"Healthy" Additions to Waterpipe/Bong-Water and Activated Carbon

[Soulfake]

Ich recently thought about how one could improve the absorption efficiency for toxic parts of the smoke. Water and activated carbon are good to clean gas or smoke from certain gases and similar volatile substances (sadly terpenes and other positive elements too, at least with activated carbon) but they are not really efficient to bind tar and other non-water soluble constituents although carbon can bind some very toxic things like nitrates, nitrogen mono oxide and many more.

I thought about adding some kind of oil or maybe propylene glycol to the water as it gets very dispersed after a few smokes as the bubbles with water distribute it even though it's not soluble and after a certain time it also stays completely mixed with water, which could be because of a reaction with the smoke so something is filtered that keeps the oil and water together although I don't know what exactly this/those substances could be but I guess the oil will make it more likely that more tar molecules and other fat-soluble stuff will be absorbed.

I also read a research paper (I'll link it here if I find it again) that states that normal cellulose-filters for cigarettes that are treated with sodium bicarbonate have a greater capacity to absorb smoke particles although I couldn't really understand what kind of reaction is caused by the bicarbonate. On the other side it could cause the smoke to have a higher PH and convert the nicotine into it's free base which is the most toxic form (although it gives a quite strong nicotine rush, you can feel it when you smoke tobaccos with much freebase nicotine like American Spirit that was analyzed once) but from my experiments it seems that the bicarbonate makes the smoke a bit smoother and the pipe less smelly. (I use two activated carbon adapters and a pre-cooler so they don't get full of ash and can be used much longer. This is a really good combination for a smooth smoke but I guess it takes quite a few good terpenes away, I only smoke the synthetic noids of which some are so cheap that I don't care how much of the ingredient is filtered)

 

[Jekyl Anhydride]

Bdd --> cd

 

[psychlo0015]

I think youre having a pipe dream. If it was possible everyone would know about it by now. Smoking through activated carbon is just going to absorb a small amount of everything that passes through is including THC.

The easiest thing to do is cut out the combustibles like the actual plant matter. Try smoking hash on its own that would cut out most of the smoke.

The other option is to stop smoking it all together and move to extracts that have no plant matter. There are plenty of ways to vaporize extract. OR use hot air to vaporize the active components.

 

[Thomas Davie]

@Soulfake - this probably won’t work, and even if it does I’m not sure the payoff is worth it,

1) Take a pristine clean bong with distilled water.
2) Measure the pH of the water.
3] Take a number of bong rips and let that water get good and dirty.
4] After say 10 rips, take the pH of the bong water. It’s either going to be slightly acidic, close to neutral or slightly basic.
5) Knowing whether your bong water is going to turn slightly acidic or basic allows you to buffer the bong water in one direction or the other.

I’ll bet that poly aromatic nitrogenated hydrocarbons will turn the water slightly basic. I’d buffer the bong water with a weak acid solution; even as little as 2 drops of vinegar would change the pH buffering.

I don’t think the payoff is going to be worth it though.

Tom

 

[Soulfake]

As far as I read activated carbon and water as well are good to filter out certain gases, volatile substances and small dust-particles (sadly the carbon also filters out many essential oils/terpenes of herbs). Since I only smoke with activated carbon I immediately feel the difference when I smoke a normal bong setup where I get way more "intoxicated" (with the notion on "toxic") and dizzy, probably from carbon monoxide and the other gases that causes a short oxygen reduction and the effect seems to be much more enjoyable and "cleaner" with the carbon. I use it now for about 3 years and since then I don't have anymore of that bong-caugh and brown sputum etc. in the morning, usually I'm really lazy but this is one of the things that really convinced me.

The only thing that is problematic is filtering out the heavier polycyclic hydrocarbons and other tar components. Usually cellulose filters like those in cigarettes are better at removing tar than gases/volatiles but I have never seen something like cellulose-fluff that you could use in an adapter like those for activated carbon.

Yesterday I tried just for fun how raspberry leaves would do as a filter as they are extremely fluffy, you litterally can't seperate the "wool" that you get from crushing the leaves (you can do pretty much anything with them, put them in a coffee mill, mixer etc. as they will always stay in that "wool" form without being powdered). I used one adapter filled with normal a. carbon and one with a small layer of carbon on the screen, then I stuffed the raspberry wool into it, compacted it slightly and put another thin layer of carbon on top of it. It seems to have worked somehow but the smoke was almost too mild at the first 5 times or so as the throat hit was completely lacking. I guess there would be better material than raspberry leaves but well, they have a big surface area and I don't have any form of cellulose or something similar that could be used instead (but I'm searching further how to remove tar more efficiently).


From the experiments with various amounts of baking soda in the water I got the impression that it somehow makes the nicotine-rush and other effects stronger but I'm not completely sure yet. I'll try to measure the PH of normal water after a day of smoking and try this buffering idea.


Edit: Btw, this thread is about waterpipes in general, weither you smoke weed, other herbs or chems through it. For example it would make no sense to put oil into the water if you are dabbing almost pure thc/cbd wax but if you smoke synth. noids on herbal blends I would rather put my health over the losses of the noid through all the filtering as they are insanely potent anyway where 1g (from ones like (4N)5F-ADB or SGT151) lasts me about 3 months as a ~5mg/g = 0,5% blend is enough even though I smoke 24/7. (So the calculation by the shops "more potent=more money" doesn't really work here)

I don't understand why people don't message their shops, wholesalers and those their labs where they buy from that "not everybody" wants something thats a thousand times more potent than THC where it's almost impossible to find a good dose as the window of effects is so small and either it's underwhelming in low doses or gives you at just a bit too much that "I feel something bad is going to happen (physically)"-feeling. I'd rather pay more for something that doesn't last me as long as those overly potent noids if it has a positive and enjoyable effect like the top cannas such as JWH122/210, (5F)-AB-Pinaca and AB-Fubinaca which I rated more highly than THC in terms of a clean, yet slightly psychedelic/mind opening euphoria with loads of creative thoughts and ideas etc. I guess most people rather like somthing like that than a russian-roulette chemical that can give you seizures even with low doses along with an effect that is in general more neutral to negative than nice and rather clouds the mind more than it gives you this euphoric creativity.