Deadly vaping lung illnesses are cropping up across the US, and experts blame everything from vegetable oil to ‘Dank Vapes’
- Vape juices often contain chemicals like formaldehyde. The flavors of vaping liquids are one of the top two reasons young people told Reuters they begin using e-cigs. REUTERS/David Becker ...
- Most e-cigs also produce acrolein, a chemical often found in weed killer. The chemical acrolein releases when gasoline is burned. ...
- Nicotine hurts the lungs, whether it's vaped or smoked, and could also be at fault. ...
What illnesses are caused by vaping?
Vaping illnesses and injuries associated with nicotine and chemical exposure may include:
- Asthma
- Brain development issues
- Bronchitis
- Bronchiolitis obliterans (aka Popcorn Lung – caused by exposure to the flavoring chemical diacetyl)
- Heart problems
- Respiratory illnesses
What are the health hazards of vaping?
- Scientists are still learning about the long-term health effects of e-cigarettes.
- Some of the ingredients in e-cigarette aerosol could also be harmful to the lungs in the long-term. ...
- Defective e-cigarette batteries have caused some fires and explosions, a few of which have resulted in serious injuries.
What are the negative health effects of vaping?
The short-term side effects of using nicotine vapes are usually:
- Lingering aftertaste
- Light-headedness
- Sweating
- Headache
- Nausea and vomiting
- High blood pressure
- Increased heart rate
What are the health concerns of vaping?
Vaping Health Risks. There are many health risks associated with vaping. Vape products often contain high levels of nicotine, which can lead to addiction and even serious illnesses. The batteries used in some vape products can also explode, causing burns, scarring, and death.
What is vaping illness?
First, let's cover the basics. The condition has been given the term EVALI (e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury). Whether intentionally or not, it's an acronym that speaks directly to how little is known about the illness; thus far, the only solid link between cases is that those who fell ill reported a history of vaping or e-cigarette use. Sufferers typically report a gradual onset of early symptoms over days or weeks, including respiratory symptoms such as coughing, chest pain, and shortness of breath, as well as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fatigue, fever, and weight loss.
How many people died from vaping in 2019?
The first smattering of cases were recognized in April 2019. By August, the mysterious illness had claimed its first lives. Months later, with the case count at 2,290 and 47 confirmed deaths, health organizations are scrambling to discover the cause of the vaping-related illness. Much is still unknown about the illness and its causes, ...
How does vaping work?
Beth K. Thielen, University of Minnesota fellow in adult and pediatric infectious diseases, offers a helpful explanation: "With both, the goal of the user is to convert the drug — typically nicotine or THC — into a gas form that can be taken into the body by breathing the drug. With vaping, there is typically a heating element powered by a battery that converts the liquid contents of the vape cartridge into a gas or aerosol. While the way they generate aerosols or gases is different, both smoking and vaping can deliver potentially harmful byproducts in addition to the drug."
What percentage of vaping patients are male?
Of the reported cases where the requisite data is available, the CDC reports that 70 percent of patients are male, 79 percent are under the age of 35, and a full 86 percent report the use of products containing tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC — the main psychoactive compound present in marijuana — suggesting that the chemical plays a marked role in this outbreak.
What are the metals in e-cigarettes?
As far back as February 28, scientists at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health warned that the tiny metal coils inside an e-cigarette — that heat and ultimately aerosolize the liquid nitrogen — could be tainted with toxic metals like chromium, manganese, nickel, and even lead.
Is smoking a byproduct of vaping?
With smoking, of course, we now know that those potentially harmful byproducts, include tar and carbon monoxide, ingredients e-cigarettes were specifically designed to sidestep. But in avoiding one potential contaminant, the largely unregulated vaping industry opened the door to a host of others.
Is the e-cigarette industry regulated?
However, it's important to note that the entire e-cigarette industry is ultimately unregulated. In the decade that e-cigarettes have been on the market, the FDA has repeatedly delayed its review of e-cigarettes, a lapse the agency has vowed to address.
What chemicals are in vaping?
Vaping exposes the lungs to a variety of chemicals. These may include the main active chemicals in tobacco (nicotine) or marijuana (THC), flavorants, and other ingredients that are added to vaping liquids. Plus, other chemicals can be produced during the vaporizing process.
What are vaping devices?
Vaping devices, also known as e-cigarettes, vape pens, and e-hookahs among other terms, come in many shapes and sizes. Some look like traditional cigarettes, cigars, or pipes. Others are shaped like every-day objects, such as pens or USB memory sticks.
How old do you have to be to vape?
New laws are aimed at curbing vaping among teens. People must now be 21 to buy any tobacco product, including vaping products. And companies can no longer produce and sell flavors that appeal to children like fruit and mint. If you’ve already started vaping or smoking cigarettes, it’s never too late to quit.
How does puffing work?
While they may look different, most vaping devices work in a similar way. Puffing activates a battery-powered heating device. This heats the liquid in a cartridge, turning it into vapors that are inhaled.
Can nicotine be inhaled in a vaporizer?
Plus, other chemicals can be produced during the vaporizing process. “If the liquid has nicotine in it, then the user is inhaling nicotine along with the other ingredients in the liquid,” explains Dr. Thomas Eissenberg, an expert on tobacco research at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Is vaping harmful?
So how safe is vaping? Studies suggest nicotine vaping may be less harmful than traditional cigarettes when people who regularly smoke switch to them as a complete replacement. But nicotine vaping could still damage your health.
Is vaping more popular in high school?
Vaping is now more popular among teens than smoking traditional cigarettes. One in four high school seniors say they vaped nicotine in the past month. And studies have found that teens who vape nicotine may be more likely to go on to smoke traditional cigarettes.
Why are e-cigarettes linked to lung disease?
A culprit thickener, or other additive, might explain why both e-cigarettes, which have legal cartridges that typically carry nicotine, and vaporizers are linked to the 450 people with lung illness, said Kovacevich. “With black market cartridges, or counterfeit cartridges — we see a lot of those — the ingredients are not known.”
What is vaporizer in e-cigarettes?
Advertisement. “Vaping” is shorthand for inhaling vaporized liquid, usually a mixture of nicotine and oil heated by a battery-powered atomizer in an e-cigarette or larger vaporizer. E-cigarettes have been sold in the US since 2007, with more than 9 million people using them on a regular basis, according to the CDC.
What are the thickeners in vaping liquids?
There is some suspicion about the “thickeners” added to vaping liquids, Nick Kovacevich, CEO of KushCo Holdings, the largest US seller of vaping products and accessories (but not vaping liquids), told BuzzFeed News. Thickeners make vaping liquids more viscous, preventing oversaturation of a vaporizer’s combustion chamber. Typically in THC vaping liquids, they are loaded with the terpenes that give marijuana its taste.
What devices did people with lung injuries use?
Patients with lung injuries used a wide variety of devices, including both vaporizers, large-ish gadgets with a refillable liquid reservoir, smaller e-cigarettes that vaporize nicotine liquid from cartridges, and a wide variety of brands of liquids and cartridges. Around 80% reported they used vaping liquids that contained THC, the central clue in the case, with investigators hinting that the chemical was likely involved in all of the cases.
Is vaping legal in Michigan?
In the meantime, Michigan’s governor only last week banned the sale of flavored e-cigarettes in her state in response to teen vaping, and after its health department announced six cases of lung illness. The legal US age for e-cigarette use is 18, and Walley and others complain that with 1 in 5 teens now vaping, those rules are being flouted, with kids ending up hooked on nicotine, which changes adolescent brain development.
Is Vitamin E bad for vaping?
While health officials hunt for answers, one leading theory points to a bad ingredient in vaping liquids, perhaps Vitamin E, sold on the street. But some physicians suspect the epidemic has always been there, unnoticed until now. And for others, the culprit might be the online world of dubious home-brew recipes for getting a better high while vaping.
Is the FDA regulating e-cigarettes?
The FDA is entitled to regulate e-cigarettes but to much criticism has pushed back its review of rules until 2022. In the meantime, hundreds of flavored and THC-infused vapors have gone on sale in wild west conditions, unregulated, as teen vaping has mushroomed.
When will vaping peak?
Emergency department (ED) visits related to e-cigarette, or vaping, products continue to decline, after sharply increasing in August 2019 and peaking in September.
When is the next vaping hospital admission?
Dates of symptom onset and hospital admission for patients with lung injury associated with e-cigarette use, or vaping — United States, March 31, 2019–February 15, 2020. Numbers do not sum to 2,807 due to missing admission dates.
What is an e-cigarette?
Using an e-cigarette is commonly called vaping. E-cigarettes work by heating a liquid to produce an aerosol that users inhale into their lungs.
How to contact CDC about e-cigarettes?
If you have questions about CDC’s investigation into the lung injuries associated with use of e-cigarette, or vaping, products, contact CDC-INFO or call 1-800-232-4636.
Who monitors e-cigarettes?
CDC, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), state and local health departments, and other clinical and public health partners are continuing to monitor e-cigarette, or vaping, product use-associated lung injury (EVALI).
Is vitamin E acetate linked to the eli outbreak?
Vitamin E acetate is strongly linked to the EVALI outbreak. Vitamin E acetate has been found in product samples tested by FDA and state laboratories and in patient lung fluid samples tested by CDC from geographically diverse states. Vitamin E acetate has not been found in the lung fluid of people that do not have EVALI.
What is e-cigarette lung injury?
Eventually, researchers tied these cases to vaping. The illness is now called e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury(EVALI). Doctors and researchers are still working to learn more about this condition, including its exact causes and long-term effects.
Is vaping a good alternative to smoking?
Electronic cigaretteswere originally designed as a healthier alternative to traditional cigarettes. But it turns out smokinge-cigarettes -- commonly known as vaping-- has its own risks.
Can evali cause breathing problems?
Someone with EVALI may have breathingand digestive problems, along with other symptoms, including:
What are the chemicals in vape liquid?
When these substances are heated, they form aldehydes following oxidation. Formaldehyde (a carcinogen) and acrolein are two oxidizing agents found in vape liquid. Sustained exposure to such chemicals is linked to an increased risk of developing cardiovascular issues.
Is vaping harmful?
Many argue that vaping is less harmful than smoking regular cigarettes because they contain fewer chemical components. However, contrasting research suggests that vaping may cause a variety of adverse health effects.
Can you use vapes for smoking cessation?
The US Food and Drug Administration has not approved the use of vapes for smoking cessation due to conflicting and limited rigorous data concerning the long-term implications. However, traditional smoking cessation methods, such as nicotine replacement chewing gums, nasal sprays, and skin patches, are recommended by healthcare providers and health authorities.
Can vaping cause nicotine addiction?
Many use vaping as a method to wean themselves from traditional cigarette smoking. However, many health professionals worry that vaping – as a nicotine delivery system – may be causing nicotine dependency in adults and high school-aged children. Flavorings in vaping products have also been associated with increased nicotine intake.
Do vapes cause mental health issues?
Research investigating the effect of regular vape use and mental health suggests that users are more likely to have affective disorders. Researchers found that those who used vapes daily were more likely to be diagnosed with anxiety and depression.
Does vaping cause respiratory problems?
Case study data suggests that vaping may cause adverse effects on the respiratory system following the case of a woman who was diagnosed with lipoid pneumonia, which was thought to have been caused due to the inhalation of a glycerin-derived oil found in vape liquid.
Is Vaping Bad for your Health?
Electronic cigarettes, also known as vapes and e-cigs, are battery-powered devices that aim to simulate the experience of regularly smoking cigarettes. To work, they heat a vape liquid containing nicotine, solvent carriers, and other chemicals to a specific temperature, which causes the liquid to turn into a vapor. This vapor is then inhaled and exhaled.
What is a vape pen?
With vaping, a device (typically a vape pen or a mod — an enhanced vape pen — that may look like a flash drive) heats up a liquid ( called vape juice or e -liquid) until it turns into a vapor that you inhale. “Vaping is a delivery system similar to a nebulizer, which people with asthma or other lung conditions may be familiar with,” says Broderick. ...
What is the condition called when you get sick from eating popcorn?
“Popcorn lung” is another name for bronchiolitis obliterans (BO), a rare condition that results from damage of the lungs’ small airways. BO was originally discovered when popcorn factory workers started getting sick. The culprit was diacetyl, a food additive used to simulate butter flavor in microwave popcorn.
What is the chemical that can damage your lungs?
Acrolein: Most often used as a weed killer, this chemical can also damage lungs.
What is the food additive used to deepen e-cigarette flavors?
Diacetyl: This food additive, used to deepen e-cigarette flavors, is known to damage small passageways in the lungs.
Is second hand vapor safe?
Secondhand Vapor Isn’t Safe Either. It’s a myth that secondhand emissions from e-cigarettes are harmless. Many people think the secondhand vapor is just water, but this couldn’t be farther from the truth. The vapor emitted when someone exhales contains a variety of dangerous substances, which may include: Nicotine.
Does vaping affect the lungs?
Instead of bathing lung tissue with a therapeutic mist, just as a nebulizer does, vaping coats lungs with potentially harmful chemicals. E-liquid concoctions usually include some mix of flavorings, aromatic additives and nicotine or THC (the chemical in marijuana that causes psychological effects), dissolved in an oily liquid base.
What kind of vapes did Justin use?
Justin had been using a Juul device and mint-flavored nicotine pods, his favorite. He bought mostly Juul products, plus the occasional off-brands available at stores. He would puff on the mint vapes constantly, draining about two pods a day.
How long did Justin Wilson vape?
Justin Wilson, 25, vaped for about a year and then suddenly collapsed, unable to breathe, on Sept. 1. He had to spend a week in a hospital in Portland, Oregon. Courtesy Jake Wilson. Sept. 13, 2019, 7:40 AM PDT / Source: TODAY. By A. Pawlowski.
What are the symptoms of a syringe?
Any new respiratory symptom should be reason for concern, including: 1 coughing 2 shortness of breath 3 chest tightness 4 wheezing 5 general symptoms like extreme fatigue or fever are also warning signs.
Is vaping safe for kids?
Vaping is not as safe as people thought it was, said Dr. Humberto Choi, a pulmonologist and critical care specialist at the Cleveland Clinic. Choi has treated several of the vaping-related illnesses and has recently been inundated by calls from parents worried their children are exhibiting worrisome symptoms.
Will Justin go back to vaping?
Another theory is that the heated vapor returned to oil form inside the cooler human body, his father said. “There’s no way” Justin will go back to vaping, he said. Family friends are now throwing away their vape pens after learning about the ordeal, Jake Wilson added.
Can e-liquid cause lipoid pneumonia?
Because the e-liquids can contain oils, there’s concern about the potential for lipoid pneumonia — an inflammation of the lungs caused by oils — but that’s not the pattern Choi has seen at the Cleveland Clinic. Nor are black-market products necessarily to blame: Some of Choi's patients have only used a regular branded vaping device, not something tainted or bought on the street.
