I’m sure most of you have heard the news about the association with lung disease and vaping, if not, then to sum it up, people are basically getting extremely sick and coming down with a dangerous form of pneumonia. According to most of the news reports that I have read, these people have fat particles growing in their lungs that cause breathing issues and in some cases they need assisted breathing. This is not the worst though; According to the CDC, 6 people have now died from this mysterious illness.
As of writing this, the CDC still has not discovered the definitive cause for this illness aside from the fact that everyone who has gotten sick was vaping. The CDC has released some additional information about commonalities between the cases that include vitamin E which is an oil that is used in THC/CBD vape fluid.
Now that I have laid out the facts, I want to give my opinion as to what is going on and my fear for the future of vaping. First off, let me say that I feel pointing fingers and making uneducated statements should not be part of our community, I feel we should stop and think and search for truth for our safety and the safety of others.
Electronic vaping devices have been around commercially since 2006. That is over a decade of people using electronic nicotine delivery systems with propylene glycol and vegetable glycerine. Now i don’t think vaping really hit mainstream until around 2009-2010 which is still close to a decade. In all of that time, there have not been any major reports of lung associated issues from vaping aside from some isolated cases here and there. Now within the last few months people have been getting sick and these people have been vaping anywhere from 2 months to 3 years. If vaping was the issue, then why is this just coming up now? What is different now?
The one thing that I noticed was oil. Several types of oil have been introduced as cutting agents in some of the THC/CBD vape fluids and I have even seen it in flavorings that are used for e-cigs (i’ll talk more on this later). I won't get into specifics here because there are a decent number of them. When oil is inhaled into the lungs, fat can build up causing an inflammatory reaction resulting in lipoid pneumonia. In the majority of the lung illnesses that I have read about, the cause was severe lipoid pneumonia.
To me, the facts are staring right at our face. We know that oil causes issues in the lungs and the vaping DIY vaping community has known about this for a long time. The FDA has been hounding the vaping industry for some time now, but I feel like legetimite regulations where failed to be put into place. Why were there no regulations put into place for all vaping fluids including THC/CBD? Why are oils getting added to fluids that are designed to be inhaled into our lungs? These are the questions that the FDA should be asking in my opinion.
In lieu of everything going on, President Trump is now talking about banning flavors nationwide which in my opinion will cause more issues then it will resolve. People are not going to stop vaping, and instead of regulating it, they are going to drive more unregulated vape products in to the black market. This seems like a rash decision to me and I feel that the FDA and other government agencies are potentially going to make it worse.
The DIY community is not immune from this issue. As a matter of fact, when that flavor ban is put into place and more people turn to creating their own vape juice, there is a larger potential for error. Those of us who make vape juice now, do it because we enjoy it. We have a passion for it and have taken the time and effort to learn about the dangers and are careful to create mixtures that are safe for our consumption. When people are forced to do it because it's the only way for them to get the juices that they want, they may not take the same precautions that we do; and this could ultimately result in the DIY community getting attacked next.
With that said; I feel that we should be proactive and do everything we can to educate people about vape juice and oil. For starters, I mentioned earlier that I have identified oils in some flavors that are used for vape juice. One good way that I have been using to determine if oils are used in a particular flavoring is to take a few drops of that flavoring and mix it with a small amount of water. If the water becomes cloudy or you see the sink to the bottom of the water, that flavoring has oil or some other compound that is not water soluble. Another thing to look out for is vape juice that is cloudy when you shake it. That cloudiness could be a result of oil in the mix. In either case we should think twice before putting those fluids in to our lungs.
The last thing that I would like to touch on, is on the long term use of vaping and unknown health risks. I think we should avoid saying that vaping is safe. We do not know that. Be careful about making claims on something that you do not know. What we do know, is that we are not burning plant material, and that results in a mist that does not contain the same compounds as conventional cigarettes. Let's stand up for what we do know and be careful to make unprovable claims.
Chris
Owner and operator of vapedish.com
Original Post: https://forums.vapedish.com/vaping-and-lung-disease/
As of writing this, the CDC still has not discovered the definitive cause for this illness aside from the fact that everyone who has gotten sick was vaping. The CDC has released some additional information about commonalities between the cases that include vitamin E which is an oil that is used in THC/CBD vape fluid.
Now that I have laid out the facts, I want to give my opinion as to what is going on and my fear for the future of vaping. First off, let me say that I feel pointing fingers and making uneducated statements should not be part of our community, I feel we should stop and think and search for truth for our safety and the safety of others.
Electronic vaping devices have been around commercially since 2006. That is over a decade of people using electronic nicotine delivery systems with propylene glycol and vegetable glycerine. Now i don’t think vaping really hit mainstream until around 2009-2010 which is still close to a decade. In all of that time, there have not been any major reports of lung associated issues from vaping aside from some isolated cases here and there. Now within the last few months people have been getting sick and these people have been vaping anywhere from 2 months to 3 years. If vaping was the issue, then why is this just coming up now? What is different now?
The one thing that I noticed was oil. Several types of oil have been introduced as cutting agents in some of the THC/CBD vape fluids and I have even seen it in flavorings that are used for e-cigs (i’ll talk more on this later). I won't get into specifics here because there are a decent number of them. When oil is inhaled into the lungs, fat can build up causing an inflammatory reaction resulting in lipoid pneumonia. In the majority of the lung illnesses that I have read about, the cause was severe lipoid pneumonia.
To me, the facts are staring right at our face. We know that oil causes issues in the lungs and the vaping DIY vaping community has known about this for a long time. The FDA has been hounding the vaping industry for some time now, but I feel like legetimite regulations where failed to be put into place. Why were there no regulations put into place for all vaping fluids including THC/CBD? Why are oils getting added to fluids that are designed to be inhaled into our lungs? These are the questions that the FDA should be asking in my opinion.
In lieu of everything going on, President Trump is now talking about banning flavors nationwide which in my opinion will cause more issues then it will resolve. People are not going to stop vaping, and instead of regulating it, they are going to drive more unregulated vape products in to the black market. This seems like a rash decision to me and I feel that the FDA and other government agencies are potentially going to make it worse.
The DIY community is not immune from this issue. As a matter of fact, when that flavor ban is put into place and more people turn to creating their own vape juice, there is a larger potential for error. Those of us who make vape juice now, do it because we enjoy it. We have a passion for it and have taken the time and effort to learn about the dangers and are careful to create mixtures that are safe for our consumption. When people are forced to do it because it's the only way for them to get the juices that they want, they may not take the same precautions that we do; and this could ultimately result in the DIY community getting attacked next.
With that said; I feel that we should be proactive and do everything we can to educate people about vape juice and oil. For starters, I mentioned earlier that I have identified oils in some flavors that are used for vape juice. One good way that I have been using to determine if oils are used in a particular flavoring is to take a few drops of that flavoring and mix it with a small amount of water. If the water becomes cloudy or you see the sink to the bottom of the water, that flavoring has oil or some other compound that is not water soluble. Another thing to look out for is vape juice that is cloudy when you shake it. That cloudiness could be a result of oil in the mix. In either case we should think twice before putting those fluids in to our lungs.
The last thing that I would like to touch on, is on the long term use of vaping and unknown health risks. I think we should avoid saying that vaping is safe. We do not know that. Be careful about making claims on something that you do not know. What we do know, is that we are not burning plant material, and that results in a mist that does not contain the same compounds as conventional cigarettes. Let's stand up for what we do know and be careful to make unprovable claims.
Chris
Owner and operator of vapedish.com
Original Post: https://forums.vapedish.com/vaping-and-lung-disease/
(Fixed)
