My Video Breaking Down the Study
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc79f1fi6_U
---
​
Link to the full study here:
https://sci-hub.tw/10.1021/acs.chemrestox.9b00047
​
---
​
TLDR: They took 50%VG/50%PG unflavored base, inputted different concentrations of sucralose (0.5%/wt being top end) and measured the vapor from a Kanger Subtank at 24-26w, with a few different methods. What they found was that Sucralose is pretty unstable and at vaping temperatures, releases chloride which can then essentially create an environment for the production of aldehydes and hemiacetals.
Hemiacetals are NOT formaldehyde, but can turn into formaldehyde. Essentially meaning that the body may be able to breakdown the hemiacetals before it converts, thus, making sucralose much less dangerous. But much more science needs to be done, especially with human subjects, to get an understanding of harm reduction in contrast with traditional tobacco smoke. (Remember, cigarettes actually produce formaldehyde).
In Table. 1 - you can see the levels detected, if you'd like to cross reference those levels with any other science you made find.
I spoke to a Biochem grad about this, and will be releasing a video on my channel diving further into this study, with his opinions. He obviously explains it much better than I could ever. I'll be sure to update this post once the video has been uploaded.
​
Sucralose Based Sweeteners and their Ingredients for Reference (will be updated)
​
|Flavoring Name|Ingredients| |:-|:-| |The Perfumers Apprentice Sweetener|PG, Maltol, Sucralose (~5%), Water| |Flavorah Sweetener|PG, Sucralose (~5%), Water| |Flavor West Sweetener|PG, Sucralose (30-40%), Flavoring| |Capella Super Sweet|Water, Sucralose (~10%), Citric Acid, Sodium Citrate, Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Benzoate|
​
EDIT: BTW, I love CAP Super Sweet.
EDITT: Added my video breakdown
It's unbelievable to me that FW Sweetener has 30 to 40% sucralose and CAP Super Sweet only as about 10%. Are you sure that's not supposed to say ~50% next to CAP Super Sweet?
I haven’t found exactly how much CAP has yet. It could possibly be around FW levels, but the preservatives could also just make it taste sweeter.
I guess it's possible that preservatives somehow make it taste sweeter, but damn, that much sweeter? If you don't mind the hemiacetals, try vaping 1% CAP Super Sweet all by itself and 1% FW Sweetener standalone. It tastes like CAP has to have more sucralose than FW. Like 10 to 20% more.
I never use sweeteners, mostly because they kill my coils. When I use even 1% it's like 1/5th the coil life of not using it at all.
I just bought commercial juice first time since ~1.5 year. This thing is crazy, crazy sweet. I normally diy without any sweeteners.
Not only do the coils get black crazy fast, but also, after 1 hour of light vaping, you can only taste the sweetness, not the actual flavor anymore. It's a no for me.
I just watched this this morning and i gotta say thanks heaps Wayne for doing this kind of investigation and making it be known to us vapors. I haven't seen any other videos covering this and its super important stuff. Your a legend 👍
This is one of the more worrying ones I've seen. Time to ditch the Cap SS?
Some of the actual concentrates have sucralose in them, too. I know Wonder Flavours adds sucralose to a number of their flavors, and I’m almost positive FW does as well.
I don’t have a strong opinion on it but just wanted to throw that out there.
So does this mean in laymens terms sweetener real bad?
Good thing I didn't order any sweetener when I started making my own juice. I was getting sick of overly sweet commercial juice and it might be better for my health. As an added bonus, my coils last so much longer. I'm at 4500 puffs on my current Falcon M-triple coil and it's still tasting good.
Certain recipes are really weird to me without sweetener. Like cinnamon roll apple Danish. It tasted like unsweetened oatmeal. That being said, I only use a little bit in 2 or 3 recipes. Most juices are already pretty sweet on their own
Oh I didn't think of dessert recipes, I only make fruit flavors as I'm not a fan of dessert flavors. But I can imagine they would taste off without a little sweetener.
What about the sweetener when you drink coffee / tea which is at boiling temperature . Or say people who work at a coffee shops like starbucks who inhale the fumes of the sweeteners from the coffees all day .
Hey Wayne, I watched your videos on this earlier this week and was surprised that you didnt mention erythritol sweetener. I know you've touched on it in the past and I had a hard time finding some to purchase and thought maybe that was the reason.
Good to know this is being studied, I've always been suspect of adding sweeteners just for the reason of accumulated gunk on the coils. Heating that gunk up has always been a concern, it doesn't seem like a great idea.
Without sweeteners a lot of my favorite recipes end up with bitter undertones, and I've tried just about every artificial sweetener out there in the quest of finding one that I can use an absolute bare minimum and still cut the edge off of the bitterness.
Delosi Labs Mega Sweet ( https://delosilabs.com/flavoring/additives-and-spices/mega-sweet-concentrated-flavoring.html ) has been the one I've found I can get away with only about 1.5 drops added to warmed PG before I mix a 120ML bottle at 80VG/20PG ratio. At that ratio, I've found I can go through about 4 120ml bottles before I start seeing any trace of gunk on the coils using temperature control at 450f. If I use a mod without TC I'll start seeing seeing a little gunk after about 3 120ml bottles, so temperature definitely seems to play a part. Mega Sweet is definitely sucralose based, and I don't know the ratio of sucralose, but to me it tastes sweeter than Flavor West Sweetner.
I've also noticed that SS316L coils seem to gunk up with sweetened juice quicker than kanthal, and I think that would be probably be a good variable in further studying sucralose degradation, as something is seemingly speeding the reaction.