Ceramic Heating Elements

Can someone please elaborate on the materials in ceramic heating elements that make them ROHS compliant. Furthermore, I read somewhere (vrip site if I recall correctly) that a lot ceramic contain Aluminum which is a cancer causing agent. I owned a volcano classic and got rid of the unit for that primary reason. Can anyone atest to which vapes have the most potential to be the safest most healthy in terms of releasing no other chemicals then that in the bud. Obviously there are no studies of the health effectiveness of vaporizing, let alone which elements to use.

It would be interesting for FC to establish a health thread comprised of all health related jabberwocky concerning vaping.
 
biojuggernaut,

Vamp

Member
Rohs compliant is generally getting rid of stuff like lead and other heavy metals. You have absolutely no danger of aluminum in a heating element. To get the aluminum in your lungs, it would first have to melt (1220 F) and then boil (4566 F). The temperature of your vaporizer should not exceed 400 F. Ceramic is basically dirt or clay. The metal is going to come from the resistor material and the lead wires. These are encapsulated in the ceramic, so there is no chance of them coming into contact with the air stream.
 

DeepFried

A Legend in my Own Mind
Should have done some research before selling your Volcano for that reason. From Storz-Bickel website:
http://www.storz-bickel.com/vaporizer/vaporizing-frequently-asked-questions.html
Look for heading
"6. Does the aluminium heat exchanger emit any substances which are subsequently inhaled by the user?

No. the top temperature reached in the heat exchanger 240C (464F) is by far below the temperature that is needed to emit any substances out of the aluminium alloy AlMgSi, melting point 660C (1220F); boiling point 2519C (4566F) used by us. This is documented by an analysis of the air produced by the Volcano on top temperature made by the UTM Office for Environmental Engineering in Munster, Germany"

Volcano was independently tested in November 2009 when the Digit got released:
Report link http://www.storz-bickel.com/pdf/Heat Exchanger Alu Study.pdf
 
DeepFried,

VWFringe

Naruto Fan
do you miss the volcano? did you use more with it?

people mostly say rohs is just one of the safety standards, and for us means basicly lead and mercury free, except in China...where nothings really prohibited yet, but they're "supposed to" label it - they're working on it, and i know some battery chargers have fake UL labels, but..know your source perhaps?

from wikipedia (i don't know what this means, but it sounds like they're not quite there yet, and the US? hahaha, we won't sell stuff, but we can build it all day it sounds like)

[h]RoHS in other regions[/h]

Asia / PacificChina Order No. 39
Final Measures for the Administration of the Control and Electronic Information Products (often referred to as China RoHS[18]) has the stated intent to establish similar restrictions, but in fact takes a very different approach. Unlike EU RoHS, where products in specified categories are included unless specifically excluded, there will be a list of included products, known as the catalogue see Article 18 of the regulation which will be a subset of the total scope of Electronic Information Products, or EIPs, to which the regulations apply. Initially, products that fall under the covered scope must provide markings and disclosure as to the presence of certain substances, while the substances themselves are not (yet) prohibited. There are some products that are EIPs, which are not in scope for EU RoHS, e.g. radar systems, semiconductor-manufacturing equipment, photomasks, etc. The list of EIPs is available in Chinese and English.[19] The marking and disclosure aspects of the regulation were intended to take effect on July 1, 2006, but were postponed twice to March 1, 2007. There is no timeline for the catalogue yet.

Japan
Japan does not have any direct legislation dealing with the RoHS substances, but its recycling laws have spurred Japanese manufacturers to move to a lead-free process in accordance with RoHS guidelines. A ministerial ordinance Japanese industrial standard for Marking Of Specific Chemical Substances (J-MOSS), effective from July 1, 2006, directs that some electronic products exceeding a specified amount of the nominated toxic substances must carry a warning label.[20]

South Korea
South Korea promulgated the Act for Resource Recycling of Electrical and Electronic Equipment and Vehicles on April 2, 2007. This regulation has aspects of RoHS, WEEE, and ELV.[21]

Turkey
Turkey announced the implementation of their Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) legislation effective June 2009.[22]

North America
California has passed SB 20: Electronic Waste Recycling Act of 2003, or EWRA. This law prohibits the sale of electronic devices after January 1, 2007, that are prohibited from being sold under the EU RoHS directive, but across a much narrower scope that includes LCDs, CRTs, and the like and only covers the four heavy metals restricted by RoHS. EWRA also has a restricted material disclosure requirement.

Effective January 1, 2010, the California Lighting Efficiency and Toxics Reduction Act applies RoHS to general purpose lights, i.e. "lamps, bulbs, tubes, or other electric devices that provide functional illumination for indoor residential, indoor commercial, and outdoor use."[23]

Other US states and cities are debating whether to adopt similar laws, and there are several states that have mercury and PBDE bans already.
rohs restricts six materials in EU
1.Lead (Pb)
2.Mercury (Hg)
3.Cadmium (Cd)
4.Hexavalent chromium (Cr6+)
5.Polybrominated biphenyls (PBB)
6.Polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE)
ceramic should only have safe nichrome inside, but some are doped with other metals known to be bad for us, and the ceramic is porous (except for nano ceramics ...i think) and compounds do come through the ceramic, but i think this only means to stick to regular ceramic heating elements or protect from the vapor path

i wish i could support this claim that i read something about the instant-on ceramic heating elements, damn, it's on my brain

anyway, the bottom line is that right now we consider ceramics safe, even in vapor path, for the models currently in review, including of course the other heater types, or you'd see threads vanish or move to abv i suspect

i don't think anyones expecting health problems from the heaters...but all glass is of course the high way, and the hippie way,
 
VWFringe,
sold my volcano and bought my ion and my VHW. I say I made a decent compromise. Wish i had an easy valve digit unit with the glass adapter from illadelph though
 
biojuggernaut,
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