The American health agency, the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) as well as the FDA and local health authorities, have warned against e-cigarette use as 215 cases of severe pulmonary disease are reported across the United States.
Notably, the CDC reports that many people affected stated they used e-cigarette products with liquids that contain cannabinoid products, such as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Cannabis has many dangerous and long-term health effects including altering brain function. The CDC does not think the outbreak is virus or infectious related, in other words, the health problems are caused by vaping, not by anything else. Teenagers affected arriving in hospitals had symptoms including cough, shortness of breath, and fatigue, worsened over days or weeks before becoming hospitalised. Some reported fever, anorexia, chest pain, nausea and diarrhoea. Scans and X-rays showed inflammation or swelling throughout both lungs. It should be noted that 20% of high schoolers in the US consider themselves to be regular users of e-cigarettes.
As a consequence of this epidemic and because of the evidence showing that nearly 22% of new tobacco smokers started smoking because they first vaped, the FDA has launched an ad campaign aimed at teenagers to stop them taking to vaping in the first place.
Yet again, evidence piles up demonstrating how dangerous to health and wellness vaping really is. Study after study demonstrates this, not just lung disease, but heart disease and brain function. Also, it is not just nicotine content that is having a negative effect on health. One study found that those vaping e-liquids with zero nicotine content had damaged blood vessels as a consequence. None of the experiment participants were prior smokers or vapers. Blood flow and oxygen levels were restricted through femoral arteries (in the thighs) for over one hour after vaping.
This is the first study looking at nicotine-free impact of e-cigarettes on blood vessels especially. Even though the FDA and CDC are targeting campaigns against teenagers vaping because primarily of nicotine addiction and the risk of converting to tobacco smoking, both agencies point out that no one should vape anything if they are underage, if they are pregnant and if they don’t smoke. With or without nicotine, e-cigarettes contain many other toxic ingredients that cause the body harm.
Sources:
CDC announcement:
https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/basic_information/e-cigarettes/severe-lung-disease.html
The World Foundation for Natural Science Cannabis brochure:
https://www.naturalscience.org/publications/cannabis-smoking-pot-is-neither-harmless-nor-healthy/
FDA statement of 21.8% conversion from vaping to smoking – watch the news report:
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/26/health/wisconsin-8-teens-lung-damage/index.html
FDA campaign against vaping – watch the videos especially:
https://www.fda.gov/tobacco-products/public-health-education-campaigns/real-cost-campaign
Brain function affected by e-cigarettes:
https://www.naturalscience.org/news/2019/07/electronic-cigarettes-damage-brain-stem-cells/
Nicotine-free e-cigarette blood vessel damage:
https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/10.1148/radiol.2019190562
and
https://www.phillyvoice.com/e-cigarettes-vaping-penn-research-blood-vessel-damage/
The World Foundation for Natural e-cigarettes Fact Sheet:
https://www.naturalscience.org/publications/the-danger-of-electronic-cigarettes-creating-a-new-generation-of-nicotine-addicts/
