Everything We Learned About Vaping in 2019
We can say that 2019 was not the best year for vaping. At the beginning of the year, vaping continued to enjoy the status of a popular and potentially safer alternative to smoking cigarettes. This was until we realized that certain types of vapes can cause sudden illness and even death.
While we have always argued that using e-cigarettes is unsafe for brain development , we have also found several ways that a Juul vape smoke or Juul charger can be helpful in very specific , random scenarios . However, we started the year with a reminder to avoid smoking in front of children , as if you were not smoking cigarettes in front of their eyes:
Vaping with children is not safe.
“Finding that the vast majority of parents who use e-cigarettes allow smoking in their homes and cars is an alarming trend,” said Jeremy Dremer, lead author of the report in this research press release . “We are concerned that parents have been misled by the marketing of vape products and now believe that the aerosol produced by these products is harmless to children. Pediatric healthcare professionals must help establish the truth and educate parents that vaping is not safe for children. ”
And suddenly, in August, we began to read reports that more than 150 people who used vaping fell ill with serious respiratory diseases .
Over the past two months, the CDC has collected 153 reports of “possible cases” of severe lung disease. The important details are that the disease does not appear to be contagious (that is, not caused by a virus or bacteria), and that all patients reported vaping before they got sick.
Nicotine and THC (cannabis) vapes are under suspicion. So far, no specific product or device has been highlighted.
This prompted us to once again warn parents about the practice and offer some tips on how to talk to teens about vaping:
As with any other risky behavior, it is important to establish an ongoing dialogue with teens about vaping. Even if you have no idea that they have tried this, they most likely have friends who vape. The American Lung Association has created a website called The Vape Talk with a selection of helpful resources for parents, including:
Lifehacker Health editor Beth Skorecki checked to see if the flavors themselves in vapes are safe.
All this time, manufacturers of e-liquids and other vaping products didn’t have to prove their ingredients were safe before selling them. It seems logical that flavors should be harmless, but it turns out that many are not. Diacetyl, which is safe when used as an oil flavoring for popcorn, causes a respiratory illness now known as “popcorn lung” when inhaled. Vitamin E acetate, which is likely the cause of recent vaping illness, is not dangerous to ingest, but it appears to be fatal when inhaled. (Vitamin E acetate is absent from most commercial flavored vapes; it seems to be mostly found in THC vapes on the black market.)
By November , we had confirmation that the vaping disease the CDC calls EVALI is likely caused by vitamin E acetate, which is found primarily in THC vapes, especially some black market cartridges.
The new lung fluid sampling method showed that all patients tested – a convenient sample of 29 people from 10 states – had vitamin E acetate in their lungs.
There has not been such a consistent result for other chemicals suspected of causing the disease, including “vegetable oils, petroleum distillates such as mineral oil, MCT oil, and terpenes.”
82% of the samples contained THC; 62% contained nicotine. This means that some included both. Vitamin E acetate is known to be a supplement in THC vapors, especially in some black market cartridges. To date, more than 2,000 people from 49 states have been diagnosed with vaping disease, 39 of whom have died.
With all this in mind, you might be thinking, “Maybe I should quit.” If so, we have some advice on this matter:
You might throw your juul in the trash in a fit of anger, but smoking cessation experts say things go better if you think about the process a bit and set a date (soon!) To quit smoking.
It helps you understand why you are quitting smoking. Take some time to think and perhaps write about it. Later, you might be tempted to start over because what good is quitting if it makes you unhappy? Have a ready answer. Better yet, make a list of the best reasons to quit smoking and place it in a place you’ll see a lot, like on your phone’s lock screen.
And hey, now is the right time to make that decision.