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On Wednesday, the Trump administration announced that it would be moving forward with a proposed ban on flavored nicotine vaping products.
The reasons behind the proposed ban include six reported deaths and almost 500 people in 33 states and eight territories becoming ill as the result of their use of the flavored vaping products.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar added that because an astounding 5 million children now use e-cigarettes, “An entire generation of children risks become addicted to nicotine because of the attractiveness, appealability and availability of these vaping products.”
Among those illnesses reportedly being caused by flavored nicotine vaping products is a rare form of pneumonia, according to the CDC.
CDC officials reported that five patients were admitted to hospitals in North Carolina between July and August 2019 with acute lipid pneumonia. All five of the patients reported using electronic vaping pens or e-cigarettes to vape THC.
Acute lipid pneumonia causes fat or oil particles to build-up and inflame the lining of the lungs.
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Daily Mail reports…
Some people have mild or no symptoms at all, while other people may experience chest pain, coughing and breathing issues. Because the signs are non-specific, this can lead to a missed diagnosis, which can delay treatment.
It occurs in just one percent to 2.5 percent of the population, according to a 2003 study from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center in New York. This makes the condition extremely rare.
According to the report, the patients, who were between ages 18 and 35, all experienced several days of shortness of breath, nausea and vomiting before they were hospitalized.
The five patients all reportedly also used nicotine cigarettes and/or smoking marijuana cigarettes.
“Initially, all patients were treated empirically with antibiotics (the two-drug combination of ceftriaxone and azithromycin, or a fluoroquinolone) for presumed community-acquired or aspiration pneumonia, but all developed worsening respiratory failure within 48 hours of admission,” reads the CDC report.
“These five cases highlight the importance of awareness of a potential association between use of marijuana oils or concentrates in e-cigarettes and lipoid pneumonia,” it continued.
Another teen, 18-year-old Adam Hergenreder from Gurnee, Illinois, was hospitalized and told that after using e-cigarettes for more than a year and a half, he now has lungs similar to that of a 70-year-old.
Government health investigators say they discovered a chemical – an oil derived from Vitamin E – found in samples of marijuana vaping products from patients all over the country who got sick after vaping.
Hergenreder, an athlete, says he got the THC he vaped “off a drug dealer” and now when he tries to take a deep breath, “Most of the time it ends up in a cough.”
“It’s very new and potentially very bad. There have been deaths and there have been a lot of other problems,” Trump said on Wednesday.
No kidding.