commercial nicotine e-liquids and illegal and possibly adulterated
THC oils.
The alert said: “All patients have reported using e-cigarette products
and the symptom onset has ranged from a few days to several weeks
after e-cigarette use.
“Within two states, recent inhalation of cannabinoid products, THC or
cannabidiol, have been reported in many of the patients.”
Michael Siegel, a professor in the Department of Community Health
Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, was quick to
make the distinction between commercially-produced vape products
and illegal THC use.
He said: “These cases are not being caused by vaping products
generally because these products have been on the market for
years without any signifi cant problems and because the reports are
clustered in specifi c geographic areas.
“Now that further information is available, it is clear that the majority
of the observed cases are associated with the use of THC oils that
were obtained from unlicensed sellers.”
Nonetheless, the CDC urged the public to ‘consider refraining from
using e-cigarette products’ and instead use FDA-approved smoking-
cessation products or seek counselling.
The CDC later updated its warning to advise that products containing
THC “play a role in the outbreak.”
Commercially available e-liquids contain a mixture of nicotine,
flavourings, propylene glycol (PG) and vegetable glycerine (VG).
Even those most critical of vaping would likely agree that commercial
e-liquids are far less harmful than combusted tobacco.
‘THC oils’, however, use a different carrier, likely MCT or coconut
oil. Lipid oils are potentially incredibly harmful when vaporised. Oil
should never be vaped. Legitimate e-liquid manufacturers are aware
of this and would never be associated with such products.
It’s also possible that some of these black-market oils contain
synthetic cannabinoids. These dangerous compounds are designed
to mimic the effects of cannabis but have been linked to severe
illnesses and deaths over the past few years.
On August 12, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH)
issued an alert warning of a ‘cluster’ of at least seven healthy adults
being hospitalised with symptoms of severe acute pulmonary disease.
All seven of the cases were linked to black-market THC vapes,
according to Nancy Gerking, assistant director of public health of
Kings County.
And on September 4, the StarTribune reported that all eight of the
interviewed Minnesota patients hospitalised for severe respiratory
illnesses reported using an illegal THC product.
Richard Danila, epidemiology program manager for the Minnesota
Department of Health, said: “You can think about how difficult this
investigation is. You have a 17-year-old in the ICU. Are they going
to tell you they used an illegal product? Are they going to tell you
they used an illegal product when mom or dad are standing in the
same room?”
However, even if some of the cases can be attributed to e-cigarette
products ‘acquired from unknown or unauthorized (i.e., “street”)
sources’, as the CDC alert suggested, this is surely a red flag of what
could happen if flavour bans and excessive regulation push vaping
underground and force an e-cigarette black-market to flourish.
Finally has nobody stopped to ask the most obvious question about
this vape-related panic?
Surely if there was something inherently dangerous about using
commercially-available e-cigarette products then why are similar cases
not being reported throughout the world?
There seems to be a very large and powerful anti-vaping lobby in the
USA and this panic is a classic example of where the vaping hate brigade
are refusing to let the facts get in the way of a good vaping scare story.
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