Vaping – A Closer Look Behind the Smoke Screen

Description:
Vaping is a popular way of inhaling cannabis. The benefits of vaping (compared to regular smoking) include less smell, consistent doses, and ease of use. There are, however, also some negative effects from vaping cannabis. Harmful ingredients found in vaping products include heavy metals, carcinogens, and micro particulates. These particulates, as well as certain flavorants, can cause severe lung damage and disease. In addition, adulteration of vaping products has also been observed.
In this symposium, the speakers will discuss the latest advances in analysis of vaping products and composition of the released vapors. A unique feature of this symposium is that the speakers represent “both sides of the law”, i.e., testing legal (quality of cannabis products) as well as illegal cannabis (forensic analysis). Specifically, the speakers will cover hot topics like metal contamination from vaping devices, detection of adulteration of vapes with toxic chemicals, comparison of smoking vs vaping vs edibles, and forensic approaches to identification of illegal cannabis vaping products.

Speaker: Eberhardt Kuhn - Shimadzu Scientific Instruments
Dr. Eberhardt Kuhn is the Market Manager for Food, Cannabis, and Hemp at Shimadzu Scientific Instruments. He is a renowned chromatographer with over 30 years of experience in this field at companies like Restek, Agilent, and Bio-Rad. Dr. Kuhn has presented talks at conferences and events in 40 countries. His expertise is the field of chromatographic separations, column chemistry, and scientific instrumental analysis of food, including determination and identification of contaminants (pesticides, heavy metals, and Food Contact Materials, such as PFAS), food quality, food adulteration and confirmation of food authenticity, and general analytical method development. His recent interests focus on all aspects of cannabis and hemp analytics, from potency to terpenes to contamination (pesticides, residual solvents, metals), as well as educating the public on the countless benefits of hemp and cannabis.