Most young people are familiar with vaping: nicotine or THC repackaged in a sleek and less stigmatized device. It is less obviously recognizable as destructive as cigarettes in part because it’s just newer: it has not had decades of scientific research against it like cigarettes have had and the health effects are not fully understood yet. That takes years to compile and compare research results and for long term effects to develop and be observed. As originally report in Scientific America, there has recently been a nationwide outbreak of a lung disease known to be related to vaping, but more much than that is not clear. It is known as vaping associated lung injury, VALI. The officials warn that with the current events in mind and no known answers yet to the cause, people should not be vaping.
What is Vaping Associated Lung Injury?
Vaping associated lung Injury (VALI) is described as causing symptoms similar to infectious pneumonia, with high inflammation and symptoms of severe illness. All of the patients in a new study of 52 patients shows that every patient had abnormal lung imaging, half had liver problems, and around a third had a fever. Most patients also had other symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, which are strong indicators of gastrointestinal issues. It is describes as an acute lung injury because of its rapid onset. There is speculation that compared it to lipoid pneumonia, but this disease takes time to develop and the characteristic symptom of fat in the lungs is not present. While it is not a ‘rare disease’ in the conventional sense, it is under-diagnosed, misunderstood, and so far affecting a small population. Researchers think the condition is novel, meaning it’s not falling into the category of any prior diseases.
Why it is so Hard to Find a Cause
“Vaping” comes in many shapes and forms. There are various pods with unique substances, flavours, and brands. While some patients are smoking THC, an active ingredient from marijuana, many others say they smoke only nicotine. There are official manufacturers and there are knockoffs- which the larger enterprises are quick to blame for causing the disease, though there is no evidence of this.
This diversity of substances, forms, brands, and method of vaping makes research very difficult. There are many confounding factors and there is so much discrepancy among subjects coming down with the illness that it’s hard to find commonality between the cases. What’s known now is that the patients have recently vaped, it has only affected those in the US and its territories, and it began in Wisconsin and Illinois before the outbreak expanded from there. Initially it spread in a contiguous manner from here, strangely stopping at the Canadian border.
The Initial Outbreak
A clue has come from Wisconsin which busted a large scale illegal industry of $1.5 million dollars worth of THC products that included 31,200 full vape cartridges and 98,000 cartridges not yet filled. This initially was associated with high schoolers that were caught after two parents reported their teen to the authorities for selling THC laced vaping materials to other high school students. This correlates to the outbreak, which first was seen mostly in young men in their late teens before it became more widespread. However, skeptics see this as a way for the vaping industry to alleviate the blame and push it elsewhere, even though there’s no evidence they are not also responsible for the illness. Since then, it has spread to those who had no connection to this source.
This has resulted in a plan to ban flavored e-cigarettes, although they can still be made with the standard tobacco flavoring. While this is underway, the vapes remain on the market for now.
Doctors and researchers warn against vaping entirely while the investigation remains underway. With smoking though, people know the health dangers and do it anyways. So let this just be another warning: smoking and vaping can damage your lungs; take that at your own risk.
