Vitamin E Acetate
Vitamin sounds healthy. In 2019 in vape aerosols, it caused EVALI.
⚠ Sounds harmless — it isn't
Vitamin E ist gesund — als Acetat in Vape-Aerosolen war es 2019/20 Auslöser von über 2.800 Lungenerkrankungen (EVALI) mit 68 Todesfällen in den USA. Hauptproblem: Es beschichtet die Alveolen und blockiert den Gasaustausch.
At a glance
- Also known as
- α-Tocopherylacetat · Tocopherylacetat · Vitamin-E-Ester
- CAS number
- 7695-91-2
- Toxicity
Very high
- Carcinogenic
- Not classified for cancer
- In cigarette smoke
- In vape aerosol
- Gestreckt in illegalen THC-Liquids (2019); in legalen Nikotin-Liquids selten
What is Vitamin E Acetate?
Vitamin E acetate (α-tocopheryl acetate) is the stabilised ester form of vitamin E. Approved for decades in skin oils, cosmetics and nutritional supplements, it's considered safe for oral and dermal intake. In e-cigarette liquids, it appeared en masse in 2019 in the USA as a cutting agent in illegal THC liquids — and triggered the EVALI outbreak.
Why is Vitamin E Acetate in cigarettes?
Vitamin E acetate has no place in legal EU nicotine liquids — in 2019, US black-market suppliers added it to THC liquids to raise viscosity and disguise dilution. In the vapourised aerosol, the acetate formed a sticky film that coated the alveoli and impaired gas exchange. The CDC documented over 2,800 hospitalisations for severe lung illness between August 2019 and February 2020; 68 people died.
What Vitamin E Acetate does to your body — short term
EVALI patients typically had acute symptom onset: coughing, shortness of breath, chest pain, often nausea and vomiting, followed by rapid worsening of oxygen saturation. CT scans showed the characteristic „ground-glass“ infiltrates in both lungs — an indication of an inflammatory, lipid-containing lung disease. Many patients required ventilation; some developed permanent lung function damage.
What Vitamin E Acetate does long term
Among EVALI survivors, even months later, restricted lung function, persistently elevated inflammation markers, and in some cases scarring changes in lung tissue have been documented. Vitamin E acetate blocks alveolar macrophages in the lung — exactly the cells that should remove pollutants from the alveoli. This impairment can be irreversible.
Where else do you know Vitamin E Acetate from?
You know vitamin E acetate from face oils, anti-ageing creams, vitamin capsules and skincare products. In all these applications the substance is harmless — it's absorbed via skin or gut and processed by the body as vitamin. The EVALI catastrophe of 2019/20 showed: a substance safe in one context can be deadly in another.
How it compares
There's no workplace exposure limit for vitamin E acetate, because inhalation simply isn't intended — it's not used in any industrial aerosol context. The only known inhalation exposure stems from illegally cut vape liquids; in 2019, just a few vape sessions with contaminated cartridges were enough for clinically relevant damage.
Workplace exposure limit: kein Grenzwert (üblicherweise nicht inhaliert)
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