Vaping: Emergency Alert

Vaping:  Emergency Alert!  You have probably heard that vaping has caused sickness and death in several states across the US.  So, FLASS has joined other healthcare professionals, alerting you about vaping and lung disease.  This emergency alert is being echoed by the CDC, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), state and local health departments.

Vaping Alarm News: Not New, But Now Critical

We have published cautionary articles previously, but this is the first time we have publicly issued a FLASS official emergency alert on vaping. We now interrupt our special feature on COPD to bring you facts behind our warnings.

Please help us spread the word that this activity is causing severe illness and death among users of vaping devices.  The e-cig epidemic is thus far related to 450 cases of mysterious and severe lung disease.

CDC and other U.S. Health Officials Unite Against Vaping

 

Doctors and research scientists have been appealing to the public to stop vaping. The researchers need time to understand what is happening to patients who contract these critical breathing illnesses.

The disease has attacked 33 individuals in states, including California, Indiana, and Minnesota.  And so far 6 people have likely lost their lives to the mysterious pulmonary illness.

Puzzling scientists the most about the deadly cases has been that “No single vaping device, liquid or ingredient has been tied to all the illnesses…” However, let us note that many of the patients vaped with products they bought on the street.

Take a look at some updated facts in the FLASS Case Against Vaping:

• Many of the patients, but not all of them, had been vaping THC. That is the chemical that creates the “high” in marijuana.
• Many among the sick and dead, are or were, teen-agers.
• Health officials have only been keeping track of the likely causes of the vaping illness if the patient had been treated within three months.
• Recently “doctors have said the illnesses resemble an inhalation injury.” The body behaves as if it has “inhaled a caustic substance.”

Know the Symptoms of Vaping Disease

The patients who died did not have lung infections.  This is a terrifying fact because it means the new vaping disease completely resists antibiotics. However, the new disease includes some very familiar pulmonary symptoms:

• shortness of breath
• fatigue,
• chest pain,
• nausea and vomiting.

“We’re all wondering if this is new or just newly recognized,” stated Dr. Dana Meaney. Dr. Meanery is Delman of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Likewise, an Illinois health official, Dr. Jennifer Layden, said officials there don’t know when such illnesses first began. However, she continued there has been a marked increase since spring.

Legalities and Legislation

 

At FLASS we would not be surprised to see many states adopt new vaping laws in the face of the emergency. Top government health officials, including the surgeon general, have flagged the trend as an epidemic. Michigan has been the first state to openly declare legislative war on the candy-flavored e-cig trend.

The governor gave companies 30 days to clear out their stores. The state has banned the sale of flavored vaping materials. He stated, “Right now, companies selling vaping products are using candy flavors to hook children on nicotine and misleading claims to promote the belief that these products are safe. That ends today.” Likewise, Michigan’s chief medical executive determined that youth vaping constitutes a public health emergency.

Outcry About Outbreak

The victims who died of sudden and powerful lung disease had only one special behavior in common.  They vaped. Now, we have seen vaping cross several generations as a fast trend affecting every age across our society.  In some families, we saw Grandfather vape because he was quitting cigarettes. Then came the flavored e-cig juices and junior high and high school-aged children began vaping as a socially cooler version of tobacco use.

FLASS Diagnosis of the Vaping Situation

 

What happened that caused the popular rise in a product so dangerous?   Clearly marketing outstripped the research studies for these products. They were available long before intense clinical testing could be done. Likewise, companies marketed vaping paraphernalia before the government could regulate the new industry or its advertising methods.

Please share this special alert with friends and family. The doctors and staff at FLASS want you to talk to your family about vaping.  Make sure we spread the word about the

dangerous truth of the trend and this new lung disease. Firstly, e-cig vapor is not just steam and flavorings. Secondly, it is not just cool and fun. Finally, until the CDC completes its investigation, e-juice and vaping is just plain dangerous.  And deadly. The CDC is putting out alarms and appeals about it daily. They’ll tell us when it’s safe, if ever.

Attention:  The American Lung Association published these alarming statistics:

• Even before the vaping disease erupted, E-cigarette use among high school students worried pulmonologists.
• Then it increased by a shocking 78 percent.  And we saw this happen in just one year, from 2017 to 2018.
• This dramatic increase in vaping led to the federal government declaring youth e-cigarette use an epidemic.

Today, would you believe?  More than one in five high school students use e-cigarettes. Likewise, at the current time, vaping is the most commonly used form of tobacco among youth in the United States.

Warnings Against Vaping from the CDC

Please use caution if you do use e-cigarette products.  And if you experience symptoms like those reported, seek medical care promptly. ” Regardless of the current ongoing

investigation, the CDC stands by these alarms:

• Youth and young adults should not use e-cigarette products.
• Women who are pregnant should never use e-cigarette products.
• Adults who do not currently use tobacco products should not start using e-cigarette products. Why encourage problems in your pulmonary system?

Our Biggest Warning

 

Here is a very important warning:  “If you do use e-cigarette products, you should not buy these products off the street.  For example, avoid e-cigarette products with THC or other cannabinoids.”

• You should not modify e-cigarette products.
• And especially do not add any substances to these products.
• Special Note:   Adult smokers who are attempting to quit should use evidence-based treatments.  This includes counseling and FDA-approved medications.  If you need help quitting tobacco products, contact your doctor.
• Also, if you are concerned about your health after using an e-cigarette product, do not wait. call your local poison control center at 1-800-222-1222.

Vaping Means You Trust Your Manufacturer

It is clear to us at FLASS that manufacturers no sooner got the products out to the public, than they were ripped off by low-quality producers.  By this, we mean they were

copied by illegal drug dealers. So far in our own research, we see a sad result; the most seriously ill patients have vaped with illegal marijuana.  Likewise, they have used other substances procured “on the street.” Just the same, other studies are proving new fears about the sticky and oily substances in flavored e-juices. For example, of the patients who got sick had vaped with e-juice laced with vitamin E-oil acetate.

The CDC fears for the public’s safety.  They do not trust vaping products even when they come from the corner vaping store.  You might be shocked to know that the FDA has not approved any of these products as safe for lungs.

Terrific Take-Aways from Emergency Vaping Alert

 

As we said, e-cig companies have never had their manufacturing quality-controlled.  They were not inspected by any government agency or any independent lab.

It also might shock you a little that the big tobacco companies own and make some of these products. As investigations continue, the Center for Disease Control has asked the public to refrain from using any Vaping products.  These include:

• devices,
• liquids,
• refill pods,
• and/or cartridges…
  FLASS will be following the story of vaping and this new disease closely.  And we will bring you updates even as they happen.  And please, don’t vape until the CDC completes their current investigation.

As always, we thank you for following the FLASS blog and remember we are all about life and breath! So breathe!  And don’t vape.