SS Mesh and Hexavalent Chromium

[genoxy]

Why am I only just hearing about this...

Referring to this thread http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...08-stainless-steel-mesh-oxide-discussion.html

Is the jury out on this yet? What are your thoughts?

When I first started vaping, Silica was the big concern and I was recommended SS mesh as an alternative but could it be true that this might be even worse?

Also I'm curious why Zen would have been sending out pre-oxidised wicks with all his equipment if this was a major issue...

Maybe a sticky should be created with all the possible issues with different materials used in vaping for people like me who don't have all the info on hand and wouldn't know unless they stumbled across certain threads...

 

[genoxy]

Just finished re-wicking my noble, ikarus and ZAP with un-oxidised SS mesh...

Hopefully I'm safe(r) now...

 

[hazarada]

chrome oxide is always on the surface of SS hence the stainless bit. Preoxidized or not there is no way to escape chromium oxide on a SS wick since the way an ecig is used(rapid heating and cooling) it is perfect for breaking the oxide off and reproducing it. Also both nichrome wire and kanthal have even more chrome in them and also form a chromium oxide layer.

The bad types of chromium oxide don't really get produced much at e-cig normal use temperatures (assuming up to 300C). Also you have to realize that the oxide layer on an oxidized wick is around 10nm thick, even if all the oxidation on a 2 by 3 inch 400 ss mesh were of the bad kind and you inhaled all of it, its still well below the daily recommended intake (going off wikipedia numbers here).