Researchers concerned with the lack of regulation in the rolling paper industry have published a study in which they analysed 53 rolling paper products available on the US consumer market.
The objective of the study, published in the journal ACS Omega was to evaluate if these products were potentially causing a risk to the health of consumers.
A team of scientists from Lake Superior State University in Michigan found a significant amount of the 53 tested products to contain potentially hazardous levels of copper, lead, chromium, vanadium and other elements.
“Arsenic, cadmium, mercury, and lead are commonly considered to be the elements of greatest human exposure concern. As a result, these elements are always required to be monitored in commercial pharmaceutical compounds in the U.S. and the European Union… In the samples studied, there was significant variation in the concentration of all four elements with measured concentrations spanning 2–3 orders of magnitude,” the study authors wrote.
Using specialist microscopes researchers discovered that rolling papers which had been dyed in the manufacturing process contained higher concentrations of some potentially dangerous elements, specifically copper. Copper is often used to produce ink that’s used in the process of dyeing rolling papers to make them appear a certain colour.
“Based on visual examination and further examination under both a stereomicroscope and reflected light microscope, we suspected that several manufacturers were utilizing inks containing Cu [copper] pigments. Our objective was to determine if the source of elevated metal concentrations was related to product design (raw materials or additives) or resulted from inadvertent contamination during production and manufacturing,” the study states.
Researchers expressed concern in their conclusion at the lack of regulation concerning contaminants in the rolling paper industry. They also recommend that officials in the US reevaluate their guidelines for the fabrication of these products, they ask manufacturers to eliminate the use of copper-containing inks in the dyes they use, and they call for more research into the potential health hazards consumers face when inhaling these elements.
“Under the current regulatory scheme, rolling papers are virtually unregulated, except in a limited number of jurisdictions, such as the state of California, as part of a prerolled final product. This general lack of regulation is of concern in light of their potential to substantially increase exposure to several potentially toxic elements, particularly copper. This is of even greater concern considering the widespread medical use of cannabis by at-risk populations.”
