Old Vapor, new sneezing attacks - forced back to ash tray!

[DHolly]

Last week on a road trip with my motorcycle club, I had to go back to the “ash tray”. It’s to dangerous on the road, on “two wheels” with these constant sneezing attacks. I bummed cigarettes, then bought cigarettes. There’s thousands of road miles planned this summer, I’m leaving again next weekend. I love to ride, hate cigarettes, the taste, smell and cost but vaping will surely kill me!

There isn’t much of anything here or on the WWW about my issue with sneezing attacks. Not just a little sneeze but 4, 5 6 or more with an irritable urge, watery eyes and nose. When I put down my vape for an hour, it goes away, when I hit it, it starts back. Allergy medicine doesn’t stop it and makes me drowsy. This just started about 3 weeks ago, it’s like I’m suddenly allergic to...?

I’ve been vaping since 2013 when my lovely 77 yr old Aunt shared her vape. I had tried everything on the market including prescription drugs and hypnosis to put down my 20 year pack a day stink habit. For 5+ years I’ve been using an RTA and DIY juice. I’ve been using the same DIY products from Nicotine River (fresh frozen) since Dec 2019 as well as same flavors, TFA, LorAnn, Capella and same recipes. using a VG 70/30 @ 8+ Nic.
For 4+ years with zero issues I used the Lemo 2. Yes an oldie, but ya no how it is when you find a good combination. Until last year, I could get all the rebuildable supplies at fastech. Since 2020 I’ve been buying and using different RTA’s, RDA’s Squonks, mesh coils, etc. searching for a “new love”.
My tanks are Profile Unity, Zeus Dual RTA, Creed RTA, Drop, Brunhilde and Dead Rabbit. JIC it was the new packaged supplied wicks & coils, I went back to my old wicking material which didn’t help. Tried 100% VG with VG Nic Salts, no change. I’m at a dead end, totally out of ideas, I give up, still hate cigarettes but...

Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

 

[stols001]

Swedish General Snus:

What's under your lip/in your nose right now? - Part 2

What kind of wicking did you use in the Lemo 2. Did your wicking material change?

Also it is possible to develop an allergy at any time to anything, so you might want to try the VG elimination diet. Also, did your coil material change? If so, you may want to look at that.

So, the vape allergy elimination diet sucks but it works. You start with pure 100% VG and you vape it. Vape enough that you are vaping near your normal amount. Then, if that' Okay, add your nic in starting slow (and in VG obviously or you'd introduce two new things.) Then, up it slowly over time (if pure VG is gross, can think up to 5-10% DW) to your preferred nic percentage. Then, add in like a small amount of PG 5-10% and keep upping it slowly until you get symptoms. If you don't then you are all good there, it is flavors left.

Don't forget any flavor can be subject to manufacturer's change so maybe that happened. So, unfortunately like, it is POSSIBLE that some of yours were reformulated.

So, you then flavor test 1 flavor at a time (sorry.) Then if you get two flavors you like together, you can mix them I guess, but only the ones that have been tested.

Each stage needs to be 2--4 weeks to make sure your body is acclimated. Then, you move on to the next stage.

It is EXACTLY like the food elimination diet you start with RICE. Rice for 3 weeks. So yeah, most people who actually follow through until the end are desperate.

ALSO if you were storing ANYTHING in plastic for any length of time instead of glass, well plastic leeches. How much and how fast at freezing temps I have no clue so if you have kept things stored in plastic,. start over without out of date supplies.

I know. It seems SO improbable that someone would be allergic to trace amounts of leeched plastic. However, I believe almost anything to be possible with allergies so I am going to say if you want to know what to DO this I s something.

I guess you could find a custom allergist and see if he would skin test you for everything, to determine allergy potential. IDK who would or if it would work completely, but I will say... Maybe it's worth a shot.

Anna

 

[FlamingoTutu]

Sounds like you've tried to nail it down but without any success.

From what you've written, I'm wondering if you got a new bottle of VG shortly before your problems began? For instance, I can't handle VG derived from coconut very well. Vaped over seven years and the first time I had problems with it I didn't even know it could be derived from coconut.

Did you take Benadryl? Heck yeah it will make you sleepy but if what you have is an allergy, it should have helped. No worries though, whatever it is could just be a severe irritant instead of an allergy. No Benadyl and biking!

Hope you get it sorted out soon.

 

[JCinFLA]

First, I think about what I want to say and then type much too slowly, because there were no responses to your post when I first started writing the following. I see some of what I've written has been mentioned by others, but hopefully some of it's new.

Not just a little sneeze but 4, 5 6 or more with an irritable urge, watery eyes and nose. When I put down my vape for an hour, it goes away, when I hit it, it starts back. Allergy medicine doesn’t stop it and makes me drowsy. This just started about 3 weeks ago, it’s like I’m suddenly allergic to...?

Based on the first sentence I underlined in your info...it definitely seems to be caused by something to do with your vaping. Otherwise it would happen even when you're not vaping. According to the 2nd underlined sentence...it's likely something that's been newly introduced to your system in the last 3 weeks or so, that you may not even have considered and/or may not even be aware of its being new.

For examples: It might be something as minor as the orings in a new tank or RBA being silicone, instead of rubber, or the reverse. Or it could be a change in a flavoring, even though you didn't know the company who made it changed anything. There are many other possible variables that need to be considered.

IMO, the key is to narrow down which variables could possibly be causing it and which ones it cannot be. Some things I'd personally think about would be: Have I started using a newly purchased bottle of any of the flavorings I've been using in my DIY in the last 3 weeks or so? If not, that could eliminate my flavorings. How about new bottles of PG, VG, and/or nic base? Are any of the coils I've been using the last 3 weeks made of a type of metal I wasn't using in the past? The list goes on and on...to eliminate things and/or consider them to be possible causes.

Once you get a list of the definite "possible causes", then the process of testing them just 1 at a time would begin, to find the actual culprit(s). For me personally, the possibility of being able to continue vaping, and not going back to smoking...would spur me on to do whatever it takes to find out what's causing it. I'd likely get frustrated during all the testing, but I'm just stubborn enough that I'd continue. I might have to try using some of the Snus that Anna and others like, while testing things. Or if my eliquid turned out to not be the culprit, I'd use a few drops of it under my tongue every now and then, like I do while on long flights. That satisfies my nic cravings when I absolutely can't vape.

I wish you luck and hope you can find what's causing your problem.

ETA: Oh, you may want to try not inhaling the vapor into your lungs, to see if you still sneeze. (Bringing it into the mouth and holding it for a second or so, then exhaling through your nose and/or mouth still satisfies the nic cravings and the hand to mouth habit.) If you don't sneeze that way...you can continue vaping. Your body can/will have no problem absorbing the nic from the vapor. I've always vaped that way and others on ECF do, too. It may take a little practice to stop inhaling it to your lungs, but others have gotten the hang of it and totally switched to that method.

 

[ppeeble]

I find that if i'm rebuilding a coil and breathe in the vapour when test firing it will make me sneeze 2-3 times. The same vapour when inhaled from the device is ok. It seems that vapour going in through the mouth and out through the nose is ok but not the other way round.... Almost as though my lungs are filtering out something in the vapour that can irritate my nose.
Certain flavourings will also make me sneeze, so in my experience i would be looking at a change in the flavouring you use, either percentage wise or manufacturer 'improvement'...
Sorry, rambling a bit. Have you tried inhaling and exhaling vapour purely through your mouth and avoiding any nasal 'exhaust'.

 

[Wow1420]

Swedish General Snus:

What's under your lip/in your nose right now? - Part 2

What kind of wicking did you use in the Lemo 2. Did your wicking material change?

Also it is possible to develop an allergy at any time to anything, so you might want to try the VG elimination diet. Also, did your coil material change? If so, you may want to look at that.

So, the vape allergy elimination diet sucks but it works. You start with pure 100% VG and you vape it. Vape enough that you are vaping near your normal amount. Then, if that' Okay, add your nic in starting slow (and in VG obviously or you'd introduce two new things.) Then, up it slowly over time (if pure VG is gross, can think up to 5-10% DW) to your preferred nic percentage. Then, add in like a small amount of PG 5-10% and keep upping it slowly until you get symptoms. If you don't then you are all good there, it is flavors left.

Don't forget any flavor can be subject to manufacturer's change so maybe that happened. So, unfortunately like, it is POSSIBLE that some of yours were reformulated.

So, you then flavor test 1 flavor at a time (sorry.) Then if you get two flavors you like together, you can mix them I guess, but only the ones that have been tested.

Each stage needs to be 2--4 weeks to make sure your body is acclimated. Then, you move on to the next stage.

It is EXACTLY like the food elimination diet you start with RICE. Rice for 3 weeks. So yeah, most people who actually follow through until the end are desperate.

ALSO if you were storing ANYTHING in plastic for any length of time instead of glass, well plastic leeches. How much and how fast at freezing temps I have no clue so if you have kept things stored in plastic,. start over without out of date supplies.

I know. It seems SO improbable that someone would be allergic to trace amounts of leeched plastic. However, I believe almost anything to be possible with allergies so I am going to say if you want to know what to DO this I s something.

I guess you could find a custom allergist and see if he would skin test you for everything, to determine allergy potential. IDK who would or if it would work completely, but I will say... Maybe it's worth a shot.

Anna

Hi Anna, I'm all for food elimination and Vape elimination diets. I've done both myself. I'm just not convinced they need to be done that slowly. Maybe I was just lucky that my symptoms showed up very quickly when exposed to the offending items. It was years ago, so I hardly remember, but I think I only stayed on plain rice for a couple of days before starting to add back normal food, one item per day, one day at a time. Anything that bothered me showed up with itchy skin within hours. Put that food on the list to avoid, went back to what I could eat until symptoms gone and then next day tried something else. It did take time to figure out the common factor in all the foods on my avoid list.
When I did my vape experiment, the issue was sneezing, like the op, it was pretty much an immediate reaction. So a few hours with my DIY gear gave me an answer, verified by repeating the experiment over the next few days.

 

[DaveP]

I've only used Essential Depot PG and VG since 2010. Essential Depot PG and VG are Kosher products. I've never had a sneezing problem. My mixes have ranged from 90pg to 70pg and 50pg (rest of the mix is VG). The only way to know which is causing the sneezing is to try PG and VG each in 100% mix to see which causes sneezing. Do away with flavors and see what happens.

An allergist may be able to help. They can do scratch tests to see what you are allergic to. I had that done many years ago. They mark out a matrix on each arm that corresponds to an allergen test list and then do a small scratch in each with liquid allergens. Those you are allergic to will produce something like a mosquito bite.

 

[bombastinator]

I've only used Essential Depot PG and VG since 2010. Essential Depot PG and VG are Kosher products. I've never had a sneezing problem. My mixes have ranged from 90pg to 70pg and 50pg (rest of the mix is VG). The only way to know which is causing the sneezing is to try PG and VG each in 100% mix to see which causes sneezing. Do away with flavors and see what happens.

An allergist may be able to help. They can do scratch tests to see what you are allergic to. I had that done many years ago. They mark out a matrix on each arm that corresponds to an allergen test list and then do a small scratch in each with liquid allergens. Those you are allergic to will produce something like a mosquito bite.

It is summer. Could be hay fever and have nothing to do with ecigarettes. Sneezing fits for me means something in my nose.

 

[DHolly]

Thank you for your replies and ideas, some hadn’t entered my mind!!
I went to a friends and tried her vape pod today, Relax. It doesn’t make me sneeze, I’ve got her spare! It seems like it gives a little tickle of urge but no watering eyes or nose. It’s pre-filled juice cartridges, nic salts and misc. It gives me hope!

Stols & JC — PLASTIC is my NEW item! Never even thought about it (leeching) until your posts!!
The last 2019 order was also when I got the brown, plastic bottles that I’m using to store the VG, PG & Nic in the freezer (not from NicRiver). The partial bottle (s) may sit on the counter 2, 3 or more days every few weeks to thaw when I’m low on juice before I get it made, then goes back into the freezer.
The O-Ring (plastic) also reminded me that the gorilla juice storage bottles I’m using right now are new. I just got them last month and don’t like them, they’re flimsy.

I ordered the above new supplies tonight, new flavoring (mine are all old) ordered pod kits and Relax cartridges. Sure hate to think that I really can’t use my RTA’s & RDA’s though. It maybe my time to give up nic altogether even though I love to vape.
Will update if either switching out the plastic supplies or new flavorings eliminate this reaction. If not, at least I can use this pod, it isn’t great but I still hate everything about cigarettes.

Appreciate your help!

 

[DHolly]

Vaping the Unity Profile from a fresh batch of juice and new glass container. No problem at all and it’s sooo good!
Thanks again!

 

[fiddleshe]

Let me explain what an allergist does to test you for allergies. He draws circles on your back and labels them with whatever substance he's testing. Then he puts a drop in the circle and barely scratches your skin with a blunt needle. If he draws blood he scratched too much. Then he waits 30 mins to see if any of the areas produce a hive.
I've had allergies testing multiple times and I've done it DIY multiple times.
If I were you I would do one circle pg one circle VG another circle nicotine and the final circle your flavors. Or you could do your flavors one at a time. This would tell what your allergic to or not instead of guessing. Fyi you can do them on your forearm.