering popularity since its first products were released a few years ago. This came just two months after Altria announced it would no longer produce its own vaping device, the Mark Ten, citing concerns about an “epidemic” of vaping among teenagers. They seem to have back flipped in December, when Altria CEO Howard Willard announced the investment and said, “We have long said that providing adult smokers with superior, satisfying products with the potential to reduce harm is the best way to achieve tobacco harm reduction.”

This was probably the most decisive investment in vaping by Big Tobacco, but it was by no means the first. In July 2017, British American Tobacco invested $2.5 billion in its “non-conventional cigarette portfolio,” including acquiring vape producer Vype. Around the same time Philip Morris International, the company that owns Marlboro among other tobacco producers and suppliers, announced a major research & development shift to focus on the development of alternatives to cigarettes. U.K.-based cigar giant Imperial Brands, meanwhile, has invested strongly in its “next-generation product” division which produces a range of vape products under the Blu brand.

Despite the level of Big Tobacco involvement in the production and marketing of vaping products, smaller e-cigarette companies retain a strong presence in the industry—for now at least. There remain a number of e-juice producers, largely offering “gourmet” e-liquid products as an alternative to well-known products produced by the big brands.

Big Tobacco’s involvement with vaping is not limited to investment and production of vaping products. They are also becoming vocal in the pro-vaping advocacy space. A current campaign which is lobbying the European Commission to treat vaping products differently from tobacco was recently revealed to have financial backing from Imperial Brands.

In Australia, Big Tobacco is being very active in the current debate to legalise vaping (e-cigarettes are banned in the state of Western Australia, and restricted in other states). Philip Morris, came out in February to advocate for the legalisation of vaping devices in Western Australia. The company told Australian legislators who are examining the issue that the e-cigarette ban should be lifted in order for the state to “catch up” with other countries.

The moves of Big Tobacco into the vaping industry, which span at least three continents, likely represent a widespread change which we will see across the board. We can likely expect to see Big Tobacco investment in e-cigarette companies to expand substantially, at the same time as lobbying for more favourable regulations. What impact this will have on the vaping industry remains to be seen, but it is probably safe to say that the growing presence of tobacco players will make many uneasy.

Tom Buckland is the head of content at Vapemate, a company that help smokers to quit smoking.

E-cigarettes can explode. How to prevent tragedies from happening.

By Maria Verven

Man loses eye. Woman loses teeth. Teen hospitalized after his e-cigarette explodes.

Exploding e-cigarettes are becoming headline news. And in an industry already under fire and soon to come under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) draconian regulations, these headlines aren’t doing our industry any favors.

On the one hand, science keeps giving us ample evidence that e-cigarettes (personal vaporizers or mods) are significantly safer than smoking. Even the highly respected Royal College of Physicians has endorsed e-cigarettes as a substitute for smoking, asserting that vaping is likely to generate “significant health gains in the U.K.” (Also see “Mind the gap,” page xx.)

And the number of e-cigarette users has risen dramatically; the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the smoking rate among U.S. adults fell to 15 percent last year—the biggest one-year decline in more than 20 years. The reason for the drop is most likely because many people went beyond the headlines and made an intelligent choice between smoking and vaping.

But on the other hand, a growing number of people perceive e-cigarettes to be just as harmful as or even worse than cigarettes. A STAT-Harvard poll released last October reported that nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of adults in the U.S. believe e-cigarettes are harmful to the health of people who use them. In a 2010 poll, by contrast,  most smokers (85 percent) said they believed e-cigarettes were less dangerous than traditional cigarettes.

The public perception of vaping is clearly going in the wrong direction. Due to headlines like the above, there could easily be hundreds of thousands of smokers too afraid of an explosion to make the switch.

Why e-cigarettes explode

E-cigarettes are powered by lithium-ion batteries, which contain electrolytes. When overheated, this type of battery can spontaneously combust. While these batteries are also used in cellphones and laptops, these devices don’t pull as much current as do e-cigarettes, so there have been very few incidents. Besides, they’re not objects of a much-maligned and grossly misunderstood industry like the e-cigarette industry.

According to the U.S. Fire Administration, fires and explosions from e-cigarettes are rare, especially considering the number of users. Their 2014 report cited 25 e-cigarette incidents between 2009 and August 2014, resulting in nine injuries and two serious burns. However, by the time of their 2014 report, an estimated 2.5 million Americans were using e-cigarettes or personal vaporizers.

The vast majority of e-cigarette explosions happen while the batteries are charging—usually because the user is charging the device with an “alternate” device and not the one designed for it. Only 20 percent of incidents happened when the user was vaping or when the e-cigarette was in their pocket or hand.

“The shape and construction of e-cigarettes can make them more likely than other products with lithium-ion batteries to behave like ‘flaming rockets’ when a battery fails,” the Fire Administration report stated.

Despite this, industry experts assert that these products don’t pose a risk when used correctly.

“When used and charged properly, e-cigarettes pose no more of a fire risk than other products that use lithium-ion batteries,” said Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Association.

“While these incidents are taken very seriously, millions of former smokers continue to use these products as intended. Proper care and safety dictate that people use the correct type of charger and follow manufacturer guidelines,” stated the Smoke-Free Alternatives Trade Association (SFATA).

“Education of the customer is probably the most important thing we can have to make sure the customer understands what they could do wrong to make the product dangerous,” said Spike Babaian of Vape NY in an interview with Good Morning America.

A quick safety guide

Media reports don’t tend to cover why or how these devices exploded, devoting attention to the more sensational aspects of the victim’s injuries.

While there’s very little argument that e-cigarettes are safer than traditional cigarettes, users do take risks when they tamper with or modify their devices.

Some e-cigarette models and makes are more potentially hazardous than others, but most people would be surprised at which ones are more likely to explode. The majority of cases actually involved rechargeable cigalikes and not mods or personal vaporizers.

Cigalikes often have a built-in USB port to charge the device. Most often made in China, their poor-quality electronic designs and components rarely if ever undergo quality testing. Users run the risk of overcharging the battery, which can ultimately cause the system to fail and the battery to explode.

Here are five guidelines for proper use:

1. Buy from a reputable manufacturer. Ideally, stick with a device made in the U.S. The reason is simple: Quality standards are practically nonexistent in China. While more expensive, U.S.-made devices are subjected to much more rigorous quality testing.
2. Follow battery guidelines for usage, storage and charging. Do not use incompatible batteries and chargers; only use the battery charger and power adapter that come with the battery. Don’t plug your device into computers or other USB-capable devices.
3. The best and safest devices use batteries that can be removed from the unit when charging. Batteries can also vent when in your pocket or purse and can quickly short out and cause a fire. Store your battery in a storage container and don’t leave a battery near metal objects.
4. Don’t stack multiple batteries. The e-cigarette mod explosions have involved units with two batteries stacked for higher voltage. Ensure your unit has both electronic and physical safety features built in.
5. Protect the device from extreme temperatures such as excessive heat or cold, and don’t get the unit or battery wet. Avoid dropping the device or putting the battery in contact with metal objects such as coins, keys or jewelry.
6. Don’t overcharge the battery or leave it plugged in unattended when you’re asleep or away from the home. While the chargers have a cutoff and are supposed to stop charging when fully charged, they’re made in China, where, again, there is a lack of quality control. If the cutoff circuit fails, the battery will overcharge.

Is higher power always better?

Some vapers and “cloud chasers” like to push the limit in order to satisfy their desire to create large plumes of vapor. But in modifying their devices, they take extra risks. The SFATA implores consumers to consult with established resellers to ensure proper configuration. Reconfigurations such as multiple batteries and coils can tax a battery’s capacity and cause the battery to “vent” or overheat.

“If you notice your battery getting hot or swelling, get it out of the mod to break the circuit and get it away from you,” said industry expert Nick “Grimm” Green. “A warm battery or mod is the first sign that something is not right.”

Even ProVape, the largest vapor hardware company in the U.S. and maker of the ProVari, does not support devices with multiple batteries. “Any device that stacks two or three batteries is a big safety risk,” said David Flagg, ProVape CEO.

“ProVape makes larger, single-battery devices that are both safe and satisfying. The average user doesn’t need 100+ watts to get off of cigarettes,” he said. “The first ProVari was a 12-watt device that successfully helped over 400,000 people get off of cigarettes.”

Flagg said that anytime you have 150 watts near your mouth, there’s much higher risk of a faulty component, especially when the product is from China, where there’s little to no quality control. “They may claim their product is 150 watts but when it’s tested, it’s producing much less power. The battery label may state that it’s a 1,500mAh when it’s really only 900mAh.”

When multiple cells become unbalanced, one battery can start overcharging the other cells and cause a thermal runaway. In short, a single-cell device is always going to be the safest.

Flagg said ProVape also doesn’t sell higher-power devices (100+ watts). Not only is such power unnecessary, according the firm, but it is also less safe. “This high power level can overstress batteries and overheat e-liquids, which could release more chemicals,” said Flagg.

Designed by aerospace and military engineers to the highest standards, and made in the U.S., ProVaris are subjected to at least three months of rigorous quality testing before they’re allowed to go on the market, according to Flagg. Each individual unit is inspected more than 20 times before shipping.

What the future holds

The biggest unknown is how device manufacturers will be able to comply with the FDA’s regulations for the e-cigarette industry issued in May. Unless the grandfather date is changed, any device made before Feb. 15, 2007, will have to be subjected to an arduous and prohibitively expensive (for most) premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) with no guarantee of FDA approval.

The FDA’s regulations specifically recommend that manufacturers include plans for addressing the likelihood of use and foreseeable misuse leading to overheating, fire and explosion during operations, charging, storage and transportation for distribution.

Plus, if the aerosolizing apparatus includes the battery, the FDA recommends that amperage and battery mAh rating, battery type, voltage output, and testing certificates for the battery be included in the PMTA.

Temperature control at this point is only temperature “guessing,” Flagg said. “If the device is not properly controlling temperature, you may be overheating or cracking the e-liquid in a higher-power device, causing further harm.”

“People who switch from tobacco cigarettes to [personal vaporizers] shouldn’t have to worry about their safety,” Flagg said.

Having severely curtailed its tobacco industry, Canada is now going after the vapor business.

By Luc Martial

Fourteen years ago, I sounded the alarm, warning that Canadian governments were about to ban the display of tobacco products at retail. The market in Canada was about to go dark. Such a political initiative made no tobacco-control sense: At the time, 50 percent of each tobacco package was already covered by government-mandated graphical health warnings. (Today, the health warnings in Canada cover at least 75 percent of the pack surface; Quebec mandates 98 percent.)

Prominently positioned within 40,000 points of sale across the country, these warnings had previously been touted as an important public health communication tool, allowing governments to warn potential new consumers against smoking, discourage current smokers from continuing and support those trying to quit.

The industry, unfortunately, did not react swiftly or concertedly. Perhaps it couldn’t imagine that governments would abuse their authority to the point of publicly undermining their own public health agendas. But just walk into any corner store in Canada today and you’ll see just how far governments can go when left unsupervised.

So what does this have to do with the vapor industry? Well, quite simply, as far as Canada is concerned e-cigarettes and associated products are the new tobacco. And governments are about to do to the vapor industry what they did to the tobacco industry.

In Canada, the vapor industry is facing both federal and provincial governments, intent on overregulating their products and activities. It is worth noting at the outset that Canadian governments have a low tolerance for accountability. Public consultations have been marketed to the masses as due diligence and fair play, but to any experienced stakeholder, such consultations are just window dressing. Canadian governments have the authority—and predisposition—to arbitrarily destroy any industry they dislike.

EMERGING MARKET AND LAW

E-cigarettes, as a product category, first saw the light of day in Canada in 2007. They were sparsely sold outside of regular distribution channels and perceived mostly as a gimmick. But things changed quickly. Two years after the introduction of e-cigarettes into Canada, the federal government issued a public advisory, warning that vapor products had not been verified for safety by Health Canada and that the public should be apprehensive about ingredients such as propylene glycol and nicotine.

Nonetheless, between 2009 and 2012, the e-cigarette industry in Canada grew exponentially. Innovations in vaporizers and related accessories, such as batteries, tanks and e-liquids, were well-received. Businesses, including general retail and specialty vape shops, increasingly found commercial value in distributing these new products.

As for consumers, they came in droves. With and without nicotine, e-cigarettes allowed people to quit smoking tobacco where other cessation devices had failed. As a long-standing tobacco control expert, I was quick to recognize the potential of e-cigarettes in providing an alternative to minors who otherwise would experiment with combustible cigarettes. But you don’t have to be a tobacco control expert to figure that out—it’s common sense.

By 2013, the government estimated that 9 percent of Canadians aged 15 and over—2.5 million people—had tried e-cigarettes. Many users were existing tobacco smokers, and only 25 percent of those surveyed reported that their most recently used e-cigarette dispensed nicotine. Consumers were turning to e-cigarettes as a way to never start smoking, reduce their tobacco consumption or quit altogether (2013 Canadian Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs Survey).

Interestingly enough, e-cigarette products were never marketed as health or smoking-cessation devices. That promotional momentum was purely self-generated among consumers. Adding to the popularity of these products, some physicians started reporting high smoking-cessation success rates among e-cigarette users.

So how did the federal government respond? Underwhelmingly supportive. Instead of recognizing the promise presented by e-cigarettes, the government chose to create fear about using and selling these products. Federal government inspectors began arbitrarily issuing cease-and-desist letters to domestic distributors, general retailers and specialty shops. To their credit, many vape shop owners challenged the government, refusing to either cease or desist.

Although the federal government ensured that no e-cigarettes or accessories containing nicotine were imported into Canada, domestically sourced product remained and prospered.

Despite a March 2015 parliamentary review and regulatory action report, the federal government has yet to introduce a regulatory framework for e-cigarettes. But make no mistake; serious and stringent federal regulations are set to emerge. Fearing the “renormalization” of tobacco—through mimicry—along with a gateway effect, the Canadian government is considering regulating the new category under existing tobacco or pharmaceutical frameworks.

As for provincial governments, their recent regulatory efforts have not only compared e-cigarettes to traditional tobacco products but even paired them with combustible cigarettes. Effectively, seven out of Canada’s 10 provinces now have convoluted laws regulating e-cigarettes/vaporizers and their accessories. Provinces have either defined e-cigarettes as tobacco or developed product-specific legislation.

Current regulations include: prohibiting sales to those under age 19; banning the use of e-cigarettes in public places, restaurants, bars and outdoor patios; banning e-cigarette use in cars if a person under age 16 is present; banning displays and product signage in general stores; restricting displays and  product signage in adult-only stores; banning product sampling and instructional demonstrations; and banning promotions, advertisements and marketing activities overall.

The most outrageous abuse of authority can be found in Quebec, Canada’s second-most populous province. Arguably the most anti-tobacco and anti-business jurisdiction in Canada, Quebec’s politicians in November 2015 introduced amendments to their tobacco law that set a dangerous precedent for all industries. Despite the clear differences between the product categories, Quebec defines e-cigarettes as tobacco. With the exception the tobacco flavoring ban thus far, all tobacco rules now apply to e-cigarettes, as well. One of the law’s provisions effectively excludes retailers from an exemption previously afforded to all industry stakeholders. This exemption? The ability to promote and advertise product within the trade. As outrageous as it may seem, it is now against the law in Quebec for manufacturers or distributors to: (1) show their products to retailers, either at trade shows or during in-store visits; (2) provide promotional samples to retailers; (3) send promotional information or advertising directly to retailers; or (4) allow retailers to access company websites to view and order product. It is also against the law for manufacturers or distributors to advertise and sell e-products through the internet, or to promote the category using social media. If a manufacturer or a distributor is located in Quebec it becomes illegal for them to advertise in a foreign or domestic magazine that is distributed in the province.

If e-cigarettes are such an obvious benefit to smokers who want to quit and an ideal alternative for youth who would otherwise start smoking, then why are governments acting this way? The answer is that what’s currently happening is not about health or safety—it’s about politicians and anti-tobacco groups. Anti-tobacco groups rely on government funding derived from their attacks on all things remotely associated with tobacco, making e-cigarettes a perfect new target. By depicting these products as a potential threat to Canada’s tobacco control agenda, they are generating new wind for their sails. Out comes their playbook of orchestrated fear, statistical pump and dump, government manipulation and a martyred battle against Goliath. Consequently, to protect their reputations and funding, governments and anti-tobacco groups have every interest in publicly describing e-cigarettes as a gateway to tobacco.

Left unsupervised and unchallenged, Canadian governments can be expected to introduce ever-increasing and unwarranted regulations against the vaping industry.

WHAT TO DO?

The vapor industry has an advantage not usually afforded to others. It knows who the enemy is and has seen its playbook. It should act swiftly and concertedly, before things go too far. To help prevent things from getting worse, stakeholders should consider the following actions:

• Be present, everywhere, and insist on keeping everyone honest.
• Sustainably expose malfeasance within governments and anti-vaping groups.
• Work toward securing product-specific legislation for e-cigarettes, removing vaping products from tobacco regulatory frameworks.
• Monitor, question and—if necessary—expose government surveys on the vaping industry to ensure accountability.
• Provide a face to the industry by publicly promoting your consumers and their stories. As for those who quit smoking or avoided starting with the help of e-cigarettes—collect, maintain, distribute and promote their stories to every politician in Canada and the media. Their personal testimonies will likely prove the most effective tool for protecting the vaping industry.

Welcome to the show.

Sophisticated flavors, cutting-edge manufacturing and impeccable ethics have proved to be a winning formula for Five Pawns.

By Stephanie Banfield

Visit any major metropolitan area and you’ll likely encounter a variety of e-liquid manufacturers creating an assortment of products for an industry that has experienced massive growth over the past several years. Although thousands of businesses have rapidly sprung up across the United States, one company—Irvine, California, USA-based Five Pawns—has been mastering the art of proper e-liquid manufacturing since the company was founded four years ago. Armed with a unique name and a distinctly different business model and mindset, Five Pawns stands in a league of its own.

“I think we are definitely a pioneer in the industry, and we’ve definitely chosen to follow a slightly different path than many have,” says the company’s CEO and executive mixologist, Rodney Jerabek. “I don’t at all like the direction that the industry has been going in recent months, but we are continuing to go down our own path and do things our way. That’s been our way since the beginning: to kind of put the blinders on and not pay attention to the noise that’s going on around us and to continue just to do our own thing.”

Five Pawns’ beginnings date back to early 2012, when Jerabek met with a Chinese businessman in search of a designer he could collaborate with to successfully brand and package a product he had created.

“In 2012, I started developing the first five flavors that Five Pawns was based on, and I was just doing that at the time for friends and family that I was kind of turning onto this technology,” Jerabek says. “My background was in branding and marketing, and I had a gentleman call me from China who had a disposable electronic cigarette that he was looking to bring to market in the United States.”

Although Jerabek was not a traditional cigarette smoker himself, he recognized the potential of the products his client presented and dived headfirst into an endeavor that would ultimately impact the lives of millions. Today, Jerabek is a vaper, and cigars—as well as the occasionally bummed late-night cigarette—are things in his past.

“When this guy brought over these disposable devices, the light kind of went on in my head that this product has the ability to change people’s lives,” he says. “But I didn’t like not knowing where the liquid was being manufactured and what it consisted of.”

Impressed by the product’s potential but less than thrilled with the flavor profiles available at the time, Jerabek set out to raise the bar on e-liquids and develop a line unlike any the vapor industry had seen before.

“Back then, all of the flavors were very one-dimensional, at best,” he says. “You had your green apple, your cherry, your vanilla. I’m a foodie and a single malt scotch and wine collector, and from traveling around the world in my previous life, I’ve got a pretty sophisticated palate. So I started to question why this product needed to be one-dimensional. Why couldn’t it be more like wine or cuisine? Why couldn’t you taste one thing on the inhale and another thing on the exhale, and then have another flavor linger on your tongue like you would get when drinking wines or fine spirits? So that’s when the quest started to create multidimensional and complex flavor offerings—and that’s how Five Pawns was born.”

Tapping into his knowledge of and appreciation for sophisticated flavors, Jerabek sought out ingredients that could be combined carefully to create e-liquids that played to the five tastes recognized by a person’s palate—a move that would also provide the vapor entrepreneur with the perfect name for his brand-new company.

“You’ve got sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami, which is savory, and each of the first five flavors that I introduced to the market played on one of those five tastes known to the human palate,” he says. “A pawn, by dictionary definition, is something that can be used or sacrificed to further one’s purpose. And I looked at the liquid that we were making and looked at that as being the pawn, and looked at the complexity and the sophistication of the game of chess. It’s a very sophisticated game, and these were very sophisticated and complex flavor offerings or blends that we were putting together. So tying chess imagery with five tastes and the pawn, the name just came together.”

With a name for the company determined and a one-of-a-kind line of e-liquids being manufactured, it was time for Jerabek and his team at Five Pawns to begin marketing their products to the masses.

“Social media obviously was a huge launch pad for us,” he says. “And products that I was making at the time for friends and family started to go viral, and people were sending them to their friends around the world. Then, later in 2012, we started shipping to our first authorized retail partners.”

As Five Pawns’ products gained popularity among vapers, the e-liquid manufacturer’s presence in the market also progressed as the company worked tirelessly to supply the increasing demands of the burgeoning industry.

“Back then, there were 13 vapor-specific retailers in Los Angeles and Orange County combined, and today there are thousands,” says Jerabek. “I think our timing was impeccable. With only 13 stores being in existence back then, stores started opening up at a very rapid rate, and people wanted to carry the product. Then we started developing international markets in 2013, and we find ourselves today in 60–70 countries and thousands of stores around the globe. It’s just been a great, exciting, wild ride, and I feel like a lot of it was just impeccable timing on our behalf.”

Taking things seriously

Five Pawns may be one of thousands of e-liquid manufacturers operating today, but according to Jerabek, the firm’s production methods and standard operating procedures couldn’t be more different from those found within the company’s competition.

“Many of the people servicing this market—and specifically within the last six months—are really not doing things ethically to give the industry a good name,” he says. “We’re seeing a lot of things like copyright infringement, unsustainable pricing, inappropriate marketing, which often times utilize immature or cartoon-like graphics and novelty flavor profiles—things like cotton candy and Sour Patch Kids and gummy bears. Those aren’t flavor profiles that, in my opinion, look good to the FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration], convert or person looking to switch.”

In addition to producing flavors that appear to be aimed at immature audiences, some e-liquid manufacturers simply don’t consider the effect their flavor profiles and marketing tactics have on an industry whose purpose is to attract traditional tobacco smokers to alternative products.

“I have an 8-year-old daughter, and four years ago, when I would have a dinner party at my house and sit down with her friends’ parents, the conversation would come up about what I did for a living—and back then it was defending science,” says Jerabek. “Today, it’s defending the image that this industry has placed upon itself, where if you do a Google search on vaping and you look at the imagery, it isn’t exactly something a convert even wants to associate with or make the switch to become. And I think that’s a problem.”

Jerabek also believes that, unlike Five Pawns, many e-liquid manufacturers aren’t striving for long-term success at a time when it’s imperative for every company operating in the vapor industry to take their production processes seriously.

“I think that there are many companies today that have no intention of going through regulation and have no intention of doing things correctly in the eyes of the FDA,” he says. “And there are a lot of people out there that are just looking to make money in this kind of get-rich-quick gold rush and not really taking into account the things that are necessary to uphold the image of vaping.”

Five Pawns, in contrast, has been striving since day one to maintain the highest standards of quality possible and to offer their customers access to what they consider some of the best products on the market.

“Since the beginning, we have been building our standard operating procedures [SOP] and our manufacturing practices to appease the FDA,” says Jerabek. “Knowing that FDA regulation was inevitable, we have been building for that since day one. So we have a state-of-the-art ISO 8 cleanroom environment and full automation with all of our bottling and labeling. We pour in our cleanroom facility gravimetrically rather than volumetrically, and we can be accurate. We’re still a small-batch manufacturer, so when we’re mixing 5-gallon batch sizes we can be accurate to 1/1000 of a gram with every one of our ingredients that gets poured. So our tolerances are extremely tight, and all of our mixing processes are gyro-metric and orbital, so we can guarantee consistency with the blending and emulsification of all of our liquids.”

Five Pawns also prides itself on being able to provide traceability for every product that is created within its facility.

“There’s also a traceability element that comes from our gravimetric blend process, where all of our gravimetric scales are Bluetooth-enabled,” Jerabek says. “All those calculations are recorded onto a server in the event that if we ever had to have a product recalled we can go back to every single ingredient poured in every one of the liquids, and we can identify accountability and traceability of what might have happened or if somebody had made an error. We haven’t had that happen yet, but that’s something that is important from an SOP standpoint with the FDA. And in addition to that, all of our automation on our lines allows us to individually batch record, and we enter lot numbers, born-on dates, bottle numbers, etc., so we’re able to have complete accountability and traceability from that standpoint as well.”

Ready for regulation

Because it believes in producing only the best possible products, the Five Pawns team supports reasonable FDA regulation that would force e-liquids manufactured by companies from coast to coast to adhere to a certain set of standards.

“I think that the industry is definitely in a state of turmoil today,” says Jerabek. “The real passion for me behind this industry, the goal for us, is to get people to switch. And I think that in order to continue to provide that option for people, it’s going to involve some regulation. Five Pawns has always been a proponent of some type of reasonable regulation. And we still don’t know what that’s fully going to entail, but regulation is necessary in this industry based on some of the things that I’ve seen happening over the past six months.”

To ensure its offerings are able to continue aiding those who are attempting to make the switch from tobacco to vapor products, Five Pawns is making every effort to comply with the regulations governing the vapor industry.

“We are all in on trying to go through the PMTA [premarket tobacco product application] process, and we have contracted with many companies to kind of hand-hold us through that process and build our application and our files,” Jerabek says. “We are in the process of trying to secure our appointment with the FDA, where we can sit down and present to them exactly what we intend on providing with our application, making sure that we have the correct clinical trials, the correct emissions testing, toxicology data and everything that they need in hopes that they come back and tell us that what we’re looking to provide them is going to suffice.”

Despite an assortment of challenges the company may face throughout the PMTA process, Jerabek is confident that Five Pawns has what it takes to continue business as usual.

“We are pro-reasonable regulation; it needs to be a viable pathway that companies can get through so that applications will be approved,” he says. “Today, it’s very unclear. The FDA has been very ambiguous in terms of what they are going to require. But we are all in with our contracted FDA consultants, and we own all of our own intellectual property. Every one of our flavor blends and our products are developed from the molecule up, so we know every constituent that constitutes our e-liquid blends. That’s going to be of much importance when it comes to the FDA and being able to supply them with the data that they need.”

Although the complications of complying with the FDA’s regulations are constantly looming in the background, Jerabek has never lost sight of the reason he stepped into the vapor scene in the first place, and he remains passionate about the industry that has the potential to dramatically improve the lives of former smokers.

“One of my most gratifying memories was when a 65-year-old grandmother walked into our Five Pawns tasting bar and wrapped me up in this big bear hug and said, ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you.’ And I said, ‘For what?’ And she said, ‘I have a relationship with my grandchildren again. When I was a pack- or two-pack-a-day smoker, I always reeked like cigarettes; I had tar and nicotine and the yellow stuff on the ends of my fingers—and my own daughter didn’t want me handling my grandchildren.’ And she said, ‘I’ve been able to switch, and I don’t have those restrictions on me anymore, and I have a relationship with my grandchildren that I’ve never had before,’ and she had tears in her eyes. That kind of feedback is the best feedback. To hear that people have been able to switch to our product, that’s the most gratifying part of what we do. And we’ve just scratched the surface in terms of the amount of people that are using these products. I’m excited to further pursue that and to try to get more people to use these products, whether they are Five Pawns products or they are other vapor products. I just think that it’s such an amazing technology, and I’m just excited for more people to experience it.”