Paint On Brand New (2019) Sneaky Pete Vaporizer Borosilicate Glass Vape Tube: 6,827 ppm Lead, 2,233 ppm Cadmium + 807 ppm Arsenic.

Yikes — I guess it’s not just glass baby bottles that are painted with Leaded paint these days!!!

My husband bought this water pipe attachment (the Sneaky Pete Arizer Bubble Straw) to use with his fancy vape (we’re in Oregon after all, where cannabis is legal – and quite popular! [He explained that his thinking was that any relatively “low-risk” stress-reduction strategy is definitely welcome/pretty much mandatory in these trying times — and the combination of such a thoughtfully-designed vape (he acquired that device awhile ago) plus this clever water-cooling accessory seemed like a sure-fire “healthier” way to chill out!)

What is apparently also legal, however is that lovely accessories such as this — an ingenious example of glass art, really — are allowed to be sold decorated with paint that is positive for three known poisons for humans: Lead, Cadmium and Arsenic!

What’s most upsetting is that this is not the first vape component that I have tested that was positive for Lead.

When tested with an XRF instrument, the painted logo on this borosilicate glass vape stem (by Sneaky Pete Vaporizers) had the following readings (each test done for a minimum of 60 seconds):

• Lead (Pb): 6,827 +/- 120 ppm
• Cadmium: (Cd): 2,233 +/- 47 ppm
• Arsenic (As): 807 +/- 59 ppm
• Barium (Ba): 366 +/- 148 ppm
• Chromium (Cr): 256 +/- 64 ppm
• Selenium (Se): 442 +/- 16 ppm
• Zinc (Zn): 1,249 +/- 26 ppm
• Nickel (Ni): 19 +/- 12 ppm
• Iron (Fe): 70 +/- 27 ppm
• Metals not listed were not detected by the XRF instrument in consumer goods testing mode.

Continue reading below image:

Here’s a second set of readings for good measure (confirming similar levels, with a slightly different area of the logo in the scope of the XRF instrument):

• Lead (Pb): 5,024 +/- 93 ppm
• Cadmium: (Cd): 1,583 +/- 38 ppm
• Arsenic (As): 596 +/- 50 ppm

Simple solution: please consider when purchasing items like this checking first to confirm that they come (or can perhaps be orderable) without any painted logos or markings.

Of course my husband was very disappointed that this thing he bought to relax and get away from his wife’s depressing daily grind of ferreting out heavy metal toxicants in consumer goods ironically turns out to be painted with Lead paint! 

Amazing response from the company…

When we shared this discovery with the company — they immediately sent us a replacement piece with no painted markings at all. I love getting responses like that right away. I don’t yet know if they changed their products (or their paint formulations) across the board  – but hopefully, now that they know better, they can re-source or reformulate the markings on their glass products – and perhaps even offer some right away on their website without any painted markings at all! [I will check back with them to see if they are doing anything different since our initial findings were shared with them – and I will let you know about that here with another update!]

This stuff doesn’t have to be hard, but most manufactures of quality glass items actually HAVE NO IDEA that the paint used for their decorations and logos may be high in potent neurotoxicants (like Lead, Cadmium and Arsenic).

As always, please let me know if you have any questions.

Here’s another post I wrote about “safe smoking” when it comes to concerns for toxicants like Lead, Cadmium, Arsenic and others.

Here are other examples of borosilicate glass items that I have tested.

Thank you for reading and for sharing my posts.

Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama

This is the photo of the item on their website – the logo is painted with red and black Leaded paint: