Irannews reports; Health officials, lawmakers and parents have been raising alarms about vaping for a couple of years, warning that products touted as healthier alternatives for smokers are instead drawing in young people with fun flavors and slick marketing — concerns the Trump administration cited this month while announcing plans to ban most flavored e-cigarettes. […]
Vaping Damages and Health Concerns
The caution has taken on new urgency in recent weeks as authorities scramble to understand a rash of mysterious vaping-linked illnesses that have put healthy people in the hospital with serious lung diseases. On Thursday, authorities announced a twelfth death connected to e-cigarettes, battery-powered devices that can look like flash drives and pens and that mimic smoking by heating liquids containing substances such as nicotine and marijuana.
An investigation by state health departments in Illinois and Wisconsin traces the first signs of illness among 53 tracked patients to April. The victims — mostly young men with a median age of 19 — overwhelmingly ended up in the hospital, many under intensive care. A third went on respirators.
Patients typically experienced coughing, chest pain or shortness of breath before their health deteriorated to the point that they needed to be hospitalized, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Other reported symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fatigue, fever and weight loss.
Many victims have ended up with acute respiratory distress syndrome, a life-threatening condition in which fluid builds up in the lungs and prevents the oxygen people’s bodies need to function from circulating in the bloodstream.
The first death to a vaping-related illness was reported Aug. 23 in Illinois. At that time, federal and state officials were investigating almost 200 cases of the baffling sickness in 22 states, according to the CDC.
Oregon officials announced a second death, saying a middle-aged adult fell seriously ill after vaping with marijuana oil. It was the first casualty linked to a store-bought product.
The list of states with deaths soon grew to include California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Mississippi and Missouri.
Officials say they are not sure why the afflictions are just now surfacing.
“We’re all wondering if this is new or just newly recognized,” the CDC’s Dana Meaney-Delman said recently.
Some argue doctors may have missed previous cases: Susan Walley, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics tobacco control section, told BuzzFeed News that based on her experience, young people might not recognize their use of common e-cigarette brands such as Juul as “vaping” when pediatricians ask.
- source : WP, Irannews
