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Category: Vaping Illnesses

  • CDC May Have Found Possible Cause Of Deadly Vaping Illness

    CDC May Have Found Possible Cause Of Deadly Vaping Illness

    Many believe that the product featuring the deadly thickening agent are only from counterfeit seller and wouldn’t be found in a legal dispensary.

    It’s been a few months since the Illinois Department of Public Health reported the first death from vaping-related causes and now the CDC is reporting that it may have found one of the potential causes of the mysterious illnesses and deaths: Vitamin E acetate.

    In an update posted on Friday November 8th, the CDC reported:

    Recent CDC laboratory testing of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid samples (or samples of fluid collected from the lungs) from 29 patients with EVALI submitted to CDC from 10 states found vitamin E acetate in all of the BAL fluid samples. Vitamin E acetate is used as an additive in the production of e-cigarette, or vaping, products. This is the first time that we have detected a potential chemical of concern in biologic samples from patients with these lung injuries.

    As of November 5th, there have been 39 deaths and 2,051 reported cases of e-cigarette, or vaping, product use associated lung injury (EVALI). Health officials believe it is possible that there are other causes and their focus is now on getting confirmation that it is causing the illnesses.

    Leafly detailed the various uses of Vitamin E acetate, most of which are topical, and spoke to medical experts about its potential toxicity.

    You Shouldn’t Be Inhaling Vitamin E Acetate

    “Just the lack of toxicity data for inhaled Vitamin E acetate should raise red flags,” said Dr. Sven-Eric Jordt of Duke University School of Medicine.

    “No vitamin E should be vaped regardless of its chemical structure,” said Eliana Golberstein Rubashkyn, a pharmaceutical chemist.

    Many believe that the product causing the illnesses are counterfeit and wouldn’t be found in your local dispensary. Dumas de Rauly, chair of the ISO Committee on Vaping Standards and CEN Vaping Standards Committee who also runs a vaporizer company, minced no words when discussing the inhalation of Vitamin E acetate and where he thinks the tainted vapes are coming from.

    “In no case is this a product that you should be inhaling,” de Rauly told Marijuana Business Daily. “When you add products like vitamin E … when you add different kinds of lipid solvents to the mix, you’re making all of that oil stickier, and that stickiness is going to create these lung illnesses we’re seeing.”

    Cracking Down On Black Market Product

    de Rauly maintains that the vape oil made with Vitamin E acetate is from the black market.

    “All of the patients are saying they bought it off the street. They didn’t buy it in legal, regulated environments,” Dumas de Rauly said.“This is just basic math. … We have substantial data that shows that these products and these vaping illnesses come from the black market.”

    Dispensary owners are warning customers about buying unregulated vape oils off the street.

    “We inform all of our customers to steer clear from the black market completely and trust the licensed, reputable facilities that are springing up all over now,” a dispensary manager told Fox17. 

    Will there be a crackdown on the vaping black market? Michael Elias, the CEO of Marshall-based Michigan Pure Med, sure hopes so.

    “There have been more than 2,000 vaping-related lung injuries and more than three dozen deaths because of harmful cutting-agents found in illicit vape products, and this is unacceptable, which is why we need stronger enforcement of the illicit cannabis market.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Could Federal Legalization Solve The THC Vaping Illness Outbreak?

    Could Federal Legalization Solve The THC Vaping Illness Outbreak?

    Experts are starting to think that legalization may be the only way to find out the cause of the illnesses once and for all.

    Experts are increasingly looking toward federal decriminalization as a solution to the outbreak of severe lung illness and death across the U.S., according to a report by Vox.

    Close to 1,500 people have become ill and at least 33 have died from the mysterious illness, which began to suddenly crop up in March. As researchers look into the source of the problem, evidence has begun arising that most of these cases involve illicit, black market THC oil cartridges.

    Both national and statewide data have consistently shown that a strong majority of the patients of this lung illness had recently used a THC vaping product. The latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that 78% of the reporting patients had used these products in the past while 92% of individuals from a similar survey in Utah had done so before getting sick.

    Because the THC vape market has largely shifted from relying on dried flower to oils, most of the patients who had vaped cannabis had done so with the oil form of the substance. 

    From Dried Herb To Processed Oils

    “What’s changed is that people used to vape dried herb and now you have more vaping of pre-processed manufactured oils, which involve different ingredients,” said University of Waterloo in Ontario public health researcher David Hammond.

    At the same time, data is showing that the majority of these products were obtained outside of legal sale. Most of them were “acquired from informal sources such as friends or illicit in-person and online dealers,” according to the CDC, and a New York Department of Health study found that the “vast majority” of their lung illness cases could be traced back to black market cartridges.

    Regulators Need To Catch Up

    THC products are often being developed faster than regulations can keep up with them, and authorities are having a hard time getting a handle on the black market that is likely responsible for the lung illnesses that have sickened so many.

    “Federal agencies exert little oversight, and regulation is left to a patchwork of inadequate state agencies,” said former FDA commissioner FDA Scott Gottlieb for the Wall Street Journal. “The weak state bodies sanction the adoption of unsafe practices such as vaping concentrates, while allowing an illegal market in cannabis to flourish.”

    With all this information coming together, experts are beginning to conclude that the most effective and reasonable path remaining is full federal cannabis legalization.

    “What federal legalization would do is allow for a more uniform and predictable and clear set of rules that would draw on the experience and expertise of the federal agencies in regulating consumer markets,” said Northwestern University professor Leo Beletsky.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Hydrogen Cyanide Found In Bootleg Vapes

    Hydrogen Cyanide Found In Bootleg Vapes

    NBC News commissioned a lab test of vape cartridges obtained from both legal and illegal sources.

    Independent laboratory testing of vaping cartridges containing THC found that not only was vitamin E acetate present in the majority of samples, but also a variety of pesticides including one which, when burned, transformed into the chemical asphyxiant, hydrogen cyanide.

    Testing The Cartridges

    NBC News commissioned a cannabis testing facility to test cartridges obtained from both legal dispensaries and unlicensed sources. While the cartridges purchased from the former group showed no traces of pesticides, vitamin E or heavy metals, the majority of the other samples—all obtained from black market sources—showed signs of either vitamin E, the pesticides, or both.

    The findings cast new concerns on the growing health problem that appears to be linked to vaping cartridges and, in particular, those containing THC.

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that as of October 1, more than 1,000 lung injury cases and 18 deaths associated with e-cigarette use have been reported from 48 states and one U.S. territory.

    No Smoking Gun

    Most of the cases involved individuals with a history of vaping and in particular, vaping products with THC. As both NBC, the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) noted, no single substance has been shown to be the direct cause for all of the lung injury cases, though some state health officials have pointed to vitamin E acetate, a thickening agent that can cause pneumonia-like symptoms if inhaled.

    This lack of a core “smoking gun” led NBC News to conduct its own tests via CannaSafe, a testing facility located in Van Nuys, California. Eighteen samples of THC cartridges—three from licensed dealers and 15 from black market sources—all purchased in California were included in the test.

    CannaSafe

    None of the three cartridges from legal dispensaries showed any signs of dangerous agents like pesticides or solvents like vitamin E. But in 13 of the 15 obtained from unlicensed dealers, CannaSafe researchers found vitamin E acetate, while 10 of the 15 all tested positive for several different pesticides, including myclobutanil, a fungicide which will become hydrogen cyanide when burned.

    Also known as prussic acid or hydrocyanic acid, the colorless gas was described by the CDC as having the ability to “interfere with the normal use of oxygen in nearly every organ in the body,” and can be almost immediately fatal.

    In recent testimony before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Ned Sharpless said that his agency, along with the DEA, is currently pursuing the source of the tainted vape cartridges, but does not intend to target individuals unless they are found to be distributing products “that caused illness and death for personal profit.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Is Vitamin E Behind The Wave Of Vaping-Related Illnesses?

    Is Vitamin E Behind The Wave Of Vaping-Related Illnesses?

    The New York Department of Health is on the hunt for the cause of the recent rash of vaping-related illnesses. 

    As reports of respiratory illnesses—and at least six deaths—related to the use of electronic or e-cigarettes continue to mount, and while lawmakers work to ban flavored vaping devices, health officials in New York have found “very high” levels of vitamin E acetate, a thickening agent, in many of the cannabis vape products used by the individuals who became sick.

    The state’s Department of Health announced that the acetate is now a “key focus” of their investigation, and submitted more than 100 samples to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for testing.

    As Leafly noted, Vitamin E is the umbrella term given to several similar types of oils called tocopherols. They can be extracted from vegetables or made synthetically from petroleum, and are most commonly used as a dietary supplement or as an ingredient in food and/or cosmetics, such as face creams. 

    Highly Toxic When Inhaled

    Though topical application of tocopherols can lead to some skin reactions, inhaling them is highly toxic and can lead to serious health issues. When inhaled, tocopherols adhere to the fluid that lines the interior of the lungs, preventing oxygen from entering the body, and causing cellular death. That, in turn, causes an immune system reaction that resembles pneumonia, with reported symptoms including cough, chest pain, fatigue, shortness of breath, fever and forms of gastrointestinal distress.

    While testing in state-run markets can prevent additives from being used in vape cartridges, they are not specifically banned in legal adult-use markets.

    Alex Dixon, the CEO of Floraplex, which makes a chemical thickener called Uber Thick, told Leafly that tocopherols could be found in vape cartridges in “every store in downtown Los Angeles, [and] just about any online sales platform you can think of.”

    CDC director Robert Redfield said that while vitamin E acetate has been found in many of the samples used by the sickened individuals, “People need to realize that it is very probable that there are multiple causes.”

    “No one substance, including Vitamin E acetate, has been identified in all of the samples tested,” the FDA added in a statement. “Identifying any compounds that are present in the samples will be one piece of the puzzle, but will not necessarily answer questions about causality.”

    View the original article at thefix.com