Alcohol in e-juice?

[Courtnoodle]

Hi all! I'm new here and was told that I may benefit from asking this question in the Veterans section. So here it is:

"Right now I am using Mountain Oak's Red Drop. The first ingredient is PG but the last thing on the label says "May contain ethanol". This worries me as I work for a company that tests for ETG. Will this juice cause me to pop positive for alcohol? Any help on that would be awesome!"

 

[Hoosier]

Is there alcohol in e-juice? Yes, most certainly. propylene glycol (PG) is an alcohol. Glycerol (VG) is an alcohol. (VG is also known as glycerine or glycerin.) As you already know Ethanol is also an alcohol, and is often called Pure Grain Alcohol, PGA, or grain alcohol. Silly fact that is not part of this discussion is many animals need an alcohol known as Retinol and most folks call it Vitamin A.

An astute observer will note that all those names end in "OL" and that is a good way to know at a glance if a chemical is in the alcohol family.

Now, how much PGA is needed to trigger a positive result on an ETG test? I cannot answer that as there are too many factors and the biggest factor is what "line" the testing company as their threshold. (The accuracy of the tests are controversial too, but if your company uses them, they use them and believes in them.)

The PGA content in an e-juice would be pretty low. 10% would be pretty high. So if you vape 5ml a day you would be consuming 0.5ml a day. At 0.5ml a day, it would take 60 days to get an ounce. I honestly have no idea how much of the PGA in an e-juice would actually make it into the lungs and how much of that would be absorbed, but even if it is 100%, the amount getting into the body should still be pretty low.

Again, the whole question comes back to the "line" set by the testing company as the threshold between "clean" and "drinker". To be absolutely safe, the only recourse is to only vape juices that have no grain alcohol in them. Natural flavoring is often in grain alcohol. VG is many times thinned with grain alcohol in the mixing process. Some artificial flavorings are in a grain alcohol base. So there are plenty of ways for grain alcohol to be a part of the mix, even if it is a tiny amount.

Ask vendors if the flavors you're interested in using contain any grain alcohol. If you have to avoid any grain alcohol, for whatever reason, then avoid any liquid and/or vendor that says they use grain alcohol, or cannot answer that they certainly do not use grain alcohol. Just asking if they use alcohol is not specific enough since PG and VG are alcohols. (But so is vitamin A)

Sorry I could not be of more help about will cause a test to pop positive.

 

[rob33]

Although I'm not a doctor: I would think the levels would be so low the test wouldn't pick them up at the percentage they are looking for. Your perfume daily use mostly contains more alcohol than the eliquid.