I’m trying to find for people in states that already have heavy metal testing on the books how ofter are people’s distillates failing? CO is going to mandatory heavy metal testing on the 1st of April for concentrates and I want to see how big of a problem this could potentially cause/is in other states.
Arizona will be mandating heavy metal testing in November. Our company has been testing raw and finished goods since we came into the AZ market. We see trace amounts of Arsenic and Cadmium in our distillate, we have yet to see a failed test, we’ve been In The market for about 2 years now. Unfortunately, I’ve seen terpenes pop for heavy metals left and right. We’ve found that a centrifuge drastically minimizes the potential of failing. Keep your growers in check, ask for soil and water samples if applicable.
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Killer, I appreciate it!
Are you extracting the terps your self?
No, not currently. We have a partner that runs a vitalis Q90.
We see a lot of residuals pop as well oddly enough.
Yeah, we run CO2 and will occasionally see high RSA. They claim that it is produced naturally with any plant. Not sure how much I buy it.
We’ve had heavy metal testing available for a couple years now in Michigan. I’ve never failed one. They have apparently added nickel to the heavy metals testing and I hear that’s causing some failures
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Remember to thoroughly clean all of your new stainless steel to remove any manufacturing byproducts to help reduce this.
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I’ve performed 15 heavy metal tests spanning 9 different growers over the last 6 months and 0 have failed for heavy metals using hydrocarbon extraction. In fact, they weren’t even close to failing. Now that we are licensed, 75% of the growers we’ve received material from in the last month test positive, but not over the action limit, for heavy metals in the raw biomass. This included cadmium arsenic nickel mercury lead and one other
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We are actively performing experiments to determine what is pulling the metals out during our process and expect results back that will provide a good picture of what’s working. I won’t remember to post here but hit me up and I’ll share the results.
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I’m sure theres data regarding the solubility of these heavy metal ions in your preferred solvent. Remember that your distillate is a concentrate. While heavy metals may not show up in a soil sample, once taken up by the plant and extracted, it’s entirely possible that the concentration of heavy metals are both now above the method detection level and the acceptable level.
Know your fields. Know your supply. Take meticulous notes because knowing where you can get biomass without heavy metals issues during extraction will put you miles ahead of the competition.
PS don’t forget to rotate your crops.
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What heavy metals are you required to test for?
I’ve done remediation, including nickel, with success bringing everything down to passing levels and in most cases <LOQ here in Michigan. I’m able to do it prior to any distillation as well so it shouldn’t have any detrimental impact on yield if you have to exclude certain distillation fractions because they contain the heavy metals.
Arsenic, Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, Copper, Nickel, Chromium
What are you using to remediate heavy metals?
Bentonite takes a fair chunk out, coupled with intensive water washing and you should be fine
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Gotta love those magic powders that what I was just about to say
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How does heavy metal testing in cannabis compare to the same required testing in city water? Would this be an equal comparison on the amount of metals in the product that is allowed or who is under stricter regulations?
Just look at the services and coas from different labs and they will tell you what they test for and how much.
medicine Creek is one that comes to mind that can test for over 250 compounds
Measured in ppm or ppb usually
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