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WILKES-BARRE — It was announced Friday that Pennsylvania has recorded its first death attributed to “vaping.”
Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said the Pennsylvania Department of Health has confirmed the death and multiple cases attributed to lung injuries associated with vaping in Pennsylvania.
Levine recommends that people do not vape.
This issue has long puzzled me. And I come from a home of two loving parents who, for many years of their lives, smoked cigarettes. I never have. Never even was I curious about it. It just never appealed to me in any way.
So when this new e-cigarette craze surfaced in 2014, I became intrigued. I thought maybe this would be a way to offer smokers a healthy option and, more importantly, a way to wean themselves off of tobacco products and a healthier life.
In May 2014 the Times Leader assigned me to write a story about electronic cigarettes that had lit up the local scene, igniting a discussion around the country as to their popularity and safety.
Ted Cross, who was Wilkes-Barre’s director of health at the time, had researched the non-tobacco smoking industry and found pros and cons about the e-cigarettes and the lack of knowledge of the phenomena.
“We’ve really seen an increase in the use of e-cigarettes in our region,” Kross said. “A lot of experts have been crying out for some regulations and guidelines for the sale and consumption of these products.”
So we asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta for its opinion on electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes.
Depending on the brand, e-cigarette cartridges typically contain nicotine, a component to produce the aerosol and flavorings like fruit or chocolate.
Here’s what the CDC told us in May 2014:
• Potentially harmful constituents also have been documented in some e-cigarette cartridges, including irritants, genotoxins, and animal carcinogens.
• E-cigarettes that are not marketed for therapeutic purposes were recently regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, but in most states there are no restrictions on the sale of e-cigarettes to minors.
• Use of e-cigarettes has increased among U.S. adult current and former smokers in recent years; however, the extent of use among youths is uncertain.
In 2014, Kross said there were many concerns with e-cigarettes: the nicotine levels in the “juice” used to generate the smoke; the other ingredients used in the flavored juices; the effects on the smoker and second-hand smoke generated; the tendency for users to “progress” to tobacco or other smoking products; the lack of warning labels and/or childproof caps on the juices.
“We need safety measures taken as soon as possible,” Kross said. “The problem is that the research has not caught up to the usage.”
In the 2014 TL story, Brian King, senior scientific adviser to the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, said there was still not much research on the public impact of e-cigarettes.
“We’re not sure if they are a promise or a peril,” King said in 2014. “There are a lot of issues to consider — do they delay smokers from quitting tobacco, could use of e-cigarettes lead to relapse among former smokers, do they encourage young people and non-smokers to start smoking?”
King said — remember this was in 2014 — that some studies had found a host of potentially hazardous toxins and various other ingredients, such as metals, in e-cigarette products.
“There is also concern over the exposure to e-cigarette aerosol products,” King said. “Whatever is in them, when exhaled also exposes bystanders. Anything inside the cartridge could be cause for concern. Second-hand exposure is a legitimate concern.”
King said there was a sense of urgency to regulate the e-cigarettes because of the rapid increase in use of the products and the advertisement.
“It’s really become a Wild West in the market,” King said. “People should err on the side of caution until we have more scientific information and regulation.”
Now, here in 2019, we are being told by Levine that the lung injury cases are very serious, life-threatening and even fatal.
“We do not yet know what is making people sick, and whether the illnesses are related to products being used, or potentially the delivery of those products,” Levine said.
Pennsylvania has reported nine confirmed and 12 probable cases of the lung illness to the CDC and are investigating an additional 63 cases. One case was fatal. Each of the individuals involved in the cases have suffered serious lung injuries and most have been hospitalized.
Who has failed us here? What recourse do we have?
