As lung injuries from vaping continue to rise across the United States, Rochester physicians and New York health leaders developed a new tool to assist in the diagnosis and treatment of e-cigarette, or vaping, product use associated lung injury (EVALI).
The diagnostic/treatment algorithm, published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, complements and expands upon early guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for managing the condition. It was created by pulmonary and toxicology experts at the University of Rochester and the New York State Department of Health.
I read a short article recently in Time Magazine (I think) about doctors trying to diagnose the "mystery" lung disease caused by vaping. It's quite scary that these lung injuries are manifesting themselves so quickly and suddenly.
Imagine what it could be like after decades of use, for over 50 years. People might say nobody would vape for that long, but that is the power of nicotine addiction, one that held me to smoke for that long!
"I used it as a tool to stop smoking." I noticed the use of the past tense, I hope that having served it's purpose, you no longer use it, or at least on the way to discontinuing to use it.
Nicotine really has a hellish addiction, I tried many times in the past to quit, without success, until the fear that I was about to die from asphyxiation gave me the incentive to quit, prior to being diagnosed 8 weeks later. By which time I was over that hump, the worse part anyway, of the withdrawal symptoms. I had tried vaping previously, but found it made me cough so much worse than cigarettes did and discontinued it's use in favour of returning back to smoking. Since then I have been diagnosed with multiple comorbidities, all of them attributable to my smoking past. I only wish that I knew back then, what I know now.
It's all in the past 2greys. In the end I thought I am trading one habit for another and stopped. If asked now I would still recommend it as a tool to stop doing the greater evil of smoking.
I am not a vaping fan and do not vape and would probably discourage it's use,certainly in the long term as only a nicotine addict could testify.But it would appear that there is another side to this story.it would appear that a good many of these vaping related illnesses appear to be related to the inhalation of Black market THC substances and other products unregulated so i always like to hear both sides of the story.
There are always two sides to any story. Regulation of the "vape juice" is perhaps the way forward. But for those seeking to use THC it will not be so clear cut. For anywhere that THC is deemed illegal to use there will be an underground market, one that will be totally unregulated, so the sad fact is that the problem will probably continue for a long time yet.
There is a regulated THC market in the USA but whether that stretches to the vaping industry i do not know ,i for one believe in the school of thought that we should legalise all drugs and regulate them.not only would we have more control over the situation we would probably offset the costs by the taxation we could bring in.
Of course there will always be a black market in anything so consumers will need to think wisely of where their products come from.
These injuries are Not related to regular, standard vaping, but to the use of cannabis oils. These are totally unregulated. The reason that you are not seeing this occurring elsewhere just goes to show How unregulated America i, with few things standardised nationally.
Vaping standard E juice is fine, vaping unregulated cannabis oils is not . It is That simple.
I'm afraid that it is not. I know for a fact that a few vape shops will sell you all the "juices", minus the cannabis, to make your own, using your own source of cannabis. I can take you to a local one near me that sells it all. It is perfectly legal for them to sell this. So the carnage will continue with uneducated young people and in this country as well, it does not take very long for the "jungle drums" to spread the word that they can make their own. The information on how to do it is on many web sites already. I will not put up links as I'm unsure whether it would be allowed, but you can search for yourself for "make cannabis vape juice" and you will see for yourself.
The beauty of vaping is that it allows a person to cut down on the nicotine levels gradually and steadily. Something that isn't available in tobacco products such as cigarettes.
Back in 2014, I stopped smoking within two weeks by gradually replacing cigarettes with vaping to the point when there was one daily cigarette left.
I started with the disposable cigarette size ones on 24mg nicotine (a strength available here until 2016), and ended on 2mg after a 5 day hospital stay where I didn't even feel the need to vape, smoke, or anything else! Came home and didn't bother again.
There must be chemicals in tobacco products that burn which have the addictive effect, because from the start, I could go out to an appointment or a restaurant, and not feel the need to go anywhere to vape. It was quite liberating.
I didn't set out to stop smoking either - it never entered my head that I could. Just thought to replace cigarettes at times when I was out and couldn't smoke. I stopped almost by accident.
No-one knows properly yet if there are any really serious dangers in comparison to smoking when using properly regulated and basic vaping equipment.
The only problem I had was that some of the liquids had a high PG base and others high VG ....I was sensitive to high PG and had no more problems once I knew the difference.
We're all different though, and some perhaps won't tolerate it.
Just seeing a report on BBC site that on reading, sounds like it could be a really severe reaction to either PG or VG. They don't state which liquid, but it sounds familiar to me.
Quote: "When scientists tested the two e-cigarette liquids Ewan had been using, they found one of them was triggering an immune reaction."
Liquid made of predominantly PG caused my breathing to get really bad, and I suspect it would have become quite dangerously so had I not found out that some people are allergic/sensitive to one (or perhaps both) of the base liquids.
It's possible to buy both types, but some people have a sensitivity to VG instead.
Luckily, I already had Ventolin for mild asthma, and was able to use it and stop the reaction, but never used any high PG liquid again. (stopped vaping altogether eventually).
That young chap is lucky to have recovered, and I hope that at the very least reading it will alert people to take notice of the slightest problem when using e-cigs.
Even better, it would be good if young people never smoked at all, and therefore didn't need something like vaping to stop, or as an alternative.
I read that story 10 mins ago, I have and would never endorse vaping, anymore than smoking. The story does not end there either I think that the effects of long term use are going to be an issue too. This article I found yesterday is also worrying:
It's very true - vaping is still new in comparison to smoking tobacco, and look how long the message took to get through on that.
It seemed like a dream come true: something that wasn't burning tobacco, could easily stop someone from smoking.
Perhaps if only used for the short term, it could be more acceptable, but if people are substituting vaping for cigarettes etc., then it's even more likely that they're exchanging one problem for another.
It should be easy to give it up altogether once stopped actual tobacco use, because I found that I could do without vaping for some hours when out and about, and that wasn't so when I smoked cigarettes.
I even had a 6 day hospital stay and never once thought about it ...granted, I was quite poorly with U. colitis initially.
Yes, it works, but extreme caution needs to be used, lowest power equipment, and a rapid drop in strength enabling cessation.
What I find worrying is how early these lung injuries are manifesting themselves. In the early days of smoking there were no apparent side effects, in fact it was promoted as a means to ease a sore throat! Vaping has only been around for a few years but already people are getting sick or dying.
Also worrying are the parallels between how smoking at one time was promoted by some health care professionals as having health benefits, or advertised as cool and smart, now vaping is being defended in a similar way, including by the health care industry.
I am not being judgemental of people who vape. It just worries me how little is known about vaping and its immediate effects and long term effects.
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