Over in the new member’s section of E-Cigarette Forum there’s a thread about whether we e-cig users should be concerned that our e-liquid is manufactured in China. The original post is:

Is anyone concerned?

That all if not part of the juice we buy is manufactured in China? I went to a party last night and a few people asked me this question, which made me begin to wonder. None of the smokers at the party wanted to try my e-cigarette, they were all concerned about how it is manufactured and how clean the facilities were. I cannot find a manufacture in the USA that does not use at least one product from China. Does this concern anyone or are my friends making me paranoid? At least here in the USA things are regulated, ok maybe not the best system but I am sure much much better than China. We have no idea what these manufacturing plants look like, if they are sanitary, etc.

Any thoughts on this?

I can’t answer there, so I thought I’d post my reply here. WITH PICS!!!

First off, while sanitation is, and should be, a reasonable concern with ANY consumable goods, the particular paranoia over Chinese goods is at least a little xenophobic, and even a bit racist. Sure there have been high profile cases of contaminated goods, but compared to the sheer VOLUME of consumable goods made in China for the US, they are such a MINUTE fraction as to be almost inconsiderable. And it’s not as if the US has never had serious incidents of contaminated goods or foods before. Salmonella salad, anyone?

But setting that aside…

Our manufacturer of course has certificates up the yin-yang, but in the end, as far as I am concerned, those are just pieces of paper. The real proof is in the pudding; ie, their procedures, so I thought a few pics would help reassure people.

I took a tour of our liquid manufacturer last week, and I was very impressed with the cleanliness and sanitation of the plant.

The liquid manufacturing facility, is isolated from the rest of the factory. To enter, everyone has to don lab coats, masks, hairnets, and plastic booties.

The entrance to the Clean Area

(That little box on the floor to the left of the door is a device that wraps a palstic bootie over your shoe automatically. You just step into the box, and *snap* you’ve been bootied! )

Next, you have to step through a “clean room” type airlock, where these high pressure blowers spray sanitizer on you.

Leaford in the airlock

Inside, the floors are covered in a sanitizer, and everything around you is spotlessly clean.

Inside the liquid manufacturing plant

Filling carts

Leaford in the cart filling area

Seriously, I’ve been in food plants that didn’t have this elaborate a procedure.

Oh, and this isn’t related to cleanliness but… am I the only one green with envy of THIS charging station?

Leaford's charging area (NAH, but I wish!)