Tag: harms of vaping

Former FDA Chair "Skeptical" That Vaping Can Cause Cancer

However, he does believe that vaping is harmful overall.

The former head of the Food and Drug Administration says that he is “skeptical” that vaping can cause lung cancer, despite a research paper released last week that indicated that vaping nicotine increases lung cancer risk.

“It Might Be A Tumor Promoter”

Scott Gottlieb, a physician who led the FDA from 2017 until April of this year, made his comments during an appearance on Squawk Box last Monday (Oct. 14), CNBC reported.

“I’m skeptical that nicotine causes cancer,” he said. “It might be a tumor promoter, [researchers] have said that there’s a potential that nicotine is a tumor promoter, but it doesn’t cause cancer.”

Tumor promotion is a process that stimulates the growth of existing tumors, but does not cause new tumors to form, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Gottlieb did not say why he believed that vaping nicotine could be a tumor promoter, but not cause cancer. However, he did emphasize that he believes vaping is harmful overall.

“That said, we had a signal when I was at the FDA of damage that vaping was causing to the lungs in an animal study,” he said. “You can’t inhale something into the lungs that way on a repeated basis and not cause some damage to the lung.”

What About The Vaping Mice?

Gottlieb was responding to a study published last week that found that vaping caused lung cancer in mice. The study found that 22.5% of mice that were exposed to e-cigarette vapor with nicotine for 54 weeks developed lung cancer. More than 57% of the mice developed pre-cancerous lesions on their bladder.

However, there was a small silver lining: mice that were exposed to e-cigarette vapor that did not have any nicotine did not develop cancer, even when they were followed for four years.

More Studies Needed

Lead study author Moon-Shong Tang said the study showed that vapes were potentially dangerous and needed to be studied more carefully for their cancer risk in humans.

“Tobacco smoke is among the most dangerous environmental agents to which humans are routinely exposed, but the potential of E-cig smoke as a threat to human health is not yet fully understood,” he said in a news release. “Our study results in mice were not meant to be compared to human disease, but instead argue that E-cig smoke must be more thoroughly studied before it is deemed safe or marketed that way.”

In an interview with CNBC, Tang said, “It’s foreseeable that if you smoke e-cigarettes, all kinds of disease comes out [over time]. Long term, some cancer will come out, probably. E-cigarettes are bad news.”

View the original article at thefix.com

22 October 2019
What Vaping Statistics Tell Us About The New Epidemic

The statistics highlight just how popular the smoking trend is among adolescents and young adults.

Vaping has recently become headline news, as the national scrambles to figure out the cause of vaping-related illnesses that have killed 18 people as of Thursday (Oct. 3). Looking at the numbers around vaping can help people understand the issue. Here are some things to consider:

Vaping is relatively rare among adults

Although everyone seems to have an opinion on vaping, not too many adults are actually using e-cigarettes. According to the Truth Initiative, 4.2% of adults ages 25 to 44 were using e-cigarettes in 2016. That was an increase from 2013, when just 2.4% of adults were using them, but is still a relatively low rate.

Most adults who use e-cigarettes are doing so to replace traditional tobacco products. Nearly 59% of adult users said they smoked both traditional and electronic cigarettes in 2015. An additional 30% of adult users were previous smokers, and just 11.4% of adult e-cigarette users had never smoked cigarettes.

Vaping is very popular among teens, young adults

Unfortunately, vaping has become super popular among teens and young adults, many of whom have never used traditional cigarettes. Although it’s illegal for people younger than 18 (or in some states, 21) to purchase or use vape products, 40% of 12th-graders surveyed in 2019 reported that they’ve used nicotine vapes, according to U.S. News and World Report.

More than a quarter reported using nicotine vapes within the past 30 days. That’s a massive rise from 2017, when just 13% of 12th-graders had used vapes within the past month. Now, 12% of high school seniors say they use nicotine vapes every day.

Unlike adult users, who seem to use e-cigarettes to replace traditional nicotine products, young people are using e-cigs as their first exposure to nicotine. Experts are concerned that teens who otherwise would not get hooked on nicotine are becoming dependent on it because of their vape use. For example, in 2018, 7.6% of high school seniors had smoked a cigarette within the past month, but 26.7% had used a vape, according to the Monitoring the Future survey.

In adults, it’s associated with tobacco use

Data shows that states with higher rates of tobacco use also have higher rates of e-cigarette use. For example, Kentucky had some of the highest smoking rates, with 24.6% of adults using traditional cigarettes in 2017 and 6.1% using vapes. In California, where just 11.3% of adults smoke tobacco, just 3% used vapes.

The adult use trends are uneven. In fact, half of the states saw adult vaping rates decrease from between 2016 and 2017, while half saw an increase in adult use. Despite this, teen and young adult vaping rates continue to rise across the board.

View the original article at thefix.com

3 October 2019
Teen Posts Photos Of Collapsed Lungs To Warn Others Against Vaping

“I don’t think anyone could have said anything to make me stop. But your lungs will most likely look like this too if you’ve been smoking,” the teen warned.

A teen has posted photos of his collapsed lungs on social media to warn people against vaping.

Chance Ammirata, 18, shared his story with the New York Post. A year and a half ago, Ammirata started vaping. He had never smoked before, and he was under the impression that vaping was safe. Then he had to be rushed to the ER, and believes his collapsed lung was caused by toxic chemicals in the Juul pod he inhaled.

The Incident

Ammirata first had a pain in his side, and initially thought he pulled a muscle. The next day, “It felt like my chest was collapsing, like I was having a heart attack.” Once he was in the hospital, he had to have a tube put in his chest to keep his lung inflated.

After surgery, a doctor told him, “Whatever you’ve been smoking has been leaving these black dots on your lungs” and it would take years to potentially heal them.

Because of the black spots on his lungs, Ammirata won’t be able to do cross-country running or scuba diving, and he won’t be able to fly on a plane for a while either. He then went on social media with a warning:

“You thought Juuls were safe. So did I. The black dots on my lungs are all [remnants] of juuling. I’ve been doing it for a year and a half and can never do it again. You really shouldn’t either. I know how hard it is to change anyone’s mind who’s addicted because I was too. And I don’t think anyone could have said anything to make me stop. But your lungs will most likely look like this too if you’ve been smoking.”

Ammirata concluded his posts by pleading, “Don’t let it get worse. Please stop. Like really please. It’s so fucking scary.”

In response to Ammirata’s story, a spokesperson for Juul stated, “We have no higher priority than consumer safety… We have robust safety monitoring systems in place and will vigilantly monitor for any evidence of safety issues as we continue to combat youth usage and eliminate cigarettes, the number one cause of preventable death in the world.”

View the original article at thefix.com

17 August 2019
Schools, Parents See Spike In Problematic Behavior Due To Vaping

Some schools have taken doors off bathrooms to limit the likelihood of students vaping in them.

As a high school freshman, Kristin Beauparlant began noticing changes in her son, Cade. During hockey games, he began to tire more easily, often having coughing fits. But Kristin says the onset of anxiety and mood swings was what really concerned her.

Over the next three years, the Washington Post reports, the Beauparlants eventually identified the problem: Cade had become reliant on nicotine via Juul, a type of e-cigarette resembling a USB drive.

According to the Post, the rise of e-cigarettes has sparked concern for young users, as pediatricians say they are seeing teens “who behave less like tobacco users and more like patients with [substance use] disorders.”

Health Harms

In addition to behavioral changes, nicotine use can lead to nicotine toxicity, as well as respiratory issues. In fact, Beauparlant was diagnosed with restrictive lung disease due to vaping. Beauparlant’s family is one of the few to try suing e-cigarette companies. Cade’s mother hopes it will lead Juul to fund treatment programs.

“We were thinking about vapes just like we thought about cigarettes,” Sharon Levy, director of the Adolescent Substance Use and Addiction Program at Boston Children’s Hospital, tells the Post. “Over time we realized no, no. This is something really different.”

One potential reason for the teen behavior associated with e-cigarettes like Juul is their design which allows for greater intake of nicotine than normal cigarettes.

“With the Juuls, kids are able to get a much higher dose of nicotine—and dose matters,” Levy said. “These kids have behaviors that we often see in patients who have opioid or marijuana addiction, but we didn’t typically see with kids who developed addiction to traditional tobacco cigarettes.”

In response, Juul has claimed their products are designed for adult use and claims that studies have shown nicotine from their devices to be absorbed more slowly than nicotine from cigarettes.

According to Jonathan Winickoff, pediatrician and researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital with a specialization in tobacco cessation, products proven to help adults quit tobacco may not have the same effect on teens.

“We have millions of kids now, millions of adolescents who are using mostly Juul—and in some cases other devices—who are unable to quit,” Winickoff tells the Post. “It’s something we don’t have the infrastructure to deal with.”

Schools Take Action

The use of e-cigarettes has become especially problematic in schools. Some schools have even turned to forbidding the use of USB drives since they look like Juuls. Others have taken doors off bathrooms to limit the likelihood of vaping in them.

Once Beauparlant’s son was caught vaping, the athlete was no longer allowed to play hockey. This took away any chance of playing in college as well. But after treatment from Winickoff, Kristin Beauparlant says she began to see her son return.

“We kind of lost four years of Cade to this addiction,” she told the Post. She adds that now that Cade isn’t vaping daily, “He just seems like a different kid. You can’t help but say there’s a correlation.”

View the original article at thefix.com

7 August 2019
Juul CEO Says "Sorry" To Parents Of Vaping Kids

The Juul CEO apologized during an interview in the documentary Vaporized: America’s E-cigarette Addiction.

When asked what he’d tell a parent of a child who was addicted to the popular e-cigarette company Juul Labs’ products, the company’s CEO, Kevin Burns, said that he was “sorry.”

Burns, who was interviewed as part of a CNBC documentary, Vaporized: America’s E-cigarette Addiction, which airs Monday, July 15, said that Juul products are not intended for use by children, and that as a parent of a teenager himself, he had “empathy for them, in terms of what the challengers they’re going through [sic].”

Juul, which comprises an approximate 40% of the e-cigarette industry, has made efforts to make its products less appealing for young consumers, including the closure of its US-based social media accounts.

A Fifth Of High School Students Vape

But with studies showing that 21% of American high school students used a vaping product in 2019, health advocates, and in particular, former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, are pointing to Juul as the source of the problem.

In the documentary, CNBC reporter Carl Quintanilla asked Burns about parents of young Juul users while touring one of the company’s manufacturing plants in Wisconsin.

“First of all, I’d tell them that I’m sorry that their child’s using the product,” he said. “It’s not intended for them. I hope there was nothing that we did that made it appealing to them. As a parent of a 16-year-old, I’m sorry for them, and I have empathy for them, in terms of what the challenges they’re going through.”

Too Little, Too Late

As CNBC noted, Juul has attempted to counter interest among young people through a variety of measures, from eliminating fruit-flavored products, closing its Stateside social media accounts and supporting initiatives that recommend raising the minimum smoking age to 21.

For some critics, these efforts are too little, too late. CNBC quoted Juul co-founder Adam Bowen, who concurred with critics about the company’s early advertising efforts, which appeared to concentrate on elements that could appeal to young consumers – youthful models, bright colors, use of memes and cartoon imagery. Bowen called these efforts “inappropriate,” but also suggested that they had “no impact on sales.”

Outgoing FDA Commissioner Gottlieb made e-cigarettes’ appeal to young consumers, and in particular, Juul’s impact on that demographic, one of the focal points of his tenure.

He issued warnings and money penalties to retailers that illegally sold their product to minors and took steps to cut off online sales of their product to young consumers, but held up a key deadline that would have required e-cigarettes to submit to an FDA review that would have determined their public health benefits or threats. He later expressed reservations about the decision.

View the original article at thefix.com

16 July 2019