Yo, what’s good, it’s your boy Dan. You know we all love blazing up, but let’s be real, smoking ain’t the healthiest thing in the world. That’s where activated carbon filters come in. These bad boys are straight up magic when it comes to filtering out carcinogens and other nasty substances from your smoke. Keep reading to find out if activated carbon smoking filters are worth using.
So, first off, you know smoking is risky business. When you light up a joint or hit a bong, all that plant material gets burned up, creating the same cancer-causing chemicals found in tobacco smoke. Smoking weed for a long time can lead to respiratory problems too. That’s where activated carbon filters come in handy. They’re like superhero filters that capture way more toxins and carcinogens than regular cigarette filters.
Activated carbon filters are everywhere these days. You can find them in air purifiers, modern vacuum cleaners, and water filters. The reason they work is that charcoal has tons of carbon in it. When charcoal gets exposed to heat, it develops tiny pores all over the place. Those pores create a huge surface area for trapping molecules passing through it in gas or liquid form. When smoke molecules pass through activated charcoal filters, they get trapped in the tiny pores and stick to the surface of the carbon.
So how are activated carbon filters made? It’s pretty simple actually. All you need is some carbon-rich materials like coal, coconut shells, or wood and lots of heat. Manufacturers place those materials in tanks with no oxygen and heat them up to crazy high temperatures over °1000F. After that, they add in nitrogen and heat it up AGAIN to an even hotter temperature of around 2000°F. All that heating creates a ton of pores and a much larger surface area for trapping toxins.
But here’s the deal: activated carbon filters don’t absorb THC. That’s right, you’ll still get high when you use an activated carbon filter. The good news is that they do a bang-up job of filtering out non-polar carcinogens that can mess up your lungs. But small polar carcinogens like hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide can still sneak through. So yeah, you might lose some THC, but you’ll also reduce the amount of nasty chemicals in your lungs.
Now, you might be wondering if activated carbon filters are worth the extra dough. Are they better than regular cigarette filters or cardboard roaches? Researchers have done studies to find out. One 2018 study looked at how charcoal filters affect free radical content in cigarette smoke. They found that charcoal filters let in 40% fewer of those unstable molecules than non-charcoal cigarette filters. Another study found that activated carbon filters reduce exposure to irritants associated with emphysema.
So yeah, activated carbon filters are way better than cardboard roaches. Those things don’t even filter anything! They just serve as a handle for your joint or blunt. Activated carbon filters are also better than standard cigarette filters because they capture more carcinogenic compounds. Regular cellulose acetate cigarette filters let through a lot more unstable free radicals that can cause cancer.
You can use activated carbon filters just like regular filters or roaches. Just stick them on either end of a rolling paper, pack it with bud, and roll away.
So there you have it, folks. Activated carbon smoking filters are pretty dope for filtering out toxins and carcinogens. They might not be perfect, but they’re way better than not using any filter at all. Stay safe out there, and keep blazing!